Need to vent and maybe get some help.

[wrightme43]

I have a client who wanted a in wall tank. She bought the tank, before consulting with me. I went to her house, and told the building contractor exactly what I needed. Large doors and 32" up x 24" wide x 50" long free under the tank. They left me 21.5" free up, 12.5" free wide x and 50" long free. I mean they built this thing with double 2"x6" and 2 3/4" sheets of plywood. I told them that everything under the stand needed to be triple coated in marine grade poly. The didnt and told me it didnt need it, it was pressure treated. I said look we need to at least cut out part of this one brace so I can fit the skimmer in. The guy said no it was load bearing, It was the only on that didnt go to sideways 2x6, it wasnt load bearing. I have worked some in construction enough to know. Got all pissed off when I proved it wasnt load bearing, because the nails were the only thing holding it in. If the nails were removed it could just be removed by hand.
The lady keeps complaining that the tank is to noisy. It is sitting on wood that is solid attached to her walls. Any noise that is made is transmitted out into the rooms. It cant go anywhere else. Also she says the noise of flowing water is too loud. It is driving me crazy.
I went up yesterday and removed the whole sump to get a different one, the skimmer, the return pump and moved the heater to the tank, and put ONE JUST FREAKING ONE Tunze pump in the tank to keep it alive untill the new sump comes in. Its not even on a controller just steady state flow. She says it woke her baby up in the middle of the night three times and is just to load. When she goes to a friends house in NewYork they have a tank in the dining room that you cant hear at all. Well no DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!! its in a stand and not attached to the freaking walls of the house. I dont know what to do with her. I am about to tell her to go piss up a rope, I am the only business around here that does what I do. I am changing the return pump to a queit one that will only flow about 400 gallon per hour the sump to a precsion marine bubbless resivoir and the skimmer to the gate valve mod so the water wont flow down a sponge to the make less noise. I plan on emptying the tank, unstacking the live rock, lifting the tank and placing blue board under it, lining the walls with blue board, and putting blue board under the sump, after cutting all the stupid excessive bracing out and rebuilding it. She wants all this done for free. I am not doing it for free. This is really really pissing me off. She wants something that is impossible. I mean if one tunze is to loud, how in the world can I run a skimmer and a return pump?
So do you think I should just tell her to screw off and just give her skimmer and return pump she wants me to just eat, and say see you in court? I can not just give her 2000$ worth of equiptment because she thinks it should be totally silent. Now look I not completly unreasonable, I make quiet fish tanks. You cant hear them hardly at all. But there will always be noise with a tank, if it has enough flow to operate or all of the equiptment is isolated in a seperate room, or if the stand is closed and isolated from the walls of the house. I was a Sonarman on submarines. Part of my job was to make sure all sound was isolated on our ship. I completly understand how sound is transmitted and how to isolate it. Its like she wants me to fix what is impossible to fix.
Oh yeah and this is the best. I have one door at the bottom which is 9"x9" square. and two doors at the top which are huge and stupid, they dont even stinking seal, plus the only access to the pumps is thru a piece of plywood I have to unscrew from the wall of her closet after taking all the baby cloths out and a dresser, and all the boxs of diapers and God only knows what else. It is freaking insane.
I will never never never never never allow any building contrator to build anything near any one of my tanks ever again.
This has been a night mare.

 

[wrightme43]

Plus I told them to install a exhaust fan, no exhast fan.

 

[lizardarm]

WOW!

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[lizardarm]

yeah, i'm thinking that you can probably get some surplus russian sound mounts (design stolen from us) for cheap. maybe that'll quiet the transients.

 

[Rock-N-Ruin]

Depending on the laws in your state I would Lien the building contractor/and customer, if the customer still owes you any of the balance of course! Just from my experience though: I had to threaten to lien a customer once, and that got her to pay up quick.. She was the one in the neighberhood that every other customer had warned me about.. I did save her for last in that neighborhood/she was NUTS.. good luck!

 

[Detri]

Yea thats a tough call. Is the tank for her or her husband? I've had customers like that when I was a contractor. The customer wanted a friend to do certain work. Then when I went in after I would have to explain why it wouldn't work the way there friend did it. And, that I would have to redo it later if not now. Well they didn't believe me. Half way through the job I left. Thier friend was an idiot. 8 months later they called me back appauligizing and offered double for me to come back and fix the job.

Of coarse I didn't charge them double. I just redid the job at the original contract price. I got more work from that job than I ever thought. Turned out good in the end.

You need to find a way to explain the problems so she will understand. Alot of the time the customer blames the last person in there. Next time when you have a problem with the way something is built. Document it and show it to the customer. That way any trouble later, you can say "SEE I TOLD YOU SO"

Anyway, good luck man. That really is a tough call.

 

[wrightme43]

Well she really doesnt owe me much money. I figured out after a no pay tank that I need to be payed up front. I am just at my wits end here. I can float the tank on blue board. Use blue board around the sump and under it. Use dynomat over the blue board and wrap the pipes. But I dont think no matter what I do she is going to be satisfied. I mean if a Tunze with no controller can wake a baby three times in the middle of the night, where do I go from there. I mean I know its got to just be her perception. Babies wake up in the middle of the night. If it was the tunze, every car that drove by, every bird that chirped, every time the toliet flushed, every time the heater kicked on, it would wake up the baby. I dont think I can win and its time to cut my losses and let her find out on her own that these things are not totally silent.

 

[wrightme43]

She just wants the new stuff for free if she doesnt like it, I am supposed to eat it, after drilling holes in it making it custom.

 

[Krish]

She is being rediculous IMO. Vent my brother...Vent!(LOL) I know you from hanging out here on the forum and have talked to you on the phone and to me, you seem to be any easy going person always positive. If you are as pissed off as you sound, I'm sure it is for a reason. Tell her you'll get her a nano and call it a day

 

[Barbie]

I've done tank maintenance for a living. I do not envy you this one, not one bit. She's definitely being unreasonable about the tank. If it was me, I would sit down and make a list of the things you asked the contractors to do, and the things that they DID, which make your job less easy to do. Explain to her that you are now stuck with the untenable situation of making her happy with less than ideal circumstances. Spray in Foam insulation can help a bit if you've got space back into the main wall supports, but then you're going to trap more heat. Definitely stress to her that while she's noticing the noise of the water NOW that people pay good money for white noise machines and fountains for the fact that they keep babies sleeping over the small noises, once they settle into the sounds .

If it was me, I'd make that letter, then I'd give her a written estimate for fixing the problem and not do a single thing to fix it until she agrees to it. Give her the options of reef tank with enough flow, or barely a FO with live rock with lower flow and why which ones will work or not and let her stew on it. If she goes to someone else, you aren't out the money and she will end up just as unsatisfied with their service. Some people can not be made happy in situations like this. If she can be made to see reason, seeing a detailed explanation will sometimes get through when discussions will not.

It also gives her something to show the other half and maybe HE can see reason if she isn't .

Barbie

 

[wrightme43]

Thanks Barbie.

 

[Maxx]

Wow sorry to hear about all of this Steve....

Sounds like you ran into one of my "customers"....
I think Barbie gave you great advice on how to deal with this in a professional manner that wont leave you in any sort of a bad spot, (other than not being able to satisfy her unreasonable demands...which you werent going to be able to do anyway).

IMO, the best thing you could do here would be to act professional in your dealings with her. As satisfying as it would be to Tee off on her, I think you'd end up regretting it. I would suggest following Barbie's suggestions and might consider taping the conversation with her over the whole matter. Something to consider when going that route though...check your states laws regarding taping conversations...Here in MO, only one person needs to know its being taped (w/o a warrant) for the tape to be legally admissable.

I'm suggesting this route becuase I get the feeling she's a person who might try to go to court over this....
I hope I'm wrong...

Let us know how it all turns out.

Nick

 

[Rock-N-Ruin]

Is this her first child?? Like said above babies wake in the night.. Also both parents can be very worn out for the first year after a new child, so she may not be reasonable for awhile!!! I would try what barbie described above to see if the situation can't be resolved fairly, but it doesn't sound like it.. Sometimes you gotta cut your losses, just do it carefully!! Good luck!!

 

[Skimmy]

oh man, i feel your pain, as i do installations and maintenance as well.
i would agree with barbie on this, simply submit an estimate to her stating the cost of you having to re-do the system because the contractor she hired didnt build the system with noise in mind. if she doesnt like it then explain to her that there is no way she can make you responsible for something you didnt design or build, and that if she wishes to continue receiving your professional help that those are the stipulations, and that otherwise she's going to have to go it alone.
if all you did was fill it with water and maintain it, i dont see how that makes you responsible for the design of the tank.
and unless there are other unmentioned aspects, i seriously doubt she has any leagal recourse against you. mabye if you designed and built it, but it sounds like all youve done is maintain the tank, correct me if im wrong.