what do you to absorb shock from vibrations?

[sepehr]

Hi,

I live near a train station and also on the second floor of an apartment. I recently had a leakage in my 90 gallon tank so I had to drain everything and move all the fish and the plants to a smaller tank. I sent the tank to be fixed by the people who made it. One of the guys said the leakage was probably due to all the vibrations that caused the silicon to slightly open up on one of the corners of the tank overtime coz the tank had been set up for almost 3 months until this happened.

So what Im planning to do is to buy an inch thick pink styrofoam from homedepo (previously I just used those cheap white variety that they use in boxes to wrap things) but I dont know what use underneath the stand just to make sure and also to compensate any slight gap and unevenness.
What material do you recommend for this purpose?

TIA

 

[tolawdjk]

What do you have the tank setting on? Depending on the severity of the train traffic and how it is transfered to your apartment, there may not be much to anything you can do. I think the pink foam will eventually reach a point of compaction due to teh weight of the tank/water that it won't offer much shock resistance. Eventually, it will just degrade and crumble.

My thought, depending on the foot print, you might see about finding some vibration isolation pads. Think 4"x4" hunks of Dr. Schol's foot inserts. http://sorbothane.com/standard_product_guide9.php

That's probably more than you were thinking of in terms of cost...not sure.

 

[Fishfiles1]

^ i agree you need something soft and long lasting like a rubber, its like a bow and arrow limb if it is felxable but strong it will work

 

[sepehr]

What do you have the tank setting on? Depending on the severity of the train traffic and how it is transfered to your apartment, there may not be much to anything you can do. I think the pink foam will eventually reach a point of compaction due to teh weight of the tank/water that it won't offer much shock resistance. Eventually, it will just degrade and crumble.

My thought, depending on the foot print, you might see about finding some vibration isolation pads. Think 4"x4" hunks of Dr. Schol's foot inserts. http://sorbothane.com/standard_product_guide9.php

That's probably more than you were thinking of in terms of cost...not sure.

I had the tank sitting on a wooden reinforced wooden dresser and I placed 1/2'' rubber (used in car window seals) all around the edges of the dresser to support the aquarium frames which are made from aluminium. I live on the 2nd floor and the floor is made from ceramic tiles. The train station is about 1000 feet away and the train passes by every 2 hrs or so. Actually the vibrations caused by the train are not so intense, one could notice the water surface slightly agitating. But then again, a 90 gallon tank with water in it weighs a lot and I dont know how much stress even the smallest vibration could cause on the aquarium joints. The starnge thing is that only the upper part of front right side joint started to leak.

By the way the tank dimensions are: 63'' lenght X 17.5'' width X 21.5'' height and its made from 9mm glass.

I told the guys to cut off 2 inches from the height to take some of the pressure off so its going to be 19.50 instead of 21.5 from now on.

Thanks for the input and I would also appreciate more of your replies.

PS: Thanks for the site you provided me with but I dont live in the States but we have Homedepo here. Do you reckon they would carry such materials? I was just there this morning but I was looking for the pink foam.

 

[sepehr]

^ i agree you need something soft and long lasting like a rubber, its like a bow and arrow limb if it is felxable but strong it will work

Something like yoga mats? I probably going to need several layers and thats going to cost me an arm and a leg :S

 

[mellowvision]

I'd really question whether 3 months of train vibrations would compromise properly cured silicone. I've lived next door to a 5 story building construction site, which shares a wall with my building, for the last 3 years, and no amount of jackhammering, pile driving, or hammer drilling has caused any of my tanks to leak. Not even when they demolished the old building.

 

[tolawdjk]

Yeah, hearing about your location/train, I've got to wonder if the train is causing it. Couple that with the fact that it was the "upper" side of the aquarium that had the leak.

My guess is it was just a bad seal to begin with.

 

[Chrisk-K]

If the train vibration had caused it, it would have also destroyed your apartment.

 

[sepehr]

I was surfing the net and I found that if a tank is more than 60 inches long and over 20 inches in height then a 12mm glass should be used and mine was only 9 mm. So I think the silicon couldn't support the pressure. Now I told the guy to trim 2 inches off the height and I'll also be leaving a 1.5 inch space from the water surface to top of the tank when I fill it up.

I also found a manufacturer that sells the kind of shock observing material that tolawjdk told me about. Tomorrow, I'll go there to get an estimate...hopefully it's within my budget.

 

[sepehr]

Yeah, hearing about your location/train, I've got to wonder if the train is causing it. Couple that with the fact that it was the "upper" side of the aquarium that had the leak.

My guess is it was just a bad seal to begin with.

You might be right about that but I have to take all the precautions necessary. Im going to trim off 2 inches from height of the tank, install either aluminium or glass panels on top of tank from back to the front side, and hopefully get some of that antivibration material you told me about.

I dont wish this on anyone...It's very dissapointing, after spending all that time and effort to get this tank going. But I can't be nagging that much about it either. I lost a few neons, ottos from the stress they went through and I know I'll probably lose some of my plants as well since theyre going to be without any substrate, CO2, and enough light for almost a week. Thanks god all the equipment is in tact!