Acrylic Sump Cracks Normal?

[bjbass]

I have a Marineland Model 4 sump and I have been using it for about 5 months now. I have noticed recently that a crack developed in the middle right at where the side meets the bottom piece and it has spidered a bit. I noticed a couple other places had cracks as well. Obviously I don't want to the cracks to start leaking. The acrylic is 3/16" thick.

Is this normal? Should I be concerned about this?

 

[bjbass]

Marineland said they will replace the sump because I didn't think this was normal. The problem is now I have to get the sump out of my AGA stand that I had to pull a board out to get it in when I first set the tank up. Now I can't get it out of the stand without completely taking down my tank!

 

[Ziggy953]

I would contact Marineland again and let them know what you have to do to remove the sump.

How large is your tank? Can you put a temporary brace in the stand somewhere off center to allow the sump to come out?

 

[cmor1701d]

If you mean the center board between the two front doors, that piece is non-structural. You can just bang it out and tap it back in later. That's what I did to get my sump in under my 125.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

So for this 125 stand

Those separator vertical pieces between the doors are non-structural?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

PS this is an old pic of a tank I maintain...before I cleaned it all up!!!

 

[bjbass]

Here are some pictures of the board that I want to remove.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

no pics showing up...

 

[Ziggy953]

Try reposting so we can have look.

 

[bjbass]

Let me try this again.

 

[jsoong]

I would suspect that this is structural. It all depends on how the stand is designed. If that cross beam is wide enough, it can support the tank without a center support. OTOH, when I designed my stand, I factored in that center support & reduced the beam size (for looks.)

If I were you, I would drain out half or more of the water, then knock out the center piece to remove the sump. Reducing the weight of the tank would allow for safe removal of the support should the beam be undersized.

 

[bjbass]

I would suspect that this is structural. It all depends on how the stand is designed. If that cross beam is wide enough, it can support the tank without a center support. OTOH, when I designed my stand, I factored in that center support & reduced the beam size (for looks.)

If I were you, I would drain out half or more of the water, then knock out the center piece to remove the sump. Reducing the weight of the tank would allow for safe removal of the support should the beam be undersized.

Ok, great. I am going to remove my fish temporarily and remove at least 75% of the water. Like you said, this will take it down to a few hundred pounds rather than thousand as it is now.

 

[severum mama]

Late to this thread as usual, but I just wanted to wish you the best of luck with your fix. Please keep us updated on how everything goes!

 

[bjbass]

Late to this thread as usual, but I just wanted to wish you the best of luck with your fix. Please keep us updated on how everything goes!

Thanks so much for your vote of confidence and I will definitely keep you posted as you requested!

 

[Ziggy953]

I think jsoong has a point there. I would not pull those out with the tank full of water. I would drain the tank to about half as well and then do it as quickly and as safely as possible. You may even get some sag when they are out and have to jack the center up a bit to get the supports back in.