New tank catastrophe :(

[islandguy11]

Lmao. We always need another bbxb and 325. Or in my case, 4-6 more rays and 3-4 more 500g + tanks. Lol

Ha ha, glad to be reminded I'm not alone in my aqua-insanity Matt.

Nope, worst fears if a completely filled 325 tank and finding out it's cracked and no back-up tank whatsoever ; - )

Very true DN328, clearly a back-up tank in some form or another is essential to have. I had just broken down this 4 footer; after this I'll probably keep it running.

Joking aside, it sounded like the best possible outcome given the situation for Islandguy and his aro.

Whoa!!!
Lucky you were at home when that happened, bless the tiles floors, just mop and wipe and you're good to go.

I faced a similar issue, after I got the flat re-tiled and a few renovations, moved the tanks back in, was tired after all the moving in, woke up next morning and I see the tank is crystal clear and the aurantimaculata just sitting on the gravel, I am like how did the water clear up just overnight, and then it hit me, luckily had a spare tank, and repaired the tank the same evening.

Lucky indeed headbanger_jib, if I were on a business trip things would have been way, way more complicated. I'm now going to set up some 'Emergency Response Procedures' for my daughter and staff to follow with help of LFS should similar ever occur while I'm away in future.

I'm also adding water alarms to the floor on both sides of my bigger tanks now (previously I only had them in the tubs holding canisters/UV sterilizers).

Btw, did you determine what the cause of your leak was?

Could've been worse and seems like you handled the situation well, kudos for that!

Thanks midasman714 (ha ha 714 brings back good memories for me; went to university in OC).

 

[islandguy11]

While I'm sure she's missing her bigger tank, Thunder is doing fine in the 4 footer for now, demeanor and appetite are great as usual.

 

[headbanger_jib]

Btw, did you determine what the cause of your leak was?

Yup, the new tile floor was not properly levelled, and my idea of 2 sheets of 1/2" foam and 3/4" plywood wasn't sufficient to counter the uneven tiled floor, cracked base glass.

Built a new stand to place the tank.

 

[RD.]

Hey Barrett, sorry to read about this, but yes, could have been a LOT worse. IMHO the crack was caused from torsional twist or pressure - stress running corner to corner. X So either a leveling issue, or possibly what you suspected as an issue, how the glass was fitted when constructed.

 

[islandguy11]

Visited the fish shop today and asked the staff if they'd found the cause of the tank mishap, and their response was that it was a problem with the stand (from what I could understand with my not so good Thai is that it wasn't completely level). So they're now making a new tank and a new stand, gonna be about 10-12 more days.

Unfortunately as some fallout, my Blue Base has suddenly stopped eating pellets -- I think as revenge for my 'taking' her tank away. She came pellet trained from the Malaysian farm (Sianlon, as most all of their Aros are, they have their own brand of good quality Aro food), and she has happily eaten them over the past 2 months as 50% of her diet. But yesterday she just stopped and either spits them out or just ignores them (but still eagerly eats eats any frozen shrimp or white fish). But I'm not playing that game...either she eats what I give her or she goes hungry, simple as that.

 

[RD.]

A tank can be off level sloping side to side, or front to back/back to front, but if it is not level from corner to corner X, it will cause a stress crack from the torsional twist. Sounds like that's what happened, and I have seen this a number of times over the years. So glad to hear that they are standing by their work! Good luck with the pellet training, Asian aros can be so damn stubborn. lol

 

[islandguy11]

Update: Last week my LFS brought in a newly made and better reinforced stand. Next day they brought the new tank (which they also increased the size of the bracing from 2" to 3" on bottom and 3" to 4" on top.

However after putting the tank onto the stand they said they weren't happy with something about the tank so said they'd make yet another new one and bring it a few days later.

I had to go on a business trip then, but they returned while I was away and swapped out the stands, then did some leveling with shims and finally filled the tank to about 25%. Apparently they were happy with that and left.

After returning yesterday I've just checked the tank myself and am pretty scared about the results (figures below represent level of water measured at that point of the tank from the bottom):

So it's lower from right to left and also from front to back -- correct a non-engineering type if I'm wrong but that's seems like a recipe for another torque/twisting crack, please weigh in with your more knowledgeable input.

 

[islandguy11]

Also if I try to re-do the leveling myself, would it be ok just to raise the entire back side .3 cm or would you recommend to also correct the .8 cm right to left slope? Not being so great at math I'm not sure if I can properly work out the numbers if need to correct both at the same time.

 

[Galantspeedz]

my porch is not level as it was designed to let water flow out when raining... my tank is there and the difference between right and left is about 1 inch... the tank is a 2nd hand tank.... been using it for 2yrs+.... so far so good

hope it helps

 

[islandguy11]

my porch is not level as it was designed to let water flow out when raining... my tank is there and the difference between right and left is about 1 inch... the tank is a 2nd hand tank.... been using it for 2yrs+.... so far so good

hope it helps

Appreciate your reply Galantspeedz -- from right to left difference can be acceptable, but is there any front to back or corner to corner difference in your tank? -- as per RD's post above these are the killers but I'm not sure if my measured differences exceed the acceptable threshold or not.