Please refer to my build tread for pictures, but I’m really looking for some solid advice from the R2R members.
Story is I decided to get back into the game with a Waterbox Reef 70.2. There was a lot of good said about them and they seemed to offer a quality product. I went with them over my old choice off RedSea.
Placed the order and waited. It wasn’t long and the tank showed up, but with the wrong color cabinet. WB was able to communicate that to me before it got to me so I was expecting it. They shipped out the white cabinet separately which was lost and then found by FedEx (not WB fault). The cabinet finally shows well wrapped and decently clean.
I went to open it and everything was looking great until I got to the white outside panels. They were delaminating. I’m very familiar with these issues as I’m an engineer for architectural furniture, also It was located in 2 areas that wouldn’t be noticed so I sealed and moved on.
Once I started to build the cabinet I noticed the inserts for the leveling feet were too small for the holes drilled. They were barely catching and pretty much all 16 slipped by twisting the leveling feet in or just slid deeper in the whole drilled for the insert. This greatly concerned me being the math I did would put at least 65lbs per foot, at least that. Also I could put them in with 1 finger. I decided to finish it out to see how much would be on the insert and how much weight would be on the 1/4” nuts. Well all of the weight went on the nuts. Which is somewhat by design but at least 3 feet would just wobble on the nut since the bite of the insert was so poor.
I still went on because I was excited about this new/old venture and I wanted to collect the entire condition of the cabinet before I kicked it to the curb. As I went on I tried to push all the plastic inserts in that used the cam posts. They weren’t completely flush or recessed which would result in the boards not sitting flush next to each other. Instead would create 3/64” to 1/16” inch gaps when cams were completely tighten. My guess is the holes for those were not drilled deep enough because there was no way they would be recessed with pressure or with a block of wood and slight tapping with a hammer.
Still I continued and I did get a whole stand complete and honestly I was surprised just how sturdy it was with these flaws but I was only using my weight, ~200lbs and I knew there was a lot more that would have to go on it.
I put it in place and debated getting the tanks out for it. After a few days and after finding some help, and after sitting on it just to see how much it would give, I went for it and got the sump and tank out for the first time.
Sump came out and all looks good and then the heavy part, the display tank. It looked great, once again became excited about it and started to think if something had to be done I would reinforce the cabinet and redo the feet, although I didn’t like the price I was paying to have to fix someone else’s mistakes.
I put the tank on as if was most likely the safest place from getting scratched and kicked or anything else from my stuck at home family. The stand was quickly barred off because I was very unsure about the wobble of the stand with the weight of the tank. I posted and WB quickly chimed in saying they wanted to replace.
Now this is where WB started to redeem themselves to me. The quickness and clarity in which they started to communicate directly with me has been amazing. Which is the ONLY reason I debating this decision.
They shipped out a new cabinet and acknowledged they had a “bad batch” of cabinets. I was like “ok, they were quick and helpful and got me fixed up with a good one”.
As my tank is sitting in place I start to admire it and look over it more and really start to think I’ve made the right decision despite the issues, but then notice a decent deformation in the side of the tank’s wall. I don’t think it would have any structural issues but the money I’m paying to have this sort of tank that has glass meant to view your animals through has a fun house mirror look in a 3”x3” section of the right side. (Refer to the videos in build thread - it’s not easy to capture but very easy to see in person).
I asked on here and it seems most wouldn’t be that worried about it but I just want to add it to the mix.
The new cabinet came today and once again seemed very nicely considered and wrapped by WB, but once I opened to inspect there was delamination again, lots of blunt trauma to edges and corners, and plenty of overspray in the leveling feet inserts. This was all in the coated panels. The black laminated panels looked to have much better fitting of the plastic cam post inserts but were still plagued by the oversized holes for the leveling feet inserts. I did push and poke a little bit with my fingers but as you can see in the picture there’s little to no bite with the insert.
I’ve reached back out to them to see what they would like to do, but I also don’t know what I should do and am looking for some honest takes. I’ve gotten some from 2 of my friends, one of which has decided to look elsewhere for his tank purchase.
Once again refer to the build thread for images and videos of mentioned items above.
Link to build thread
Story is I decided to get back into the game with a Waterbox Reef 70.2. There was a lot of good said about them and they seemed to offer a quality product. I went with them over my old choice off RedSea.
Placed the order and waited. It wasn’t long and the tank showed up, but with the wrong color cabinet. WB was able to communicate that to me before it got to me so I was expecting it. They shipped out the white cabinet separately which was lost and then found by FedEx (not WB fault). The cabinet finally shows well wrapped and decently clean.
I went to open it and everything was looking great until I got to the white outside panels. They were delaminating. I’m very familiar with these issues as I’m an engineer for architectural furniture, also It was located in 2 areas that wouldn’t be noticed so I sealed and moved on.
Once I started to build the cabinet I noticed the inserts for the leveling feet were too small for the holes drilled. They were barely catching and pretty much all 16 slipped by twisting the leveling feet in or just slid deeper in the whole drilled for the insert. This greatly concerned me being the math I did would put at least 65lbs per foot, at least that. Also I could put them in with 1 finger. I decided to finish it out to see how much would be on the insert and how much weight would be on the 1/4” nuts. Well all of the weight went on the nuts. Which is somewhat by design but at least 3 feet would just wobble on the nut since the bite of the insert was so poor.
I still went on because I was excited about this new/old venture and I wanted to collect the entire condition of the cabinet before I kicked it to the curb. As I went on I tried to push all the plastic inserts in that used the cam posts. They weren’t completely flush or recessed which would result in the boards not sitting flush next to each other. Instead would create 3/64” to 1/16” inch gaps when cams were completely tighten. My guess is the holes for those were not drilled deep enough because there was no way they would be recessed with pressure or with a block of wood and slight tapping with a hammer.
Still I continued and I did get a whole stand complete and honestly I was surprised just how sturdy it was with these flaws but I was only using my weight, ~200lbs and I knew there was a lot more that would have to go on it.
I put it in place and debated getting the tanks out for it. After a few days and after finding some help, and after sitting on it just to see how much it would give, I went for it and got the sump and tank out for the first time.
Sump came out and all looks good and then the heavy part, the display tank. It looked great, once again became excited about it and started to think if something had to be done I would reinforce the cabinet and redo the feet, although I didn’t like the price I was paying to have to fix someone else’s mistakes.
I put the tank on as if was most likely the safest place from getting scratched and kicked or anything else from my stuck at home family. The stand was quickly barred off because I was very unsure about the wobble of the stand with the weight of the tank. I posted and WB quickly chimed in saying they wanted to replace.
Now this is where WB started to redeem themselves to me. The quickness and clarity in which they started to communicate directly with me has been amazing. Which is the ONLY reason I debating this decision.
They shipped out a new cabinet and acknowledged they had a “bad batch” of cabinets. I was like “ok, they were quick and helpful and got me fixed up with a good one”.
As my tank is sitting in place I start to admire it and look over it more and really start to think I’ve made the right decision despite the issues, but then notice a decent deformation in the side of the tank’s wall. I don’t think it would have any structural issues but the money I’m paying to have this sort of tank that has glass meant to view your animals through has a fun house mirror look in a 3”x3” section of the right side. (Refer to the videos in build thread - it’s not easy to capture but very easy to see in person).
I asked on here and it seems most wouldn’t be that worried about it but I just want to add it to the mix.
The new cabinet came today and once again seemed very nicely considered and wrapped by WB, but once I opened to inspect there was delamination again, lots of blunt trauma to edges and corners, and plenty of overspray in the leveling feet inserts. This was all in the coated panels. The black laminated panels looked to have much better fitting of the plastic cam post inserts but were still plagued by the oversized holes for the leveling feet inserts. I did push and poke a little bit with my fingers but as you can see in the picture there’s little to no bite with the insert.
I’ve reached back out to them to see what they would like to do, but I also don’t know what I should do and am looking for some honest takes. I’ve gotten some from 2 of my friends, one of which has decided to look elsewhere for his tank purchase.
Once again refer to the build thread for images and videos of mentioned items above.
Link to build thread
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