Guidance needed selecting a tank

[TonyNJ]

Greetings everyone. I'm new here and hoping I can get some guidance and clarifications on selecting a tank.

I had many fish tanks growing up, the last was about 25 years ago. I ran freshwater Guppies and Angels as well as brackish(African Cichlids). Now I'm planning to go saltwater with an eventual dabble in coral, so I'm building as a reef tank. Planning to stay simple with shrimp, crabs, some wrasses and damses. Filtration will be with a refugium/sump setup.

I decided I want about 120 Gallon (48" x 24" x 24") and was deciding on which tank to buy. I started reading many stories of random tank seal failures in that particular brand. This is not gonna fly as I could not recover from a tank failure in my family room. An associate of mine tells me that all of the commodity tanks are "basically junk" and if I don't want the risk of a tank failure, I need to get a custom tank. This doesn't make sense to me, as I've said, I've always had tanks growing up and never had a tank failure or knew anyone that did back then.

Are tank failures thank common? Do I really need to go custom to minimize a seal failure?

Thanks
-Tony

 

[MCooper]

Highly recommend Red Sea Reefer series!

 

[Brew12]

Greetings everyone. I'm new here and hoping I can get some guidance and clarifications on selecting a tank.

I had many fish tanks growing up, the last was about 25 years ago. I ran freshwater Guppies and Angels as well as brackish(African Cichlids). Now I'm planning to go saltwater with an eventual dabble in coral, so I'm building as a reef tank. Planning to stay simple with shrimp, crabs, some wrasses and damses. Filtration will be with a refugium/sump setup.

I decided I want about 120 Gallon (48" x 24" x 24") and was deciding on which tank to buy. I started reading many stories of random tank seal failures in that particular brand. This is not gonna fly as I could not recover from a tank failure in my family room. An associate of mine tells me that all of the commodity tanks are "basically junk" and if I don't want the risk of a tank failure, I need to get a custom tank. This doesn't make sense to me, as I've said, I've always had tanks growing up and never had a tank failure or knew anyone that did back then.

Are tank failures thank common? Do I really need to go custom to minimize a seal failure?

Thanks
-Tony

Something to keep in mind when you look into the big bulk brands is that they sell tens of thousands of aquariums every year. The vast majority of people who don't have a problem will never post anything as far as a review goes. People who have a leak or a complete blowout are much more likely to post a review. If a bulk supplier like Aqueon were ever to have a significant problem with leaks you would know. Even if the failure rate was as low as 1 per 1,000 you would see it on the news. Custom builders make take years before they build 1,000 tanks so their failure rates aren't really comparable.

That said, you get what you pay for. If you want better workmanship, higher quality glass, cleaner seams and better bracing I would say to go with a custom aquarium.

 

[tom reilly]

I have prob had 20 different tanks in my life. From Oceanic to $1 a gallon Petcotanks and have never had a tank fail.
Currently have 4 forties, one 90, and a 135.