Red Sea Tank Failures...

[Bob Weigant]

I have a RS S500 and I grabbed it used. Not sure how long the previous owner had it running but Im coming up on a year. So far zero problems and if something were to happen at least its in the garage so there wont be any house damage

 

[ti_lavender]

Looking to see if anyone has any insight here. I got a used RS peninsula 500 tank, stand, sump, and plumbing. Everything seems in good condition just needs a good cleaning to remove calcium and critter build up. My concern is the stand. I’ve read the posts on this thread about seam failures and I’m concerned the stand has a significant part in the failure. The stand feels too much like an ikea bookshelf. Has anyone reinforced their existing p500 stand? If so, how?

Or is it worth it for the piece of mind to get an aluminum stand made? Or should I resell and get a different brand?

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

im a big fan of plywood stands using double or triple layers of plywood.

not sure what red sea brand uses but have seen some commercially built stands that cant even get wet what kind of sense is that? aluminum is going to cost the most ,unless way overbuilt will eventually sag, i would say its better for a light fixture than a stand, if you want metal just use some steel angle iron.

 

[mach1mike]

Wonder what kinda of damage was done to your subfloor

There wasn't any damage to the floor, thankfully - under the wood was a thin later of underlayment that was taped together over a concrete slab. The only reason the wood wasn't ruined is because I was standing right there when it happened. I'll say, it took every type of towel including washcloths in my house, every sheet, blanket and half my clothes in my closet to soak the water up. I was literally taking blankets off the beds. I had soaked laundry all over my front and back yard. But, was able to get all of the water up quickly. The leak happened at midnight but the next morning I rented a heavy duty dehumidifier from Home Depot for a day and was able to get the little that made it underneath the wood... that much laundry, and that heavy of loads burnt my washing machine up, but that's way cheaper than a new floor at least. But yeah, almost any other scenario the floor would have been toast, and surprised it wasn't anyway.

 

[NjMikeD83]

I regret not eurobracinf my 750xxl.

 

[FUNGI]

My used XL125 stand made in one afternoon, less then 100 dollars

 

[dyno]

 

[MTLReefer]

Hi Everyone, well my Reefer 425 failed last week. The silicone at the bottom of the front pane let go, and all the water gushed out at high pressure in under 10 minutes. Thankfully I was home so I was able to deal with this emergency situation as best I could. I was able to save most of the fish, but lost thousands of dollars of corals. If I hadn't been home when this happened, property damage would have been significant. Here are the answer to the initial questions in the very first post:

My tank is 3.5 years old and I bought it new. It is level and I never went anywhere near the silicone with a scrapper. As mentioned, there was a breach in the silicone at the front, bottom center of my tank.

It was bought form a retailer and very carefully installed as soon as I received it. It was handled gently at all times.

The cause of the failure IMO was a defect in design and/or fabrication (Red Sea did not offer any explanations). There are many reported cases of similar situations at this point, indicating a somewhat generalized problem with RS reefer tanks IMO.

Yes I did reach out to RS. They offered me a $1000 rebate on the same tank, which I politely declined. They did not offer any explanation as to why there would be such a massive failure after only 3 years +, but did have this to say about their newer versions, which kind of implies that there were some detectable issues with my previous version of the 425:

''There have been many improvements to the new G2+ models including thicker glass, additional seam protectors, and a stronger cabinet.''

I will never again purchase anything from RS, I never want to have to deal with a similar situation and I find it quite troubling how casual they are about what IMO is a major issue with their products.

again.

 

[brandon429]

I wish I knew what the collective damage amount was for consumers from red sea tank splits, in 2023 alone. I bet if that was ever quantified, some action might get taken.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Now included in all RS kits

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I wish I knew what the collective damage amount was for consumers from red sea tank splits, in 2023 alone. I bet if that was ever quantified, some action might get taken.

I'm REALLY suprised a class action hasn't happened yet.

 

[brandon429]

if 2024 stays the same pace I'll be shocked at the delay

 

[Salty_Northerner]

You know back in January when I got back into the hobby I was searching AIO aquariums Canada and most of the shops were out of stock. I however found waterbox Canada so I ordered from them. I was going to buy the RS because lower price but glad I didn't get a RS. Maybe it was good timing on my behalf but you know what really scares me? All the stock that's out there that some poor individual is going to buy and be saddened by the purchase.

BRS had a video out a week or so ago and he spoke about one of his big Red Sea builds that due to technical issues he had to use another Aquarium. I kind of posted something in line of (another Red Sea seam bust out) Ryan from BRS commented saying the tank was 3 years old and Red Sea told him to keep an eye open for any pieces of sand getting in between the silicone and glass.

The guy above that posted the video with the white bucket catching the water coming out of his front seam.. I don't think I could even see a single grain of sand in the video.

It's really sad and disheartening knowing that this is a person's passion and to have the aquarium take a leak just blows my mind. And for Red Sea to just offer $1,000? That's kind of a joke!

 

[MTLReefer]

Hi Everyone, well my Reefer 425 failed last week. The silicone at the bottom of the front pane let go, and all the water gushed out at high pressure in under 10 minutes. Thankfully I was home so I was able to deal with this emergency situation as best I could. I was able to save most of the fish, but lost thousands of dollars of corals. If I hadn't been home when this happened, property damage would have been significant. Here are the answers to the initial questions in the very first post:

My tank is 3.5 years old and I bought it new. It is level and I never went anywhere near the silicone with a scrapper. As mentioned, there was a breach in the silicone at the front, bottom center of my tank.

It was bought form a retailer and very carefully installed as soon as I received it. It was handled gently at all times.

The cause of the failure was a defect in design and/or fabrication. There are many reported cases of similar situations at this point, indicating a somewhat generalized problem with RS reefer tanks IMO.

You know back in January when I got back into the hobby I was searching AIO aquariums Canada and most of the shops were out of stock. I however found waterbox Canada so I ordered from them. I was going to buy the RS because lower price but glad I didn't get a RS. Maybe it was good timing on my behalf but you know what really scares me? All the stock that's out there that some poor individual is going to buy and be saddened by the purchase.

BRS had a video out a week or so ago and he spoke about one of his big Red Sea builds that due to technical issues he had to use another Aquarium. I kind of posted something in line of (another Red Sea seam bust out) Ryan from BRS commented saying the tank was 3 years old and Red Sea told him to keep an eye open for any pieces of sand getting in between the silicone and glass.

The guy above that posted the video with the white bucket catching the water coming out of his front seam.. I don't think I could even see a single grain of sand in the video.

It's really sad and disheartening knowing that this is a person's passion and to have the aquarium take a leak just blows my mind. And for Red Sea to just offer $1,000? That's kind of a joke!

No there was no sand, nor did I ever do anything to compromise the integrity of the silicone in any way. RS did not actually offer me $1000, they offered me a $1000 rebate if I purchased another RS Reefer 425 at full price.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Hi Everyone, well my Reefer 425 failed last week. The silicone at the bottom of the front pane let go, and all the water gushed out at high pressure in under 10 minutes. Thankfully I was home so I was able to deal with this emergency situation as best I could. I was able to save most of the fish, but lost thousands of dollars of corals. If I hadn't been home when this happened, property damage would have been significant. Here are the answers to the initial questions in the very first post:

My tank is 3.5 years old and I bought it new. It is level and I never went anywhere near the silicone with a scrapper. As mentioned, there was a breach in the silicone at the front, bottom center of my tank.

It was bought form a retailer and very carefully installed as soon as I received it. It was handled gently at all times.

The cause of the failure was a defect in design and/or fabrication. There are many reported cases of similar situations at this point, indicating a somewhat generalized problem with RS reefer tanks IMO.

No there was no sand, nor did I ever do anything to compromise the integrity of the silicone in any way. RS did not actually offer me $1000, they offered me a $1000 rebate if I purchased another RS Reefer 425 at full price.

Yes I understand about the rebate, it still sucks for sure and they should've in GOOD FAITH replaced the tank.

I guess they're blind to R2R and all the social media presenting all their flawed tanks... I guess they don't really care about the online presence and word of mouth.. It'll bite them in the ButT one of these days.

Anyways I was/am sorry to hear about your issue, and hope you can get settled into a new tank.

 

[droblack]

Wow. All of these posts and other threads have convinced me to not go with Red Sea. All the beautiful creatures, time, effort, money, and passion that gets put into our tanks, and to have it all just spill on the floor makes no sense. Very sorry for everyone's losses and troubles, but thankful for the sharing of experiences.

 

[1ocean]

Sorry to hear...Thats why I am scared of all these glass tanks with no corner frames like years ago,,,yep they ugly but less chance to split...

 

[jcdeng]

My elos held up 10 years no issue, it was because I had to move that I sold the elos (set up new tank, aquaforest oceanguard, at new place first, moved fish and corals over).

I know what my next tank will be, either an elos or acrylic, nothing beats peace of mind.

 

[MoparMike97]

Nevermind the fact that you potentially lost thousands in livestock and thousands more if your flooring was damaged, "here's a coupon for a replacement tank that's identical to the one that just failed" is a slap in the face. I feel terrible for anyone who had to go through one of those failures.

As much as I love the look of rimless tanks, I'll be sticking with my old school, plastic braced Marineland. 25 years old and the seams still look absolutely perfect

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Back in my day we'd just cut the silicone out except between the glass and re-silicon the tank and never had an issue. I had a 48-24-27 and it had a suspended bottom. Weird design but never had any issues with all the water and live rock sitting in there. It would always make me Leary about the bottom dropping out but after having it set up for over 5 years it never moved.

As I mentioned I was looking for an AIO in my above post. If I ended up with the RS I'd have cut the silicone out and re calked it myself for piece of mind.