Neptune Aquatics

HELP!!! in RENO

Another Red Sea tank seal broken.

@Max Mangolin did a great job moving fish and corals to an empty tank he brought. Alas all fish died and probably all corals too. They were already stressing to 1.02 salinity and 60 degree or colder water.
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Any ideas on what is causing the seams to fail on these tanks? Are the seams really that fragile? I'm asking because I have a Red Sea Reefer 250, and wouldn't want my animals to go that way...
 
Yikes! What model was this and did it have a center support in the stand? From my understanding this was a problem with larger first gen red sea tanks like the 750.
 
It's the complete 750. Tank stand sump all by RedSea. Stand with center brace, separating the right side for electronics.

#BoycottRedSeaTanks
 
It's the complete 750. Tank stand sump all by RedSea. Stand with center brace, separating the right side for electronics.

#BoycottRedSeaTanks
How old was it? 1st gen or newer G2? The center brace is different from the wood divider for wet vs dry sides, it is a metal pole that supports midway in the wet compartment, was an add-on for the 1st gen systems.

I’m asking more details because my tank is one of the original 1st gen RSR 750’s. I was an early adopter, got them right when they came out before the seam failures started. I installed the center brace but have aways been a bit nervous still. If this big boy had a catastrophic seam failure on me I’d likely be out of the hobby, and maybe the house.
 
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How old was it? 1st gen or newer G2? The center brace is different from the wood divider for wet vs dry sides, it is a metal pole that supports midway in the wet compartment, was an add-on for the 1st gen systems.

I’m asking more details because my tank is one of the original 1st gen RSR 750’s. I was an early adopter, got them right when they came out before the seam failures started. I installed the center brace but have aways been a bit nervous still. If this big boy had a catastrophic seam failure on me I’d likely be out of the hobby, and maybe the house.
You may want to proactively do some extra bracing. It wouldn't be too difficult to add some 1/2" glass that was inset along each side that would provide some extra security with out detracting from the rimless look.
 
Imo red sea tank failures seem to be from poor bonding of the silicone to the glass.

A few observations I've made:

When a seam fails, it seems to always be a very clean break away of the silicone to the glass panel. After working with silicone and redoing a few seams, I've never been able to get the silicone to just peel cleanly away from either side glass. There is always some left that needs to be scraped away from the glass panel.

Some people have speculated that it's due to the "floating" front panel, but a proper silicone bond will easily support this and no extra downward force would be applied by adding water, just outward. (I'm pretty sure my 225 Lee Mar tank is a floating front pane)

Since the failures from what I've seen are clean peeling of the silicone from the glass panel, I have to conclude that it is a poor bond either from A) contamination (poor prep of the glass before applying silicone) or B) the silicone was able to start flashing before the 2 glass pieces were pressed together or C) low quality silicone/bad batch being used. If it were C, I'd be leaning more toward low quality with how many we've seen, as if it was a bad batch it would be isolated to only a certain number of tanks.

But as we all know there are plenty of RS tanks that have not failed I don't think it's an issue with the silicone itself (C) and is more likely due to poor assembly process in which A or B are the more likely culprit.
 
Also, they are all rimless tanks, which make me hurt when I think about the stresses on the glass without a eurobrace. A lot of the failures I have heard of (not all) are used tanks that get moved and likely not supported correctly during the move.
 
I was just watching a video on YouTube
that takes place in Japan. And Redsea braces all the tanks in that market. Skip to 16 minutes and 30 seconds to hear the explanation:
I guess it wouldn't be super difficult to add recessed braces like in the video. It kinda distracts from the rimless look, but safety should come first.
 
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