Uhhh, is this bad?

[Jason McK]

WOW I feel for you. Having had 2 tanks leak on me. It's not a fun experience.

Glad you were able to get your livestock out safely.

So when is the new tank arriving

J

[fkshiu]

Well, I've had the fans going full out now since Sunday and the floor and stand actually look none the worse for wear (knock on wood - or laminate in the floor's case). Everything is also passing the sniff test for the telltale musty smell.

I believe that the floors are not warped despite all that water in part because much of the water went UNDER the laminate planks. How do I know this? While I was cleaning up Sunday I discovered a mysterious puddle of water a good 10 - 12 feet away from the tank under the stairs by the laundry room. It was steadily growing and did not appear to have a source. It was saltwater according to the refractometer and I eventually traced it to the wall that is shared with the rec room where the tank was. It seems that a river of water flowed under the floor down to where this puddle was.

Anyway, my theory on the cause is that I had a number of really heavy live rocks in there. We're talking 30-35 pounders here. I had used HDPE (a.k.a. plastic cutting boards) to spread the weight and protect the glass. I think that something must have shifted and a great amount of weight ended up pressed against one point on the glass. Lesson learned - cover the whole bottom with HDPE if going SSB or BB.

I was fortunate that I had the tank sitting on top of the foam which was in turn sitting on a sheet of plywood. I had briefly toyed with the idea of only using foam along the perimeter since that's where the frame of the tank would be transferring all the weight. I thought it would be neat to be able to look up through the bottom of a BB tank. Good thing that prudence and paranoia won the day. I'm pretty sure that the whole bottom pane would've given out without the foam/plywood.

After expert consultation with Seahorse_Fanatic, I'm probably going to order a 72x24x19 tank from Seastar (the cracked one was a custom 72x24x16 - very weird size). I have a low ceiling in the basement and built the stand higher for the old stumpy tank so I am limited in what I can replace it with. A standard 180 gallon (72x24x24) would leave precious little ceiling clearance.

Oh well, stay tuned for a reef re-birth thread in the tank journal section and RIP to the tank that I affectionately called the "coffin" (which the wife now wants to use for a planter).

[Bryan]

How thick was the bottom pane ?, I doubt very much the rock caused the break. Even stranger is the fact you have styrofoam underneath, which should have compensated for any irregularity in the stand.

[spencerC]

Okay so I'm getting my first SW tank this week (75 gal) and this has got me a bit worried.
My tank will be in the basement on stand -> laminate -> concrete.
What measures can i take to assure this doesn't happen to me?

[fkshiu]

Not sure how thick the bottom pane is. The tank's out in the shed and it's too late to head out there with a ruler. I cannot think of what else could have caused the crack, especially with the foam underneath. I took great pains when building to stand to have it perfectly flat and level. I even had a new concrete base poured on top of the uneven foundation to ensure level. On top of that I used an isolation membrane to negate any shifting due to the new concrete curing. On top of that I used porcelain tile for its greater strength over ceramic. In other words, it could not have been what was under the tank.

spencerC, I would not be too concerned about this occuring to you as long as:
1. the stand is properly built and level
2. you use foam underneath
3. you use HDPE plastic to protect the bottom pane of glass.

[Buddyboy]

Sorry to hear about your tank woes fkshiu! Hope your life and your reef are back to normal very soon!

How is the HDPE plastic used? Do you lay it on the bottom of the inside of the tank? Where can I find sheets of this plastic?

Also, what kind of foam should be used? Where can it be purchased? I would imagine this foam would be layed on the outside bottom of the tank?

Best of luck with your tank rebirth!