Tank Exploded! Ka-BOOM!

[Cartagena]

I just bought a new fish tank. The guy at the pet store made it out of 8mm glass. It was 120 centimeters from left to right, 80 centimeters from top to bottom, and 40 centimeters from front to back.

I filled it up, put in the rocks, plastic plants, air tubes and filters. I then went to have lunch. As I sat in the kitchen I heard a very loud crash. It did not just crack and leak. It actually sent pieces of glass 15 feet away. I am happy no one was standing beside it or they could have been seriously injured.

My question is, could these dimensions been a bad combination? The guy is going to make another one, and I am thinking of making it shorter. Or was this just defective glass? Any comments on what might have caused this are welcome. I do not know a whole lot about these things, and I think this could have been very dangerous.

 

[WaterPond]

omg! im so sorry, that is just crazy. I don't know much structural integrity of glass, sorry

 

[ezy33]

How was the tank supported?

 

[rich311k]

Thats not that odd a size why not just buy a name brand one?

 

[martin_j001]

Wow, sorry to hear about the tank!

 

[Cartagena]

The tank was sitting on the table that is in the photo on the left. It is made of concrete blocks and cement. I just had it made to support the tank and it is very strong. The bottom of the table uses steel rod that goes directly into the concrete foundation of the house. So there is no way the table moved to cause it to fall. There is about an inch of styrofoam on top of the table where the tank was sitting.

 

[ezy33]

The reason I asked is that I have seen tanks supported at each end with nothing under the middle. With the styrofoam, you should have had no problem, if The bottom was tempered glass.

 

[Cartagena]

Thats not that odd a size why not just buy a name brand one?

I live in South America and there are few brand name aquariums at the local pet store. The only ones I have seen are from China and VERY expensive and not the size that I want.

 

[fish_4_all]

You said there is foam on top so I am wondering if there might be a "give" point in the foam that allowed the tank shift weight to the front. Also, like someone else stated, you do not want anything to touch the bottom pane of glass for the tank. This can cause catastrophic failure like what you saw. Make sure when you put the new one on there that the tank doesn't push into the foam at all and make contact with the bottom of the tank. If it does I would replace the foam with plywood or something so that there is no give where the tank sits.

That had to be some kind of shock to find and hear.

 

[Cartagena]

Hi, I am not sure I understand this sentence:

Make sure when you put the new one on there that the tank doesn't push into the foam at all and make contact with the bottom of the tank

The top of the table has a one inch piece of foam that covers the entire table. The tank was sitting balanced on the foam. I just looked at the foam now and it is sturdy. It was a brand new piece I bought at the store. There are actually two pieces side by side since one was not long enough. Nothing else touches the bottom of the tank. Is this correct?

When I heard the smashing my reaction was "ooooh sh1t!" as I had just spent all day setting it up. However, I was really more concerned about someone getting hurt. If you look at the second photo there is an small table that you can see is completely smashed. There is another exact table to the left of the white chair so the "before" and "after" appearance can be seen. If the tank was able to destroy that table it easily could have seriously injured someone especially with all the pieces of glass. I am having second thoughts now on replacing it since I do not want to kill anyone.

 

[papa_bear_21]

I think they were trying to say that nothing should be touching the bottom glass, not even foam...

 

[fish_4_all]

Ok, just to make sure that the foam can support the tank try this: Take a piece of wood and sit on it on top of the stand. If the foam deforms at all then I would not put another tank on top of it before replacing the foam. If it doesn't then I am at a loss why it would fall. The reason I think the whole tank fell and broke on the way down is the damage done to the table. If it broke before falling I doubt it would have broke the table on the way down.

Since you mentioned the damage to the table that rules out, in my opinion, that the tank failed on the stand. I think the whole thing fell off in tact because the foam deformed. I could be wrong but it is the only thing that makes sense if the stand itself could not have moved.

 

[ezy33]

Why I asked about the support, in your first photo, at the bottom, it looks like a second set of legs.

 

[Cartagena]

I am a little confused here. The entire bottom of the tank is made of glass. So if the bottom glass cannot touch the foam, then what goes between the bottom of the tank and the table?

fish_4_all -You make a very interesting point about the whole tank falling off the stand that I had not considered. However, I looked at the photos again and pieces of the tank as well as rocks are still sitting on top of the foam on the table. If it had slid off then there should be nothing on the table? There is also glass behind the table had to have fallen from above. I have no idea really if it slid off and then broke or exploded while on the table. This is becoming very strange.

I examined the foam as suggested and it is not losing it's form. It is actually very sturdy.

 

[sweetness8t5]

I'm really sorry to hear this.. must suck cleaning all that mess up and spending that money for a disappointment.
I really can't help at all, but I had to comment... and I don't want to make you mad, but I thought the title of this post was funny("Ka-Boom").
OK, I'm done here.. like I said, don't mean to piss you off or anything. :/

 

[Cartagena]

Why I asked about the support, in your first photo, at the bottom, it looks like a second set of legs.

The thing that looks like a second set of legs is just part of the stairs.

 

[fish_4_all]

Well that doesn't support my theory then except for that kind force from the explosion could have thrown glass and rocks back up on the stand and behind it if there was enough force.

As for the glass on the bottom, the bottom pane of glass should not touch anything! No support under it, nothing. The standard glass aquarium is made so that the bottom pane of glass is 1/4-2 inches above the bottom of the sides of glass. The bottom sides are protected by whatever framework or the stand, normally a plastic rim that goes over them.
If there is no gap then the guy building your fish tank does not know what he is doing!

Ok, I might have found something that was very VERY wrong with the tank and might have lead to this.
According to THIS website and the dimensions you gave the glass should have been 1/2 inch thick or approximately 12.7mm thick. This is assuming that the measurements are right, 120 cm long(47 inches), 40cm wide (15 inches) and 80cm tall, (31 inches). If this is truely the case, the one that built the tank needs to use thicker glass because the amount of force from that tall a volume of water needs thicker glass. Go through the site and make a copy of the directions and make he follows them.

The following passage is directly from Garf.com and has been used by many to build their own tanks myself included and I believe many members here and on other forums.
Cut the 1/4 inch dowels slightly shorter than the length of the bottom. Place the dowels under the bottom piece of glass. It is important that the weight of the aquarium is supported by the front, back and sides. There should never be any support under the bottom glass as this could fracture it.

Check out www.garf.org and get the instructions to the one making the tank so it doesn't happen again. Go the How To pages and then to Aquarium construction and input the measurements in inches to get the proper instructions.

 

[fish_4_all]

Just 4 more things:
#1, the silicone has to be aquarium safe, not a generic silcone, 100% VOC silicone is safe for aquariums as is the LFS silicone
#2, the tank has to set 24 hours before moving it
#3, the tank has to cure for at least 72 hours before you fill it with water.
#4, at 94 gallons this is a ton of weight to be putting on top of foam. I would estimate 800-1000 pounds or 360-450 kilos so if you can, test 100 kilos directly one in location of the foam just to make sure. Put the board on edge and stand on it. Use a piece of something that is 1/2 inch thick and put as much weight as you possibly can on it to see if it moves at all, if it does I would not put the tank back on the foam. And put the weight on it for a good 10 minutes if not 30 minutes or more. Remember the tank will sit on it for months so any deformation at all in 30 minutes would lead to serious deformation in a week or a month.

 

[Cartagena]

Well this is interesting!

Yes, the bottom piece of glass sat flat on the foam without a gap. There was no elevation around the sides or front.

Yes, those dimensions are correct. 80 tall, 120 long and 40 wide. He used 8 millimeter glass. He said the new one will be 10 millimeter! I guess I better call him to change this.

I estimate the water weight at about 845 pounds. It would be equal to 101 gallons.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Bubble_B0y]

holy crap!!!!!!

i think the glass was too thin.
You need THICK glass to support the pressure of the weight and water.


DAMN.
That's one messy cleanup.