Don't get a glass shop to build your tank

[DrownedFishonFire]

My question is how big was this tank? Dimensions

 

[Madou]

My question is how big was this tank? Dimensions

They're in the OP.
Second paragraph.

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Uhh that's not a monster big tank I thought I misread it at first.

 

[Bluethousandand2]

Yeah, I'm so paranoid when it comes to big aquariums. The biggest one I'm willing to keep is a 150, as anything else just makes me unable to sleep at night. Keeping a 125 gave me a tough time sleeping because I had to reseal it. I'm always nervous about seals blowing out or glass giving out, especially since I keep all my tanks on the ground floor, which has hardwood.

 

[Drstrangelove]

From the dimensions, the glass thickness was too thin for that tank. It should have been 10 mm (safety factor of 3.5), instead it was 8 mm (safety factor of 2.2.)

That doesn't mean that there weren't also problems with the silicone, but it tends to suggest that the shop didn't really know what they were doing. The glass may have fractured, or the seal my have ruptured, and so forth.

Sucks to have a tank go that way. It was good that you saved some of the fish and that no one got hurt.

IMO, they should reimburse you for the $70. (I'm NOT an attorney.) In my state, when a business sells something, there's an implied warranty that it's fit for the intended purpose, and a shop can't claim that they aren't liable unless they specifically sell it "as-is." Other places might be different, of course.

 

[Lady Sphinx]

Did you add the middle support panels at the top of the tank as that is crucial the bigger the tank the more crucial it is to add those support panels otherwise the pressure of the water can literally push the glass sides apart. I have a friend that has done quite a few larger tanks and he made a mistake of not adding those to his first big tank and the tank didn't hold the water. Luckily he didn't add any fish yet as he only adds fish a week after setting up a new tank.

plus I agree with Drstrange love on the thickness of the glass 8 mm doesn't sound like it was thick enough glass I would rather have gone with 10 mm. I'm planning on building my own tank cause I can get glass at cost price and I don't wanna skimp on the tank as I'm going to put a bit more cash into it. I'm looking at a 10 foot tank and I really wanna make this one count.

 

[viejafish]

I hate to tell you that you have no one to blame but yourself to trust a glass shop to assemble your big tank. When you buy a big tank, you are buying a liability. Unless you place your big tank in a garage or unfinished basement where flooding doesn't matter, I won't trust a used big tank, DIY big tank, resealed big tank, or tanks not made by reputable manufacturer just to save some buck. Breaking a big tank in living area is not just losing fish, but can cause $$$ flood damage and potential injury.

There was a guy who posted here who was bragging about his DIY giant tank, only a few months later the tank blew up in front of his face.

I know another guy bought a 500 gal used tank, set it up all day and went to sleep, only to be waken up in the middle of night with a dam break. He cleaned up the mess all night and still had to go to work in the morning with no sleep.

I currently have a 125 and 75 in my first floor foyer and living room. They were bought new and made by Marineland. I had them for a decade with no issues. But I am still not totally at ease with and have occasional nightmare if one day they may leak due to age. But I don't want to hide them in the basement as show tanks to me are living art and ought to be appreciated in high traffic living area.

 

[viejafish]

My question is how big was this tank? Dimensions

It's an 80 gal tank, around 0.3 inch thick glass, 4 ft long, but not sure if it is a tall narrow tank or short wider tank which makes a difference in water pressure. $70 is cheap, but a failed tank with damage is penny wise, pound foolish.

 

[MarcN.]

I needed a replacement tank for my main display tank which had a crack in it, decided to get a custom made glass tank. It was bigger than any manufactured one that I can find, and I can have the exact measurements that I want.

So I go to a glass shop (you know the ones that make windows and glass doors and stuff) , I ask the worker if he even knows what I'm talking about before I ask him about the prices. He says that he knows and have built tanks before. So I give him the measurements(122cm*45cm*55cm), and he advised me to go for 8mm glass. I felt confident and went for it , and for only 70 bucks, why shouldn't I do it right?
After a couple of days I call him and he tells me it's ready. I drive to him and pick it up them went home. The silicone job was I little bit messy but no big deal.

I let it cure for a week before washing it with dettol, for I didn't know what kind of silicone did he use.
I rinsed it I couple of times to make sure there were no chemical residue left. Then I fill the tank half full and transfer my fish from the drum to their new tank. Every thing was fine, the silicone didn't appear to harm the fish, they looked happy in their new tank. So I decided to go shopping for fish to reward myself for all the hard work. I grabbed some rams to put in my discus tank, grabbed some rainbows, some larger angels, some Duboisi which I wanted for a long time, maybe some tetras I don't remember. I bought at least a hundred bucks worth of fish.(I'm talking in US dollars)

I go home, temp. acclimate, dump the fish in tank. At that time I decided to top the water a little bit, but still there was like 10cm (~4inch) left empty, and I left it like that.
All of that (me buying fish) was three days ago. Today morning I decided to do a water change on the discus tank and top off the new tank while I'm at it, and I did just that. Then I did some arranging and cleaning.
You know that feeling of accomplishment you get after you get some work done? I was feeling like that, and man it feels good! Also because I had other stuff done around the house. So I settle down for some nice breakfast, then I decided to take a nap after all the hard work.

At nearly 1pm, I woke up to my sister knocking my door yelling at me. I only heard "tank" "water" "basement". So I rush down to see what the hell is happening! And. The whole floor is flooded with glass pieces everywhere! Fish scattered all thoughout the floor, a fish in the living room a couple near the bathroom, one in the kitchen, even some went to the basement, It was a disaster. I quickly grabbed a bucket, scooped some water from the discus tank, and started picking up the terrified fishes. Gladly no one got hurt by that. I lost quite a few fishes but the majority survived to tell the story to their posterity.

I'm sorry I turned that into a novel, I hope somebody learned a thing or two, if not, I hope you enjoyed my , are you still reading?!, and thanks for taking time to read this. ; )

Feel yah, happened to me just now and it's a 50g made with 1/4" glass. I spent the whole night clearing the living room and finished just now

 

[FESHMAN]

So guys, I know I am a douche for not updating you guys on what happened. I contacted the shop a few days later after the disaster, they agreed on giving me a replacement. I just had to pay for the cost of the glass, which again was like 50 bucks, and it was 10mm. The tank is running from that day with no issues. I know I went retard for believing that a "window and door" glass shop is capable of building a large aquarium. But for that price I thought that it didn't really matter, but boy was I stupid!

Here it is now, I know it is a mess.