Acrylic Aquarium Concern

[RemainVayne]

Just noticed a small section on the front upper right seam of my acrylic aquarium. Tank has been setup for almost a year and maybe I never noticed this spot, but saw some brown algae "in" the seam.

Kind of hard to see, but I'd this something to worry about? Not talking about the bubbles in the seam, yet to the right of the bubbles.

 

[Oughtsix]

I would put a tiny pin prick in the acrylic to mark the peak of each of those intrusions into the seam. If the intrusions increase... worry. If the intrusions stay where they are marked with the pin pricks then there should be nothing to worry about. The dificulty will be compensating for parallax. Put a tiny pin prick marking the inside corner of the tank. Use this pin prick as a reference, line it up with the corner of the tank and the rest of the pin pricks will be referenced off this prick.

If they do increase we can have a great thread about the best way to treat them at that time.

 

[RemainVayne]

wednesday13 Lepisosteus

 

[Lepisosteus]

If it wasn’t there before but is now then that’s not good. The pin marks/marker are a good idea. I would also mark the upper and lower limits to see if it extends then just watch it. If it gets worse, drain the tank and add rods or weldon 40. From what it looks like now I would not worry. Maybe 1/20th the width of a perfectly clear seam

 

[RemainVayne]

If it wasn’t there before but is now then that’s not good. The pin marks/marker are a good idea. I would also mark the upper and lower limits to see if it extends then just watch it. If it gets worse, drain the tank and add rods or weldon 40. From what it looks like now I would not worry. Maybe 1/20th the width of a perfectly clear seam

Can't say 100% for sure it was or wasn't there before setting the tank up

When seams separate, do they always have that white/opaque coloring? That isn't present here so I'm wondering if it could've been a sloppy seam job? The manufacturer definitely didn't do a clean job over the entirety of the tank.

 

[Lepisosteus]

I have yet to see seam separation without the white/opaque colour

 

[RemainVayne]

I have yet to see seam separation without the white/opaque colour

Not to put the future of the tank on you, but without the typical white coloring could it have just been a sloppy build job by the manufacturer where they didn't do a good job making sure all seams were welded together?

 

[Lepisosteus]

Not to put the future of the tank on you, but without the typical white coloring could it have just been a sloppy build job by the manufacturer where they didn't do a good job making sure all seams were welded together?

Could be. Could also be a number of other things

 

[RemainVayne]

Friendly tip to the masses:

DO NOT purchase your next aquarium from American Aquariums.

 

[Tropical Joe]

If you take a straight edge and hold it across the front panel , is there any bowing ? Many people that make acrylic tanks don't use a thick enough acrylic. This keeps the price down but it doesn't allow enough surface area for a proper glue joint.