Background:
On Febuary 3rd of this year a very good friend gave me a 135G show tank. It had been his father-in-law's tank for approx 5 years. The tank had no visible flaws. It had been full for all 5 years EXCEPT for the 2 months before I picked it up. In those 2 months in had been sitting on it's stand outside, under a car port. It was stored completely empty. 3 friends and I gingerly carried it out to a full size pick-up and set in on 5 2X4s that were covered with furniture covers. I got it home and unloaded with no problems and set about building a stand made out of 4X4s. There were a total of 8 4X4 legs supporting it along it's 6 foot length. The top was made of 2 marine grade sheets of 3/4" plywood that I had had planed flat. There was a 2X4 frame under the plywood and over the legs to distribute the weight evenly. The tank was mounted and filled to make sure everything was level and plumb, then drained and removed. The stand was placed in my living room and the tank was set on it and play sand was used for a substrate. Water was slowly added and it was again checked for plumb and level at the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full levels. I let it sit for 2 days and checked again, still ok. Drained the tank down to about 1/3 and added 2 Rena Xp3 filters, numerous plants, 4 36" CF lighting units, glass covers I had cut and hinged at a glass shop, pressurized CO2, 2 300W heaters, etc. A fishless cycle was started on Feb 13th. Fish were added on Feb 20th. All was well.....
The Crash:
Last Sunday, April 3rd, I was tidying up my bedroom and heard what I thought was a strange "Pop" noise. I had time to think "that was a weird-" when all hell broke loose with much crashing and banging. Dashing out of the hallway my worst fears were realized. The enire front of the tank was on the ground in shards, fish, plants, sand, filters etc were scattered all over my carpet. Being really stupid ( or really compassionate, your call ) I dashed into the room and started scooping up my fish and dumping them into my 29g tall tank. I got everyone in the small tank, salvaged an Xp3 and hooked that up to the small tank to try and keep the huge bio-load from causing that tank to, well, TANK!
Clean-up:
It took 2 solid days of "wet-dry" vacuuming, carpet shampooing, much grinding of teeth and a trip to my doc and 4 stitches to have a 3/4" shard of glass removed from my right foot. So far the clean-up bill is approaching $3000. The carpet is "junk" according to a friend of mine who does "crime scene clean-up", I need to re-drywall and paint a section of my hallway and my favorite chair took quite a bit of sand and water damage. Most of my equipment died. Thank God I thought to bolt down my 20lb CO2 bottle. Trust me, I have seen a large compressed gas bottle blow the valve off when it fell over and it is just not pretty.....
Afterwards:
Just a little background. I am a Toyota Master Technician so I am smart enough to know what I don't know. I went to my favorite fish store and asked the owner what he thought. He said "Let me guess. The top brace in the middle went "pop", the front glass peeled off one whole side and shaterred the glass in the lower opposite corner.... Am I right?" I guess my jaw laying on his counter confirmed his theory. "Did the silicone on the upper brace inside the tank have a yellowish cast to it?" My jaw slid to the floor, next to my eyes. "Well I gotta say, I have seen that before a time or 2...."
It seems that some tanks (okay all I know is what happened to mine) if they are exposed to direct sunlight the UV can affect the silicone to the point that it will lose it's faint blue (??) tint and start to yellow and lose it's ability to "hold". For the sake of argument: 135g of water = approx 1350lbs leaning against a 3/8" sheet of glass, add a weak silicone bond at the center top brace and it is a disaster waiting to happen.... This is the supreme warning sign of impending doom. I assumed it was just an effect of the hard water we have here in AZ and the fact that that particular section of 3 plates of 3/8" glass sandwiched together forming the center brace, was not submerged at all times and just yellowed with age. I have contacted the folks at GE about the yellowing of pure silicone and got a nice reply saying that I would get an answer from an engineer in a few days. Doing my own research, the very pure silicone we use to seal our tanks is _NOT_ protected from "strong" UV radiation. It makes sense that if your house's window sealant is starting go off color, no big deal you peel out the old and recaulk it and go on your merry little way. Often not practical in an aquarium. Also, for algae prevention we are often warned to keep our aquariums out of direct sunlight.... I am probably missing something and I will leave it the folks here who know a lot more than I do to add whatever I have missed or just plain screwed up.
Bottom line:
For those of us "newbies" a warning: If ANYTHING looks a little worrysome, give an experienced aquarist a few bucks to come and inspect your setup. Buy 'em lunch, wash their car, massage their aching back, whatever it takes. NEVER assume that because it held water for 5 years it will continue to hold water for 5 days if something looks strange. I built an atomic bomb proof stand to keep this from happening and it was just something I rather blindly "blew off" that caused disaster.
All but 5 of my 60 small community fish made it. I now know what I did not know before and it sure was an expensive lesson....
I welcome your comments and critiques. I have very thick skin so flame away....
On Febuary 3rd of this year a very good friend gave me a 135G show tank. It had been his father-in-law's tank for approx 5 years. The tank had no visible flaws. It had been full for all 5 years EXCEPT for the 2 months before I picked it up. In those 2 months in had been sitting on it's stand outside, under a car port. It was stored completely empty. 3 friends and I gingerly carried it out to a full size pick-up and set in on 5 2X4s that were covered with furniture covers. I got it home and unloaded with no problems and set about building a stand made out of 4X4s. There were a total of 8 4X4 legs supporting it along it's 6 foot length. The top was made of 2 marine grade sheets of 3/4" plywood that I had had planed flat. There was a 2X4 frame under the plywood and over the legs to distribute the weight evenly. The tank was mounted and filled to make sure everything was level and plumb, then drained and removed. The stand was placed in my living room and the tank was set on it and play sand was used for a substrate. Water was slowly added and it was again checked for plumb and level at the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full levels. I let it sit for 2 days and checked again, still ok. Drained the tank down to about 1/3 and added 2 Rena Xp3 filters, numerous plants, 4 36" CF lighting units, glass covers I had cut and hinged at a glass shop, pressurized CO2, 2 300W heaters, etc. A fishless cycle was started on Feb 13th. Fish were added on Feb 20th. All was well.....
The Crash:
Last Sunday, April 3rd, I was tidying up my bedroom and heard what I thought was a strange "Pop" noise. I had time to think "that was a weird-" when all hell broke loose with much crashing and banging. Dashing out of the hallway my worst fears were realized. The enire front of the tank was on the ground in shards, fish, plants, sand, filters etc were scattered all over my carpet. Being really stupid ( or really compassionate, your call ) I dashed into the room and started scooping up my fish and dumping them into my 29g tall tank. I got everyone in the small tank, salvaged an Xp3 and hooked that up to the small tank to try and keep the huge bio-load from causing that tank to, well, TANK!
Clean-up:
It took 2 solid days of "wet-dry" vacuuming, carpet shampooing, much grinding of teeth and a trip to my doc and 4 stitches to have a 3/4" shard of glass removed from my right foot. So far the clean-up bill is approaching $3000. The carpet is "junk" according to a friend of mine who does "crime scene clean-up", I need to re-drywall and paint a section of my hallway and my favorite chair took quite a bit of sand and water damage. Most of my equipment died. Thank God I thought to bolt down my 20lb CO2 bottle. Trust me, I have seen a large compressed gas bottle blow the valve off when it fell over and it is just not pretty.....
Afterwards:
Just a little background. I am a Toyota Master Technician so I am smart enough to know what I don't know. I went to my favorite fish store and asked the owner what he thought. He said "Let me guess. The top brace in the middle went "pop", the front glass peeled off one whole side and shaterred the glass in the lower opposite corner.... Am I right?" I guess my jaw laying on his counter confirmed his theory. "Did the silicone on the upper brace inside the tank have a yellowish cast to it?" My jaw slid to the floor, next to my eyes. "Well I gotta say, I have seen that before a time or 2...."
It seems that some tanks (okay all I know is what happened to mine) if they are exposed to direct sunlight the UV can affect the silicone to the point that it will lose it's faint blue (??) tint and start to yellow and lose it's ability to "hold". For the sake of argument: 135g of water = approx 1350lbs leaning against a 3/8" sheet of glass, add a weak silicone bond at the center top brace and it is a disaster waiting to happen.... This is the supreme warning sign of impending doom. I assumed it was just an effect of the hard water we have here in AZ and the fact that that particular section of 3 plates of 3/8" glass sandwiched together forming the center brace, was not submerged at all times and just yellowed with age. I have contacted the folks at GE about the yellowing of pure silicone and got a nice reply saying that I would get an answer from an engineer in a few days. Doing my own research, the very pure silicone we use to seal our tanks is _NOT_ protected from "strong" UV radiation. It makes sense that if your house's window sealant is starting go off color, no big deal you peel out the old and recaulk it and go on your merry little way. Often not practical in an aquarium. Also, for algae prevention we are often warned to keep our aquariums out of direct sunlight.... I am probably missing something and I will leave it the folks here who know a lot more than I do to add whatever I have missed or just plain screwed up.
Bottom line:
For those of us "newbies" a warning: If ANYTHING looks a little worrysome, give an experienced aquarist a few bucks to come and inspect your setup. Buy 'em lunch, wash their car, massage their aching back, whatever it takes. NEVER assume that because it held water for 5 years it will continue to hold water for 5 days if something looks strange. I built an atomic bomb proof stand to keep this from happening and it was just something I rather blindly "blew off" that caused disaster.
All but 5 of my 60 small community fish made it. I now know what I did not know before and it sure was an expensive lesson....
I welcome your comments and critiques. I have very thick skin so flame away....
