Any one ever had there tank blow out?
 

Just curious as if there's any extreme warning signs

The bottom cracked the full length of my tank.. No warning, just lots and lots of water!

Yes, my 180g starphire let go in the upper left corner and split the left front seam draining 2/3 of the tank on the floor. No warning signs that I saw and it ran for over 2 years first! I now know that the clear silicone it was built with was not up to the test. Black silicone is much stronger I'm told and I think ppl with deep rimless tanks are asking for trouble someday... Anyway... really sucks. I'm only now getting back into the hobby after a few year hiatus.

125 gallon split the front glass. Lost 30 to 40 gallons on the floor. No warning signs but I had recently moved it further away from the wall. After I drained it I realized the corner that split was rested on a part of the subfloor with no support. The corner of the stand dropped or twisted and the front glass split.

End result: $66K insurance payout for repairs. The story: Stand on a 65G tank gave way on the back right corner, torqued the front glass shattering it. Entire 65G ended up in a wave that crested three times (salt water stains on the wall) back and forth across the living room. Unfortunately the main electrical panel was in the room below. Water had been wicking over the top and running down onto the stand unnoticed for a while.


Dan

entire front bottom end seam gave ways and water from 240glns tank all over the basement floor :twised: :sad:
The sad part there was no warning signs...

Wow.... It sucks my tank I'm running is 80 gallon Hagen but its 10 yrs old, I was cleaning it and noticed that threw the corner of the seam is rotting away at the top corners I can see the fish swim by I have great insurance but my biggest fear is my kids because there both toddlers, I bought a new 125 but didn't realize how much it was to plump in thanks for the advice looks like my tank is gunna get taken down and everything sold fml

Unfortunatly black silicone is not sronger than clear..Thats a myth. Clear silicone grows algae quicker on it and around it..More light transferance i believe..when you start to see the algae getting under the bead in your tank keep an eye on it...when it works into the seal between the two panes then its time for a re-seal. Black silicone looks better because it helps to hide algae growth. Also depends on what you like. They both have the same strength.

can you add your tanks to your insurance or are they added wihtout letting them know ??? thinking i should add mine if not

I added my tank to my insurance. Doesn't cover tank loss, just floor damage and such.

180 broke from top to bottom. Along with sump pumping a cube of water cascade down a brown leather couch. Really a beautiful waterfall with a grouper flapping on the floor.

O the salt etching in the leather was nice too. 😜

Who is your policy with?

Any home insurance will cover water damage from an aquarium, you shouldn't need to pay more to add such things. It's pretty standard they will also cover up to $1500 worth of equipment damage but no livestock.

There was a series of tanks in Saskatoon that came from a builder that had some defects. One large tank split at the seam, could have been improper cleaning of the polished edges prior to applying silicone. The others all had acrylic backs but the builder cut the acrylic to fit perfectly with no gap failing to realize acrylic has a higher thermal expansion than glass. The acrylic buckled eventually pushing the glass apart and split the seam.

Actually, no. The black "silicone" typically used is GE 1200, which is stronger than clear regular silicone. That being said, clear is not too weak for a tank :)

One of the local tank makers uses clear ge-1200 for all his tanks.
I doubt that any commercial manufacturer is using anything less.

Didn't know it came in clear, I've only ever seen black. Good to know :)

I try and use tanks with black silicone both my Hagen tanks use black silicone and have thicker glass as well, hope I never have any leakage problems. so far so good. :thumb:

My current tank is clear but resealed with black (regular) silicone. Water is still on the right side of the glass :)

DIRECT INSURANCE/MELLENIUM INSURANCE OUT OF SHERWOOD PARK ALBERTA. I HAVE BOTH MY CARS INSURED WITH THEM AS WELL!!

Well I'm guessing that the clear silicone used on my tank wasn't ge-1200. It was built by a builder that had several large tanks fail that were built with clear silicone the same year. Needless to say he is no longer in business.

I was wondering about the insurance company itself, not the broker.

My insurance is with Intact. They have remarkably few exclusions on my coverage. I think I'll give my broker a call and bombard him with "what if . . . " questions.

You're covered under Intact just as Sphelps said, some repair $$, no livestock.

One of the huge things I went through before even pulling the trigger on our 1000g system was to go through all of our insurance very carefully. All in all you can get an additional policy for your tank, but no policy will ever cover livestock (unless you pay out the nose among other things).


The following companies were ok with tanks;
TD (horrific customer service though, and I was very hesitant with their poor training across representatives. I was frankly too afraid that they would fumble the paperwork on something significant and so I walked from them).
Intact - Not bad, covered under regular homeowners policy, or if additional coverage was sought through a rider. Would have stayed with them, but got the same deal at a cheaper price elsewhere. I hear that starting this year though there is something relating to the rebuild value of your house (if its older) that may not make Intact your profered provider.
SGI - I was able to get what I needed covered under homeowners insurance, didn't need an extra or secondary policy. They asked practically no questions, just wanted to know where the tank was located (main floor, basement, etc.)

Not ok:
Wawanesa - I found just asking questions about potential policies to be extremely invasive. They also tried to tell me they couldn't talk to me about insurance until I'd provided them a driving abstract...yet I was calling to discuss house insurance.

Awesome:
Find a good broker and book an hour in with them if you feel they "don't understand" over the phone. Its worth the piece of mind.

I checked with my insurance broker a while ago as well. My house insurance is with Intact. No livestock coverage as Michika stated, but water damage is. The tank itself would be covered if it was impacted, not covered if it just let go. I made sure I didn't need additional coverage, it was not required.