Durban International

[Dober Man]

Have any of you folk been down to the airport recently?

I was there yesterday, and god does that tank look terrible.

The rockwork is covered in cyano, the substrate looks terrible, and the water had a strange tinge to it.

Who looks after this tank? Is it the airports problem, or is there a maintenance guy?

Its such a pity that people will see that tank before any when they fly in to see IMACSA>

 

[Afsal]

i think george maintains it , cant get his company name !!!

 

[BlastoM]

it is aqua africa. andrew should be put in charge of that tank his tanks all look awsome always giving 110% to his customers

 

[viper357]

I don't think it is his fault, it all depends on the budget the airport is allocated to maintain the tank, a severely restricted budget is going to impact negatively on the maintenance of that tank.

 

[SIMS]

I was there about 6 weeks ago and although there is alot of algae in the tank the fish all seemed to be in good health.... man that tank is nice and big and looks like it's packed with Tunze - anyone got any specs on it?

 

[gaz19]

also think andrew should mantain the tank, he has to be the best out there!!

 

[Reef Maniac]

I don't think it is his fault, it all depends on the budget the airport is allocated to maintain the tank, a severely restricted budget is going to impact negatively on the maintenance of that tank.

True, but ... IMHO whoever is doing the maintenance should remember that, apart from making money, his name and reputation is on the line. If the budget is not sufficient to maintain a decent system, especially in such a public place, the company should rather resign the appointment than end up having their own reputation damaged.

I have seen this in Bloemfontein a few years ago - yuppy clothing shop called Quicksilver (if I remember correctly...) had a large tank with all the bells and whistles (mainly Tunze as well...) but it looked horrible. The maintenance guy was from Durban and because of "budget restrictions" only visited the shop once every few months. I was asked to investigate the system and make recommendations to "fix" it - at the end, I suggested that they either spend a lot more on maintenance using a local petshop, or give up the tank... which is what they ended up doing (giving up the tank, that is...).

During my "audit" I got the distinct impression that the Durban-based maintenance guy (won't mention names, but it was definately NOT Andrew...) was more interested in making money selling expensive equipment than in the well-being of the display tank inhabitants - quite sad, really.

Hennie

 

[BlastoM]

well put

 

[Gerrit]

True, but ... IMHO whoever is doing the maintenance should remember that, apart from making money, his name and reputation is on the line. If the budget is not sufficient to maintain a decent system, especially in such a public place, the company should rather resign the appointment than end up having their own reputation damaged.

I have seen this in Bloemfontein a few years ago - yuppy clothing shop called Quicksilver (if I remember correctly...) had a large tank with all the bells and whistles (mainly Tunze as well...) but it looked horrible. The maintenance guy was from Durban and because of "budget restrictions" only visited the shop once every few months. I was asked to investigate the system and make recommendations to "fix" it - at the end, I suggested that they either spend a lot more on maintenance using a local petshop, or give up the tank... which is what they ended up doing (giving up the tank, that is...).

During my "audit" I got the distinct impression that the Durban-based maintenance guy (won't mention names, but it was definately NOT Andrew...) was more interested in making money selling expensive equipment than in the well-being of the display tank inhabitants - quite sad, really.

Hennie

Hennie,

The same happened with Quicksilver shop in the Menlyn shopping center. When initially installed, it looked great. It was also an all Tunze system and was installed and maintained by Aqua Africa (distributors of Tunze in SA).

I used to go and have a look at the tank every time i visited Menlyn. Over a period of months one could notice that the tank was not maintained properly. Later on they did not even clean the glass properly. End of the story, the tank was taken away. As you say, quite sad

Gerrit

 

[SIMS]

Yea if there is no money to get someone in twice a week to checkup on the system then why is it loadded with fancy equipment.....

 

[Mekaeel]

ive also looked at the tank.and i agree the airport needs to put in more funds so that george can make that tank look good.and he is capable of doing so

 

[Carl]

Hi Durbanites

Can one of you get hold of the manager at airport and tell him we are hosting Imacsa and get this fixed.

Carl

 

[Mekaeel]

sounds like an idea any volunteers?i'll join whoever goes there to ask permission,dont wana get kicked out the airport alone lol

 

[KevinW]

Might be an idea to check with whoever is looking after the tank (George?) before going to ACSA and telling them their tank is in need of some serious TLC....

 

[Mekaeel]

mmh.who knows george well and could possibly speak to him.is he on MASA?

 

[Reaper]

Tagging on this one - want to know the outcome of this poor system... what a pity

 

[TheWaterboy]

for the budget allowed for this tank......trust me it looks good.............
agree with carl that some money needs to be spent to try upgrade and make the system more presentable for imacsa............and future
must honestly say that the live-stock do look healthy and as reefers we all can say our systems can look better........unfortunatley when systems are that big and budgets are that small.....................well there will be a problem......good news is that the live stock is all healthy (possibly due to TUNZE Products being great)
there are fish in there that are over 7 years old...............i think the gem tang is about 10 years old......................
bottom line, one cannot point fingers when budget is not available..................
yes there is cyna bacteria........but do you have an idea of how much it costs to remove that much phosphate!!!!....eish............
great thread though..maybe it will motivate the airports authority to have a look at the budget as for sure george is capable of running such a system as is andrew or northlands or anyone in that field if the budget was there........

 

[psycho]

I had a look at the tank last week, doesn't look to bad,

 

[Dober Man]

I agree with the above guys that the contract shouldn't have been taken by the company if the budget was not enough to keep the system looing 100%.

And why would there be heaps of phosphates with such a low bio-load Marco?

 

[TheWaterboy]

i had started a rather long reply......but deleted it and reply with this

with regards to the contract being taken..........do you even know the history of the contract,
perhaps you should rather contact george himself or the airports authority and talk to them direct,

the right thing to have done, would have been to contact the relevant parties, express your concern........if you saw the people knew nothing about running the system...and or where not even taking your concerns to light....then post it on a international forum

and err......why do 90% of hobbiest battle with phosphate when the bio-load is low...........anwser, not being able to export is one of a huge list