https://www.marinedepot.com/Lifegar...anks-Lifegard_Aquatics-RB31740-FIAQNC-vi.html
A few months back at the Jackson meet I had $20 in my pocket that I was planning to donate to the club via raffle tickets.
I didn’t really need or want anything aside from a Cadillac CTS, a small private island in the Caribbean for vacationing, a personal teleporter, or a fully functionalBlade Runner replicant type AI to do my bidding, but, unfortunately none of these items were up for raffle. So, I dropped all $20 worth of tickets into the Lifeguard Aquatics nano kit.
And I won, Yea!
Had a few folks ask about it, so figured I'd post my experience.
Took me a while to unpack, I’ve got so many tanks now that I needed another like I need a ********* in ***** on********** while I’m ************ in the shower with ********* reading Marxist propaganda as ******* **** ********* Herve Villechaize ************ *************** and ***.
Anyways, as much as I appreciate the win, and as much as I love the tank’s donation to the club, I advise to avoid this tank at all costs. I KNOW the donation was done with trust, but the manufacturer of the product falls extremely short of expectations in the marine hobby.
THE TANK
It looks great. 24” wide, !9” tall, angled glass in front, rimless.
There’s a lot unseen. As nice as the outside glass presentation seems, the rear AIO 3 chamber compartment is a nightmare.
There is extra silicone glopped about as if a kid was eating a dripping cake over the area.
The seals between the 2nd (media/heater) compartment and the return compartment are so thin as to be useless and while filling the mid compartment with Marinepure, then reaching in to level it, the silicone between it and the return section gave way.
I’m moving on eggshells any time I now need to do anything in the back area as I’m worried the divider between display and filter section can easily give out.
It still is a NICE LOOKING tank, but there is no way I’ll consider a marine tank or putting anything of value in it.
THE THERMOMETER
Its digital.
It plugs in.
It sits on the OUTSIDE of the tank flush against the glass WITH NO INTERNAL PROBE.
So, it reads the tank temp through conduction: water>glass>air gap>plastic coating>probe.
I ran it for a week for the fun of it and had a constant temp of 4-7 degrees F or more below actual temp.
I now use it to measure the temp inside a closed box in the garage.
THE HEATER
This is the winner. Apparently a 100W preset, but nowhere on the heater itself is information supplied.
It works. It works very well.
So well that the water temp in the tank (while ‘cycling’} was 102 F.
So I removed it and gave it a day or two to chill out.
On re-use we hit 101.7.
Apparently it has a ’set’ of 102F for those with hydrothermal vent species tanks.
I decided to use it as an express heater for my RODI and it was dead after 5 or 6 uses.
THE LIGHT
Seems OK. Loads of white LED, 2 green, 2 red, a few blues.
Dual switch for spectrum or blues only.
Runs very. vey hot, so hot that leaving it on my sofa for a minute or two concerned me.
Will see how it does with growth with freshwater plants (see below)
THE CLEANER MAGNET
This thing rocks.
Seriously.
If I were to put the entire package into perspective, for $160 about $120 is going to the cleaner.
Small and compact, strong magnet, thick and dense fiber on the cleaner side, thick felt on magnet side which is easy to hold and control.
Almost has a Tunze magnet attraction between control nub and cleaner pad.
These guys should ditch the manufacturers of everything else, rebrand themselves, and just do magnets.
GLASS LID
Fits very well, about 1/8” gap all around.
Lack of any type of handle means you’ll have to pry it up when you need to lift it, or attach some kind of handle to it,
It’s only about 3/16” thick so caution needed when removing and replacing,
OVERALL
It’s OK, not great, maybe good.
There is no way I’d trust a marine environment in here and would nerverrisk coral in it based on tank construction,
I was planning to use it as a frag tank but after looking at it decided to go Figure 8 puffer tank but won’t even trust it to brackish water.
So, going to go freshwater dwarf puffer with plants and when the emergency arises I can just transfer to a bucket of RODI.
RECOMMENDATION
The deluxe package is loaded with cheap mass manufactured garbage and is in no way worth the price.
Tank - Sloppy construction but OK, looks cool
Thermometer - slightly less reliable than licking your finger, sticking it in the air, and guessing the temp.
Heater - fantastic if you need a replacement furnace for the foundry
Magnetic Cleaner - oooooo, throw on the Barry White
Lid - Thin, not well supported for removing and replacing
Light - runs very hot, making me believe its also a cheap bulk manufacture, we’ll see how it does with some freshwater plants
FINAL
If you’re considering dropping $150-160 on one of these I can give yo the same system, used less than 48 hoours, st s steep discount, minus the magnet cleaner.
A few months back at the Jackson meet I had $20 in my pocket that I was planning to donate to the club via raffle tickets.
I didn’t really need or want anything aside from a Cadillac CTS, a small private island in the Caribbean for vacationing, a personal teleporter, or a fully functionalBlade Runner replicant type AI to do my bidding, but, unfortunately none of these items were up for raffle. So, I dropped all $20 worth of tickets into the Lifeguard Aquatics nano kit.
And I won, Yea!
Had a few folks ask about it, so figured I'd post my experience.
Took me a while to unpack, I’ve got so many tanks now that I needed another like I need a ********* in ***** on********** while I’m ************ in the shower with ********* reading Marxist propaganda as ******* **** ********* Herve Villechaize ************ *************** and ***.
Anyways, as much as I appreciate the win, and as much as I love the tank’s donation to the club, I advise to avoid this tank at all costs. I KNOW the donation was done with trust, but the manufacturer of the product falls extremely short of expectations in the marine hobby.
THE TANK
It looks great. 24” wide, !9” tall, angled glass in front, rimless.
There’s a lot unseen. As nice as the outside glass presentation seems, the rear AIO 3 chamber compartment is a nightmare.
There is extra silicone glopped about as if a kid was eating a dripping cake over the area.
The seals between the 2nd (media/heater) compartment and the return compartment are so thin as to be useless and while filling the mid compartment with Marinepure, then reaching in to level it, the silicone between it and the return section gave way.
I’m moving on eggshells any time I now need to do anything in the back area as I’m worried the divider between display and filter section can easily give out.
It still is a NICE LOOKING tank, but there is no way I’ll consider a marine tank or putting anything of value in it.
THE THERMOMETER
Its digital.
It plugs in.
It sits on the OUTSIDE of the tank flush against the glass WITH NO INTERNAL PROBE.
So, it reads the tank temp through conduction: water>glass>air gap>plastic coating>probe.
I ran it for a week for the fun of it and had a constant temp of 4-7 degrees F or more below actual temp.
I now use it to measure the temp inside a closed box in the garage.
THE HEATER
This is the winner. Apparently a 100W preset, but nowhere on the heater itself is information supplied.
It works. It works very well.
So well that the water temp in the tank (while ‘cycling’} was 102 F.
So I removed it and gave it a day or two to chill out.
On re-use we hit 101.7.
Apparently it has a ’set’ of 102F for those with hydrothermal vent species tanks.
I decided to use it as an express heater for my RODI and it was dead after 5 or 6 uses.
THE LIGHT
Seems OK. Loads of white LED, 2 green, 2 red, a few blues.
Dual switch for spectrum or blues only.
Runs very. vey hot, so hot that leaving it on my sofa for a minute or two concerned me.
Will see how it does with growth with freshwater plants (see below)
THE CLEANER MAGNET
This thing rocks.
Seriously.
If I were to put the entire package into perspective, for $160 about $120 is going to the cleaner.
Small and compact, strong magnet, thick and dense fiber on the cleaner side, thick felt on magnet side which is easy to hold and control.
Almost has a Tunze magnet attraction between control nub and cleaner pad.
These guys should ditch the manufacturers of everything else, rebrand themselves, and just do magnets.
GLASS LID
Fits very well, about 1/8” gap all around.
Lack of any type of handle means you’ll have to pry it up when you need to lift it, or attach some kind of handle to it,
It’s only about 3/16” thick so caution needed when removing and replacing,
OVERALL
It’s OK, not great, maybe good.
There is no way I’d trust a marine environment in here and would nerverrisk coral in it based on tank construction,
I was planning to use it as a frag tank but after looking at it decided to go Figure 8 puffer tank but won’t even trust it to brackish water.
So, going to go freshwater dwarf puffer with plants and when the emergency arises I can just transfer to a bucket of RODI.
RECOMMENDATION
The deluxe package is loaded with cheap mass manufactured garbage and is in no way worth the price.
Tank - Sloppy construction but OK, looks cool
Thermometer - slightly less reliable than licking your finger, sticking it in the air, and guessing the temp.
Heater - fantastic if you need a replacement furnace for the foundry
Magnetic Cleaner - oooooo, throw on the Barry White
Lid - Thin, not well supported for removing and replacing
Light - runs very hot, making me believe its also a cheap bulk manufacture, we’ll see how it does with some freshwater plants
FINAL
If you’re considering dropping $150-160 on one of these I can give yo the same system, used less than 48 hoours, st s steep discount, minus the magnet cleaner.
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