Cracked 150

[tama1phil]

Hello all,

I am looking for advice. I bought a used 150 tall which is 72"x18"x28.5". I had it broken down and resealed just in case there were any problems. I had forever pets do this. I built my own stand which was more than able to carry the load. I had it up and running on december 23 of 07. This week I noticed a huge crack on the left side going towards the middle. Luckily no water spilled and i was able to save everything. the tank was level from left to right. However it leaned to the back. The right leaned 1/16" and the left leaned 1/8" towards the back. also I only had a super thin sheet of foam between the stand and tank. Anybody have any ideas on what to do? Felipa says he thinks it was a defective tank or reseal. He says that the foam underneath should take care of the small amount of leaning towards the rear, but i dont want to have any issues. I am about to go and pick up my new tank but I wont install it till I have a good feeling of what went wrong. also the stand was on concrete not carpet.
Thanks for the help!

[captexas]

Well if you already have a new tank to replace the cracked one, just get some wood shims from Home Depot or Lowes and shim the stand before you put the new tank on it. It doesn't sound like you will need much to level the stand.

As far as the cracked tank, in my opinion without actually seeing the tank, it doesn't sound like your stand was that unlevel to cause a tank to crack like that. BUT, as your tank had been redone/resealed, it could have been possible. I'm not sure if they have improved in the quality of their work or not lately, but if you do a search you will find Forever Pets has a bad history when it comes to resealing tanks. There have been several complaints of cracked tanks and poor customer service after the fact.

[tama1phil]

Thanks for the info. I have heard from alot of people that they have a bad rap. Also I have gotten many people saying the same thing that 1/8" shouldnt have been a problem. Im just not sure. As mentioned a 1/16 and 1/8 dont seem like much to me especialy since i will be using 1/2 to 3/4 foam under the next one but I want to be able to sleep at night knowing my house wont be flooded with 150 gallons of saltwater!

[rocketeer]

I think that level is not as important as flat.

An out of level condition can change the pressures on the glass by only a little bit. A stand that is not flat will cause the tank to have to distort to conform to the stand causing strain on the glass. Did the crack start near a corner and propagate toward the center of a face? I think that's caused by twisting the tank some way. I made a scale model of my tank out of paper to demontrate this. Twisting causes two planes to put a shear on the third plane. Try it. I think a bowed base would cause a horizontal crack in the center of a face.

Also, 1/8 inch on one end and 1/16 non the other implies a twist. Check the top of the base with a six foot straight edge (not necessarily a level). I can let you borrow an 8 foot long 1 inch square aluminum extrusion that's pretty straight. PM me if you want.

I went through this. I'm on my third 240. The first was an obvious manufacturers defect. The second, I think I cracked with my base being twisted, maybe .03 inches (half of your 1/16 inch). I replaced the cracked panel and reworked the base and everything seems to be fine, so far. Yes I used 3/4 inch foam on each attempt.

Good luck,
Jack


Jack