Ever wonder what happens if a big 200plus tank blows
 

Interesting thread from a person who had a catasphrophic blowout,,,http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2532303....
Also see thread page 5 on safety factor on your seals/ load in the thread.:wink:

damn. i actually read the whole thread.... i am now having a second thought about getting a 340g rimless.

I find it interesting that everyone on RC is bashing the manufacturer warranty when their warranty is quite standard. Most tank manufacturers will not warranty a tank the is put on a stand not built by the manufacturer. However, it looks like a manufacturing defect because that front panel essentially dropped right off the front of the tank in one fell swoop. I'm not a tank manufacturer, but it looks like the silicone skinned over before they got that panel in place.

That's clearly a manufacturer's defect since the front window popped up like that and I am 99.99% sure it has nothing to do with the stand. If it was something to do with the stand, the joints would crack but a civil/structural engineer can confirm that. But yes, that is a pretty standard warranty procedure from tank manufacturers.

Reminds me of a 190 gallon Fresh Water tank that had a catastrophic failure here in town 9 years ago it was determined that the stand which was bought from the manufacturer was defective however it took the fellow 2 years of legal wrangling to get the manufacturer to admit it was a defect. In the settlement he got financial compensation and a brand new tank and stand free of charge from the manufacturer.

In the mean time insurance covered most of the damage but it put a huge strain on his relationship with his GF at the time fortunately they mended fences and had a great wedding 4 yrs ago and now they have two 160 gallon FW tanks and 3 kids and way too many dogs.

Have you guys heard about peters 1200 gallon breaking
ATM woulden't honor their warrenty either

Yah saw that one too; the way he wrote everything, you can literally feel what he was going through. I felt really bad for him. Acrylic tanks are more prone to breaking that glass tanks but accident (or in some cases, manufacturers defect) can happen.

Who has 650 gallons of saltwater in a recently renovated house without adequate insurance?

That is the $64 question

Don't forget those fancy hardwood floors.

:razz:

I've had 100's of aquariums.

Literally.

None have EVER done what this cadlights tank did.

Insurance or not, if a company can't own up to this kind of failure, they are best avoided.

The freaking silicone is still firmly attached to the front pane!!!!

Pile on the guy all you want.

I'd be ****ed off and looking for some culpability too.

Insurance when it comes to an aquarium failure like this doesn't guarantee you anything anyways, the same way a "lifetime" warranty on a tank can mean nothing.

From building and cutting apart several tanks, this one was a definite manufacture defect and a very poor quality silicone used for sure.

Not saying i agree one way or the other.
Did anyone even ask if the tank was level? Stand may be built nice but what happens if the floor changed a bit .... He did just have his floors redone.Not one person asked a question about the floor. Grab a level, take a pic would be my advise to the guys on the forum. I couldnt even tell you if the floor under tank was concrete or carpet... Was the stand leveled like crap or done rather exceptional? Or maybe im just over thinking it.

I dont know tank construction, i just know when people just side one way without even questioning anything they are usually missing something important. Learn from all your mistakes even if its just buying from the wrong company in the end.

Don't want to stir any sand over here but when a glass pops up like that, its not about the floor level but the perpendicular pressure exerted by the water from inside. A non level floor would have been more believable if the glass cracked from the seem and eventually causing the catastrophe. Plus he wrote that he got an engineer to judge the fault and no registered engineer would just visit a site and conclude something without a proper validation.

Steven (sphelps) will probably be able to give a more firm insight on this.

That's pretty scary. I've had some big ugly messes to clean up. Most recently when I was monkeying around with my media reactor and neglected to put the output line back in the sump. Luckily my wife caught it after only 15g hit the floor but that could have been disastrous if she didn't catch it. Had to get a leak detector for my Apex if I wanted to stay in the hobby.

Yikes ! I have several leak detectors scattered throughout my house but sadly, none of them would save me from a catastrophe like this one. I've gone through a few renos and and although they are annoying, stuff is fixable or replaceable. You can't fix or replace a beloved dead fish. :sad:

Assuming no personal possessions got destroyed.

It would be pretty easy in a blow out like that to damage items that are similarly as sentimentally valuable as your beloved fish...perhaps even more so.

Plus, Reno's are expensive and not everyone is super handy and able to do things themselves. :redface:

I've never owned anything by Cadlights but this certainly ensures I won't.

An interesting math/science problem for young students would be to prove an unlevel tank would actually apply less pressure to the vertical panes of glass regardless of the angle. The highest pressure on vertical panes occurs when the tank is level, so aside from the obvious this type of failure mode can't be caused by an unlevel stand/floor.

Tank builders should consider offering an option to hydrotest large custom tanks to at least 1.5x design. It's a simple test that would add significant value by virtually ensuring the tank is free of defects capable of causing premature failures like this. For example I know my tank sitting a 1/3 full will never break as it was tested to 3x that. Personally I'll never setup a large tank again without similar assurance.

You mean by sealing and pressurizing it?

That would sure give some peace of mind and you could market the heck out of that...

That's actually a very good point. Some people highly value their stuffs.

Yes you could fill the tank with water and pressurize it some how, in most cases it would only require 1 psi or less of additional pressure. A simpler approach would be to just use a fluid with a density 1.5x that of seawater. With a large storage tank and pump you could reuse the fluid indefinitely.

pardon my ignorance, could you also blast each pane with a pre determined PSI as well?

I would think you could easily call your tanks the safest glass on the market if you did have some kind of testing process...

And we all know aquarists, for the most part, love reasons to spend more money on better tings.

I wouldn't see any point in that as failure typically only occurs as a result of defects in the seams during tank assembly. Glass is glass for the most part and failures don't occur from defective glass unless it was chipped during cutting or assembly but that would also be captured from a standard hydrotest.

but wouldn't blasting the glass put pressure on the seams?

meaning blasting the assembled tank, from the inside, with a predetermined PSI?

If you pressurized the whole assembled tank then yes but pressurizing with air alone would not be advisable. Water or fluid is used because it's incompressible, if a leak forms during testing it basically just leaks while using air or gas will expand and potentially cause more damage if a leak forms. Basically without fluid you could be building a bomb which is not something you want in your shop. Also this test wouldn't be something you would do on normal or average tanks, really just large/specialty custom tanks that would have a large investment behind them. The cost of doing such a test would be high as the builder would probably spend more on producing a stronger tank to ensure it passes a hydrotest. For example spending more time on sealing (stages), machining all edges including non- exposed and/or using thicker glass.

Manufacturer
 

Note the Manufacturers post regarding the tank belonging to someone prior. A tank that size and............................. No one knows what stress the tank went through prior to the second owner.

I think some people need to realize that manufactures aren't liable for this type of thing. They may offer a warranty but like all warranties they are limited and up the discretion of the manufacture, anyone that's actually read the fine print in a warranty agreement would know they mean relatively nothing. While a good builder will stand behind their work and would offer something in cases like this there's often more to these kinds of stories and even how you approach the builder or manufacture is critical. Also with such a large amount of additional damage no manufacture with a lawyer on speed dial will ever admit fault as it could force their hand to cover additional damages which I would argue is in no way their responsibility. In the end best case they should or would cover the tank by either replacing it or fixing it but after such an incident who would honestly want that... So really this is a shitty deal type of case, live and learn, move on with your life.

With no design standards applied to aquariums its up to consumers to specify design requirements. This whole going big as possible on a budget is really just a recipe for disaster. You want hundreds of gallons of salt water in your house? Be prepared, this type of disaster probably occurs a lot more often than you may realize and in the end the consequences are your own.