Florida acrylic tank builder Mario Vidakovic failure

[lite_rider]

Hey everyone I contracted a local Florida acrylic tank builder Mario Vidakovic to build my 200gal display tankas a replacement for my all glass 240g. This builder came well recommended in our community, I had a good experience up until I got the new tank home. The new display tank had many bubbles in one of the acrylic joints that is slowly turning into stress fractures as you can see. After 2 weeks of messages on my part and nothing but Promesses on his, I’m here simply to inform the community, potential buyers beware. What do you guys think of his product and follow thru?

 

[lite_rider]

Update.. the builder finally made it out to the house and agreed to replace the tank. He measured and said the tank was off level by a 1/4 inch from left to right, and perfectly level from front to back. According to him the 1/4 Inch attributed to the stress fractures on that corner of the tank.

I find it hard to believe that would be the reason for the seam starting to fail and not the string of bubbles from top to bottom he allowed to form during his manufacturing process. What do you guys think of that?

 

[iprayforwaves]

It looks like this thread was censored because all the previous comments are missing! Whats up with that? This thread had 3 pages of comments the last time I visited it. It seems like there is some fishy business going on here in the vendor feedback forum!

@Aardvark1134 @fishguy242 @sfin52 @JohnGP @Vamsi @Conrad Noto

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I have a feeling the person who started the thread most likely deleted his comments due to the fact the company took care of this issues he was having with the tank.

 

[iprayforwaves]

I don't think so. Last I heard, the new tank was still waiting for acrylic to be delivered. The comments were from other users and i'm pretty sure the average user can't delete other user comments from any thread.

It's pretty messed up that R2R is censoring user posts in the vendor feedback forum. If you leave poor feedback and it is censored, what is even the point of having this forum?

 

[andrewey]

I believe the mods moved the original thread into vendor feedback. Part of the rules for vendor feedback are no outside comments are allowed besides the OP and the vendor. I am unsure why the rest of the OP's comments were deleted.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Wow it is strange I did just notice all message deleted except 2

 

[iprayforwaves]

@andrewey Well that makes more sense, but there was valuable feedback in the original thread from knowledgeable members such as @Aardvark1134 as far as what the tank build should have been in terms of wall thickness and bracing. That information could have been useful to others in planning their own custom builds and evading the pitfalls that happened with this specific build.

From what I recall of the 30+ comments that were deleted, the tank was built with 1/2" acrylic and no bracing, where it should have been 1/2" acrylic with bracing or 3/4" acrylic if no bracing was installed.

 

[Vamsi]

I did ask him if there was an ETA and he told me none yet. I do not see my message either.

 

[andrewey]

iprayforwaves, I agree with you 100%. In a perfect world, the thread would have been split to comply with the forum's rules and the rest of the information would be split off into a separate thread for discussion and to help future builders. That being said, that's probably a lot of work on the mod's part, so I understand why the simplest thing is to delete outside comments. I believe the original thread was not under vendor feedback (although the original message sounds like vendor feedback), so I wish the outside discussion was preserved in some way.

 

[iprayforwaves]

Well that makes more sense, but there was valuable feedback in the original thread as far as what the tank build should have been in terms of wall thickness and bracing. That information could have been useful to others in planning their own custom builds.

I did ask him if there was an ETA and he told me none yet. I do not see my message either.

I posted a link to to the original thread for a spreadsheet from an acrylics manufacturer that calculated correct sizing for various tank specifications. I can't find it in my browser history now but it was a great resource.

 

[lite_rider]

Just what everyone needs more censorship less truth, I didn’t remove anything moderator chopped it.

 

[Cabinetman]

I build lots of tanks myself and that seam was a bad one right from the start. That line of bubbles happens when the cut isn’t right or the panel isn’t held square. The reason why I only use 3/4. 1/2 “ is way harder to work with..

 

[andrewey]

@iprayforwaves - here you go

ACRYLITE® - Calculators

www.acrylite.co

 

[lite_rider]

So got replacement tank from builder Thursday with all these poor quality build issues and it’s a 1/2 shorter than the previous tank, in other words he missed measured. So now I have a living room with a 150gal horse trough full with all corals and salt water and nothing to put it into This officially pushed me out of the hobby and if you think about using Mario for any build or royal custom builders stay away like he has the plague.

 

[fishguy242]

so sorry to hear ,hope you can tell him to come and get,a full refund ,or lawyer up!! best wishes

 

[lite_rider]

Yeah he’s said he would issue a refund once I returned both tanks and he sold was able to sell both tanks. What a joke

 

[lite_rider]

Who wants to buy 2 acrylic tank 1 new one not and a bunch of corals and live stock

 

[fishguy242]

best wishes ,don't give up,hope you paid w cc..lawyer time..sorry this has happened

 

[fishnovice33]

That’s awful. People say crazing, bubbling, yellowing, and bowing in acrylic tanks is normal. Yea, it’s normal in poor workmanship, improper materials and mass production.

But a higher priced custom tank? No. Proper materials with adequate acrylic thickness and accurate deflection calculations? No. Unless you’re talking ‘micro bowing’ (1/16 inch) it shouldn’t bow either.

I have seen too many high quality tanks last years without any any of these issues from top tier custom builders. These issues simply are not true when it comes to acrylic tanks and are a display of the issues pointed out above.

I hope this does not discourage you from the hobby. I understand you did research and got referrals, but unless I was straight looking at someone else’s tank, I take in a person’s referrals as a grain of salt, for a lot of reasons.

I’d suggest saving money and having one shipped. There are high quality acrylic builders online that may be more expensive but they’re quality.

Personally if I were you I’d tell the seller you’re not waiting for him to sell defaulted tanks and the fact he’d even try to says a lot about his character. That’s not your responsibility and neither is properly building the tank, that’s what you’re paying him for.


Give him one more chance to make it right before you ‘go the legal route’ in which he’ll be paying your legal fees as well. If he declines, find out your limit at the county clerk for small claims court, pay the fee to file and send him an invoice the the fee to file. He may get the picture then. I’ve done this many time in my lifetime for all kinds of work and have only ended up in court once. Which I won.