Mega Mess... But what's to blame?

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dadsoldtruck

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 28, 2009
126
0
0
Richlands, NC
So this morning I'm getting ready for work... I make myself a nice plate of eggs, bacon and a bagel with a cup of coffee... i go into my dining room and sit down and start eating. As i eat and enjoy my breakfast I'm watching my stingray swim gracefully around her custom 240g tank that goes through the wall between the living room and dining room... This tank is a 4' x 4' x 24" square with a center overflow. As I watch her swim to the far side of the tank (livingroom side) I hear something that sounds like a gun go off and watched as the water quickly drained out of the tank into the living room. At first i though it was a very bad dream... till the smell of saltwater hit me, and the tidal wave came around the wall and soaked my feet. I jumped up and started calling for my husband to come help as I'm looking for the ray. I didn't see her till she came swimming out from under the couch in the inch of water that was on the floor. so i quickly grab a 5g bucket, and a little bucket and start scooping up water, and my husband catches the ray. and from there a lot of phone calls were made and we got a company to come out and take up all the carpet and set up driers in the house, and other stuff to repair the damange. :cry:

But I say all that to ask this... We had to move the tank to get to the carpet underneath, I thought it was a little odd that the piece that popped off causing the tidal was bowed, but figured it was due to the great force of it pealing off of it's seams, but when they moved the rest of the tank not even two inches it literally fell apart in their hands... by that I mean all the seams broke apart... My tank now sits in the garage in 6 pieces, but each of the side pieces are all warped to the inside of the tank. my question is this... are they supposed to bewarped that way and also, shouldn't the areas where the two pieces of acrylic were bonded together be rough?

p.s. Don't worry, the ray is doing fine in ghetto-rigged cooler and will be finding a new home as my husband and i are now scared to get a new tank.
 
Sorry to hear about the tidal wave that hit your living/dining room. From the sounds of it, the acrylic that they used to make the tank may have been to thin to support all that pressure from the water. The seams of an acrylic tank doesn't need to be rough because the sealant that's used bonds the acrylic sheets together. How long have you had the tank? It might still be under warranty. I'm glad to hear that you saved the ray. All the acrylic tanks I have seen that failed were from cracks in the acrylic sheets and not the seams.
 
Danzig86;3732438; said:
Thats no good. Sorry to derail do you own the mantis shrimp in your profile pic????
Click to expand...

ya... Her name is Clarice, and she is a ternatensus. She lives in a 10g on my bar. she is so fun to watch, but no fun to try to clean up her tank.
 
RedDwarf;3732468; said:
Sorry to hear about the tidal wave that hit your living/dining room. From the sounds of it, the acrylic that they used to make the tank may have been to thin to support all that pressure from the water. The seams of an acrylic tank doesn't need to be rough because the sealant that's used bonds the acrylic sheets together. How long have you had the tank? It might still be under warranty. I'm glad to hear that you saved the ray. All the acrylic tanks I have seen that failed were from cracks in the acrylic sheets and not the seams.
Click to expand...

the reason I'm thinking that it shoudl be rough is because the acrylic should be bonded, so it shouldn't break cleanly, I mean these seams as almost as smooth as new acrylic. The acrylic is 1/2 thick like it should be. But it failed at the lower left corner, the side piece was bowed out, and the front missing. Could the acrylic not of been the cell cast and became water logged and caused the bowing? because I just went out and looked again, and even the top is bowed in.
 
I don't think it's the acrylic's fault, it might have been just bad bonding of the acrylic sheets when they built the tank. The tank shouldn't have been bowed that much since it's only 24" high. 1/2" think would be the minimum with a thicker top and bottom to prevent bowing. I'm thinking that the bonding of the WeldOn (acrylic sealant) is perhaps at fault from what you describe.
 
that is what I'm thinking too... also... there is a bead run around the seams... it is run kind of like silicon is run for glass... maybe that's all they did? the panels are warped a good inch to the inside. Tank was only 6 months old
 
Wht hit the tank???
 
Sounds like they were trying to reinforce the acrylic weld by adding that bead around the seams. I sure hope everything works out for you.
 
Sorry to hear about the mess. Hope after the shock wears off you reconsider getting rid of the MFK.

Best Luck,

Bear
 
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