Tank Bowing

[jmeunier]

I have a 29G tall FW tank. About 10 months old.

Just this morning, I noticed that it was starting to slightly bow outwards at the top in the front. Appears to be about 1/4-3/8" of a bow in the center of the tank.

Should I be concerned that this tank is going to dump its water soon? It's on the 2nd floor of my house over an entertainment room--dumping of the water would NOT be pretty!

The tank is perfectly leveled front to back and side to side.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Jay

 

[Cafe Jeff]

You say it's perfecly leveled, but is the floor perfectly leveled. Since it's a 29, I am assuming there is no centre brace. Ought there to be one. Where is the bowing taking form the rest of the tank, the sides?
Jeff

 

[Rocket2001]

my 29 gal also bows slightly...its a bit unsettling but so far no problems

 

[jmeunier]

Well, the floor itself wasn't perfectly leveled, so I had to play around with the stand when I set it up. End result--the top of the stand where the tank actually sits is level.

There is no center brace, as there is on my bigger tanks...I would think there should be one there too....

As far as the bow is concerned, it looks like it's applying pressure to the top of the sides. It doesn't seem to be bowing from top to bottom--only at the top, and then it quickly drops off as you move down.

Maybe it's worth rigging up some kind of center brace for it? Don't know quite how I'd do that?

At this point, I'm wondering if the best thing to do is to change out the tank, BUT, I just don't want to have the same problem with another.....

 

[deeni0z]

If it's glass, it won't bow too much for it goes kaboom....

..and by kaboom i mean KABOOMBAMSPLASHBLAH!

 

[hashbaz]

My 29gal bows about a 1/4 in at the front top in the middle. Yours shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Menagerie]

I haven't noticed a bowing on my 29 and there is no center brace.

 

[Corty]

My 29 hasn't bowed either.. had it for about four years.

 

[jmeunier]

Well, I broke down, and broke down the tank as a result. Took it back to the LFS, and they were nice enough to discount me on another, even though the thing was 10 months old. Their words---"It shouldn't bow like that--since it's glass, any bowing could lead to trouble, and since it just happened, it would have probably let go fairly soon."

So, I now have 1 extemely overpopulated 55G tank, awaiting the imminent cycling of the 'new' 29G. We'll see how well my neon tetras get along with my cichlids.... :|

Jay

 

[BASSNMAN]

I just did a quick cycle when switching from a 50 gal to a 125. I used a biowheel filter from the 50 that had a good colony of bacteria. I also used some of the water from the 50. Since I was going to use a much smaller and lighter colored gravel, I put gravel from the 50 in a 1/2 gallon plastic container and put it in the 125 I have had very low ammonia and nitrite readings. You could use water and gravel in a container from your 55 to start the 29.