110 Gallon Busted at the Seams

[korgull]

I was wondering if anyone has ever had a tank seam bust out on them. I had a 110 gallon that was setup for a year and a half, then one day when i came home, I had all 110 gallons on the floor of my house. After I cleaned it out, I saw that the tank had a 2 foot split in the seam going along the bottom seal. Needless to say I was not happy. Is this common?

 

[fishking]

srry to hear that, that kind of stuff scares the hell out of me with my 200 gal tank, it could be possibly bad craftsminship

 

[oceana]

Originally Posted by fishking
srry to hear that, that kind of stuff scares the hell out of me with my 200 gal tank, it could be possibly bad craftsminship
i feel the same way with our 140. i have spilled just a lager glass of water and it seems like alot when cleaning it up i could not enev begin to imagine if it was 140 gallons. good think we have all time and wood floors i guess.
we also built out fish room to have a VERY slight slope to the corner of the room. you cant see it with your eye but its there. there is a door in the corner so if it did leak it would all go to one side of the room and out the door. well thats the plan anyhow lol
as for your tank yes that does happen. not opten really but it can happen lots of ways.
old seals /owner not careful when cleaning glass with razors/ sharp blow from a rock falling. all kinds of stuff

 

[scsinet]

OMG I can't even fathom that amount of water being loosed into a house... I'm not sure which is worse.. the damage or the loss of a 110 gallon system.
I have a 120 planted in my office at work and that's a hell of a lot of water.
I hope you didn't lose too much expensive livestock... or drown your dog.

 

[thangbom]

well.. the silicone do go bad ... it is housing salt water.. thats why i will not buy a tank unless i inspect the silicone.. if it's clear and gummy then it's ok.. but if it's chalky like and flacky.. it's a NO NO...
a unbalanced tank is another way a tank can explode open like that... aquarium tanks are built to evenly distribute the weight to surface area.. so if the tank is not lvl... pop go's the tank..( it may be ok for a while.. but it's extra stress on the sealant.. and it will give out..)

 

[scsinet]

I've also seen cases where DIY non-glass tanks using too thin of an acrylic or plexiglass can bow out so bad under the weight of the water that it pops the seal like the split seam of a pair of pants.
Regardless, that's at least fixable provided the seals can be redone so as not to split in the same way again, and it's FAR safer than a tank pane catastrophically failing. Sharp shrouds propelled by fast moving water can do some serious damage.

 

[korgull]

unless my house is on a sinkhole, the floor is level, its on a concrete slab. its a name-brand tank too, so i guess i got a lemon. i dont know what the deal is with it, but i am going to clean it all up and sell it. someone out there will want it and re-seal it im sure, or maybe someone has a snake....i didnt lose too much luckily, cuz of the hurricanes last year wiped it out with the power going out for a week.

 

[brucoh]

I know this doesn't quite measure up to your 110 gal., but I had a 29 gal. bust at the front seam on me. What makes it even worse is that I live in a 2nd floor apartment! I stayed out of the hobby for about a year and a half after that (post traumatic stress disorder

) It would have been alot worse, but the guy living under me was a college student who recently moved here from Africa, so he didn't have much furnture. None of his stuff got damaged. Maintance just pulled up part of our carpets, put down big fans and dried everything out. They also had to retexture part of his ceiling. I am very leary of old tanks now, believe me, this is not something you want to happen to you.

 

[promisetbg]

Originally Posted by korgull
I was wondering if anyone has ever had a tank seam bust out on them. I had a 110 gallon that was setup for a year and a half, then one day when i came home, I had all 110 gallons on the floor of my house. After I cleaned it out, I saw that the tank had a 2 foot split in the seam going along the bottom seal. Needless to say I was not happy. Is this common?
That story sounds very familiar...I think I know you.