Aquarium Leaks

ReefRxSWFL · Jul 29, 2021

Red Sea tank leaks have become common in the last 2 years. RedSea owners usually defend their tanks due to how much they spent on a Chinese built setup at the cost of a US made tank, unless its one of the folks who got a leaker, and had water damage in $600k home. Or unless you own a LFS and got tired of selling $2k+ failing tanks, and ticking off customers. I have 3 club members and 2 LFS who stopped carrying them. I know everyone loves their RedSea tanks, and you never had an issue with yours. You don't hear about the issue if you don't have it, because no one wants to hear “i told you so” when they pay $xxxx for a mass produced, imported point of sale.

Laustinthought · Jul 29, 2021

I converted my sister’s 72 gal bow front that she used for fresh water for about a decade into a reef tank. My dad had built a beautiful custom stand for her as well. A couple of years later, I woke up to a large puddle slowly spreading across my living room from a seam split. Of course, this was about a week after I had wrist surgery (and I live by myself)!
I figured out that the stand wasn’t perfectly flat all the way across. I could fit a few sheets of paper under the front and back of the tank and easily slide them back and forth, meaning all the pressure was on the left and right sides for all those years. I’m also on the 4th floor of a new (at the time) construction condo building, which had definitely been settling. So it was probably preventable, even though you’d never have know visually (and my dad swore he made sure it was flat and level, so it either changed over time or the difference was just so slight he couldn’t tell.)

I ended up breaking it all down (one-handed, mind you) into 18 gallon Roughneck bins (eventually losing over half my stock in the process), sanding, re-staining and re-varnishing the stand (again… one-handed), and buying an identical new tank (on sale, luckily!) to replace the damaged one. What a nightmare!

Come to think of it, it’s probably about time to re-check the stand to make sure it’s still flat and level!

MURedhawk · Jul 29, 2021

Also see discussion “Tank is leaking!” From 2019….

I had tank leak and briefly talk about my experience on response #68 from that stream discussion.

JPM San Diego · Jul 29, 2021

Reefnman2 said:
My 75 Gal. started leaking a few months ago right on the seam, gave it to my Fed-Ex driver for a new home for his sons turtle.

Thank you for reminding me. At least twice, maybe three times, I have given tanks away to reptile owners.
An old, about to leak tank, makes a good terrarium.

James_O · Jul 29, 2021

I have never had a tank leak before. I have had smaller tanks, so that may be the reason.

Wayner · Jul 29, 2021

ReefRxSWFL said:
Red Sea tank leaks have become common in the last 2 years. RedSea owners usually defend their tanks due to how much they spent on a Chinese built setup at the cost of a US made tank, unless its one of the folks who got a leaker, and had water damage in $600k home. Or unless you own a LFS and got tired of selling $2k+ failing tanks, and ticking off customers. I have 3 club members and 2 LFS who stopped carrying them. I know everyone loves their RedSea tanks, and you never had an issue with yours. You don't hear about the issue if you don't have it, because no one wants to hear “i told you so” when they pay $xxxx for a mass produced, imported point of sale.

Everytime I hear about a leak it’s a Red Sea Tank, they need to get their act together

joe0813 · Jul 29, 2021

Had a deep blue 75 reef ready leak on me from a seam about 8 years ago

Dburr1014 · Jul 30, 2021

I said preventable tank leak cuz in less than 1 year my 75 developed a crack in the bottom right corner of the front panel. I watched it grow from about 3/4" to about 1-1/4 over a couple months before I called the store where I bought the tank. They replaced it free of charge but what a pain. It was a factory defect for sure. I had to put all my livestock in the sump /spare tank. Pull out the tank and bring it to the store to get the new one. Then set it all up again.

iMi · Nov 5, 2021

ReefRxSWFL said:
Red Sea tank leaks have become common in the last 2 years. RedSea owners usually defend their tanks due to how much they spent on a Chinese built setup at the cost of a US made tank, unless its one of the folks who got a leaker, and had water damage in $600k home. Or unless you own a LFS and got tired of selling $2k+ failing tanks, and ticking off customers. I have 3 club members and 2 LFS who stopped carrying them. I know everyone loves their RedSea tanks, and you never had an issue with yours. You don't hear about the issue if you don't have it, because no one wants to hear “i told you so” when they pay $xxxx for a mass produced, imported point of sale.

I found the “Chinese“ built setup comment distasteful. You know what else is made in China? Volvos, iPhones and many other high quality products. Where the item is made has no bearing on its quality. How it’s made does.

As for the RedSea in particular, I believe they own the factory and have designed the product. They have 100% control over the production methods and quality assurance process. Plus, how do you know it’s the manufacturing method and not a design flaw that caused failures? What is their failure rate? Is it greater than the average for the industry?

iMi · Nov 5, 2021

I’ve never had a leak in 20 plus years and many tanks…

Lavey29 · Nov 5, 2021

JPM San Diego said:
Worst day ever....
My wife and I were all packed for our trip to Fiji. We were doing a few chores while waiting for our shuttle to the airport. That's when I noticed the leak about midway down one seam of our 40 gallon reef tank. Panic!
I quickly siphoned a little over half the tank into a clean trash can. I smeared silicone over the leaking seam and hung a hair dryer, dangling over the water, blowing on the silicone. NOT recommended for the faint of heart. I put a pump in the trash can with a hose leading back into the tank.
The sump was connected with an overflow box that required resetting the siphon after it was stopped.
Being a doctor with access to IV equipment I had attached a saline lock to the siphon tubes. I could use a syringe to suck out the air and start the siphon.
I ran to our 70 neighbor, who didn't have a clue about aquariums, and gave him my key, a crash course on checking when silicone was dry, advice to remove the hair dryer, and how to pump the water back into the tank.
Finally, I explained how to restart the siphon.
The shuttle bus arrived and with a prayer we headed out.
About 17 hours later I was able to call back to Long Beach from a remote Fijian island.
(This occurred long before cell phones)
My neighbor had manage to refill the tank, but break the saline locks off both siphon hoses.
With duct tape and instructions on how to fish air tubing up into a siphon tube to suck out the air, he managed to restart the system.
Fiji was great and the best day ever was returning home to find no casualties.

I hope somebody got an 18 pack

Lavey29 · Nov 5, 2021

Interesting responses, what is the best silicone adhesive to have on standby in case of a tank leak?

mdb_talon · Nov 5, 2021

I have had a couple leaks, but out of dozens of tanks between sw/freahwater over a few decades it is not so bad odds i think. Especially considering other than some 40b i have never used a tank that was anywhere close to being new.

Blumy · Nov 5, 2021

ReefRxSWFL said:
Red Sea tank leaks have become common in the last 2 years. RedSea owners usually defend their tanks due to how much they spent on a Chinese built setup at the cost of a US made tank, unless its one of the folks who got a leaker, and had water damage in $600k home. Or unless you own a LFS and got tired of selling $2k+ failing tanks, and ticking off customers. I have 3 club members and 2 LFS who stopped carrying them. I know everyone loves their RedSea tanks, and you never had an issue with yours. You don't hear about the issue if you don't have it, because no one wants to hear “i told you so” when they pay $xxxx for a mass produced, imported point of sale.

BS. Almost every post I have seen is a used tank that looks brand new. Someone obviously chiseled the coralline out of the corners hacking the seal in the process.

Lavey29 · Nov 5, 2021

An LFS told me a lot of leaks are caused by flow powerheads on the sides of the tank blasting crashing waves on the other side of the tank 24. 7?

Lavey29 · Nov 5, 2021

Blumy said:
BS. Almost every post I have seen is a used tank that looks brand new. Someone obviously chiseled the coralline out of the corners hacking the seal in the process.

If they sell 100k tanks annually I wonder what the leak failure rate is? .000001 % ?

ReefRxSWFL · Nov 6, 2021

Blumy said:
BS. Almost every post I have seen is a used tank that looks brand new. Someone obviously chiseled the coralline out of the corners hacking the seal in the process.

I didnt see posts. I saw in person. But guess im a liar. Agree to disagree. Enjoy the built in China tanks.

Lavey29 · Nov 6, 2021

ReefRxSWFL said:
I didnt see posts. I saw in person. But guess im a liar. Agree to disagree. Enjoy the built in China tanks.

Just curious, I would always prefer to spend my money on US manufacturing products so what is the best made US tank for home reefing?

ReefRxSWFL · Nov 6, 2021

iMi said:
I found the “Chinese“ built setup comment distasteful. You know what else is made in China? Volvos, iPhones and many other high quality products. Where the item is made has no bearing on its quality. How it’s made does.

As for the RedSea in particular, I believe they own the factory and have designed the product. They have 100% control over the production methods and quality assurance process. Plus, how do you know it’s the manufacturing method and not a design flaw that caused failures? What is their failure rate? Is it greater than the average for the industry?

Living in America, i can say what i want, and you are free to find it distasteful. The poor people building those tanks, Volvos and iPhones dont have that privilege. So keep supporting those oppressors just so you can get your stuff.