How long do tanks last?

Potentially forever. I have one 50 which was built in the late 1950s and has never been out of use, another 30-long from the original runs of all glass construction from Metaframe, also still in constant use. When I get rid of a tank it is normally because the glass has gotten bad scratches or too many small scratches which annoy me. The majority of my >two dozen tanks are 15-25 years old.

But all my tanks are on engineered stands (whether commercial or DIY), and are dead level and not abused - other than my occasional scratching the glass. Two tanks have failed catastrophically in my almost 50 years of tank-keeping: an intoxicated guest managed to put the seven ball from the pool table through a 33XL, and I kicked in the long panel of a 20-long sitting on the floor. I have had a few - perhaps three or four - tanks which developed slow leaks or seeps from corner seams after years of use. Those were either repaired or replaced.

The problem with pool tables

If you have had a pool table in a room with fish tanks for all those 30 years and have had only one catastrophy, I would consider you lucky.

My high school had 30+ pool tables in the basement (largest pool hall in the state - it was great!). Balls flew off the table frequently (hourly), but maybe because we were all trying to perfect our jump shots.

Originally posted by RTR
an intoxicated guest managed to put the seven ball from the pool table through a 33XL

Click to expand...

Did he call his shot?

All of my tanks date back to the 80's and many of them sat without water for years before I got back into keeping fish this past year. They are all still fine and have no leaks.

To beat that, one of my customs (that I eventually gave to a friend due to lack of space) was made out of windowpanes from a hotel built in 1929, with the glass being reassigned in the early 1990's... I don't think glass ever "goes bad"... the silicone might start to degrade, but that can be replaced and it takes literally YEARS for a well-constructed tank to weather that badly.

Actually glass can go bad. Depending on how well it was made, water can actually leech out what ever was used as a flux in the glass leading to crazing and small fractures. This is mostly a problem on glass shelves as they face pressure on very small areas. But I assume that eventually tanks could go through the same thing as they are under pressure. Of course with tempered glass and the quality of glass that is made these days I doubt it will be a problem. Just keep your eyes open for crazing (a whole lot of small scratches).

None of my tanks are tempered glass. I do not care for the engineering of that in tanks. The only glass I've ever seen stress craze has been tempered. One of our floor-to-ceiling fixed windows had the inner pane go in that manner while the house was still new.

The tanks are not that close to the table. And this arrangement has only been 17+ years that we've been in this house - the tank room is adjacent to the pool room, with tanks visible through a false wall between the two. And no, he did not call his shot or he might have had the wrong end of a cue upside his head.

Only the cue?

I didn't figure that you would have a pool table that close to the tanks...I can see where drinking would obviously come into play to get a 7-ball across a couple of rooms...I can't imagine a sober person even coming close to doing that!