Glasscages.com Quality

I use to be a fan of Glasscages. I owned 2 tanks made by them.
The last tank I bought was my 240 gallon tank.
Things went great for 8 years. Then one morning I noticed a little water on my stand next to the tank.
After looking all around the front edge I found a tiny leak in the bottom seam.
Turns out to be not the bargain I'd hoped for.

As soon as I saw it leaking, I made arrangements to have another tank made by a local tank builder, Oceans By Design.
I know that this tank was toast, and tried to sell it as a reptile tank or anything but a tank for holding water.
But some people who knew me, convinced a lady who lived close by that it could be repaired.
I told her that unless the tank was completely dismantled and rebuilt from scratch that it would fail again.
But she listened to others and tried to reseal it.
6 months later I got a call from her early one Sunday morning. The leak had opened up again, only instead of a drop every couple seconds like it was for me, it had a 6" wide split in the bottom seam and was pouring out about a gallon a minute.
 
I use to be a fan of Glasscages. I owned 2 tanks made by them.
The last tank I bought was my 240 gallon tank.
Things went great for 8 years. Then one morning I noticed a little water on my stand next to the tank.
After looking all around the front edge I found a tiny leak in the bottom seam.
Turns out to be not the bargain I'd hoped for.

As soon as I saw it leaking, I made arrangements to have another tank made by a local tank builder, Oceans By Design.
I know that this tank was toast, and tried to sell it as a reptile tank or anything but a tank for holding water.
But some people who knew me, convinced a lady who lived close by that it could be repaired.
I told her that unless the tank was completely dismantled and rebuilt from scratch that it would fail again.
But she listened to others and tried to reseal it.
6 months later I got a call from her early one Sunday morning. The leak had opened up again, only instead of a drop every couple seconds like it was for me, it had a 6" wide split in the bottom seam and was pouring out about a gallon a minute.

Do you know of any aquarium makers in souther california?
 
I have a tank from them (secondhand) that has had no issues at all over about 6 years. I have heard very little bad about their quality, but even the best manufacturers are going to have some issues.
 
I have a tank from them (secondhand) that has had no issues at all over about 6 years. I have heard very little bad about their quality, but even the best manufacturers are going to have some issues.

Yeah, but Glasscages has been known for more than just a few issues.

Even when I got mine all shiny and new, it was dirty inside and out. Had sharpie markings all over. Sloppy silicone work. I figured at the time I could do a little work and clean it up myself and save some bucks. Actually it was $700-$800 cheaper than the next bid. But part of the bid was shipping too. My shipping costs were discounted because they had a delivery truck making a west coast tour.
It was at best a budget tank.

There were more than just a few people that had problems with them through the 90's.
But I thought because I had previously owned one for a few years I knew better.
ha ha.

Do a search on reef central. That's where the problems have been documented.
 
I have a GlassCages tank that I bought in 2014 (you can check out my build thread of you would like to see the tank)

Before I decided to get the tank I did a lot of research online and most of the bad reviews I came across were very old with only a few from around 2008. I would say that 90% of the complains were about sloppy silicone. I spent about 3 weeks online researching their tanks and the horror stories that are out there and since most of what I found was old and mostly about sloppy silicone I decided to pull the trigger.

My tank arrived in excellent shape and was very clean with no marks or scratches and the silicone work was perfect IMO. The only place it was a bit sloppy was in the top and bottom braces which in my case are covered by sand and a canopy so I didn't really care and to tell you the truth they weren't that sloppy, they were just not as nice as the seams on the edges which are the ones I see everyday.

They can make the tank in just a few days and have it out of the door pretty quick. I opted not to rush so I ordered my tank, it was built in a week and sat in their warehouse for 3 weeks. This allowed the silicone to fully dry and cure before it got loaded into a trailer and hauled for hundred or thousands of miles.

Till this day I'm happy with the tank and I can't say for sure if it will fail one day or not but every tank can fail. The tank has been setup for a little over a year so only time will tell. Remember nobody goes online to say they have a tank that has not leaked for 10 years, but when something bad happens that gets reported immediately.
 
I have a 310 gallon and a 125 gallon from glasscages that are holding water without any problem for over 3 years now. I did not think the work was sloppy and do not have any complain.
 
I said exactly what people are saying here that are happy with their glasscages tank.
I said it over and over on threads exactly like this one.
I was very happy with it for 8 years.

So was the money I saved over the 8 years worth it?
No.

I was fortunate that it started out as a small leak and I had time to get another tank.
Plus I was very lucky that a local tank builder had opened up just a year before.


If you do decide to get a glasscages tank, I hope you have better luck than I did, and many others.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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