Is it normal for new custom aquariums to ship with scratches?

[KrisReef]

Most of the scratches are fairly difficult to see unless you are looking very closely. Two of the bigger ones are near the bottom and pretty well hidden by the sand bed. There's just two that bother me, there's one on the front pane and one on the side pane, both a couple inches from the top. One of them is in the main viewing area, but the front is a 7ft long so it can be easy to miss. I think you're probably right though, I'm really not sure if it would be worth it

If those “scratches” are straight lines that you can feel when you pass your fingertips over them then you are likely dealing with glass that was damaged on the cutting table. That’s really bad news because those scratches can easily break under pressure. I hope this isn’t the case but I’d get a new tank before I’d fill a large scratched tank in my house.

 

[naterealbig]

It’s worth a shot. It’s not exactly easy to fully unpack and inspect every inch of a tank while the shipping company driver is sitting there waiting. Even if you do, things can easily be missed depending on the lighting where the tank is being inspected at. Maybe the tank builder will tell them it’s not their problem but I wouldn’t be surprised if they offered to help at least a little to have a happy customer that just ordered what I’m sure is a pretty expensive tank.

Ya you're right - and definitely nothing to lose by reaching out.

I know it can be tough too. I definitely didn't not inspect my tank very well when i received it. Check the seams, and that's about it.

 

[X-37B]

I am a city p&d driver for a frieght company. From my experience you will have a hard time with this if you signed off on it.
I make sure customers know this and take the time to let them inspect thier purchase.
Cant hurt to reach out to the builder but most will not do anything once it is signed for and you have taken delivery.
Anytime you take delivery make sure you take the time to inspect it no matter what it is.
Many frieght companys will try to get you to sign and are in a hurry. Dont rush it. If its not right refuse it and make them take it back.
It is the only protection you have.
Not trying to make it sound bad but it is reality from someone who does this every day.
If its any consolation when I picked up my 120 at the lfs I ordered I looked it over and did not see any issues until I got home. 1 small scratch and a defect in the trim.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I don’t even buy a scratched used tank let along a custom brand new tank. It shouldn’t be any scratches at all!

 

[DS204]

Chiming in again - We had a scratch on the front viewing pane and we used a diamond/lapping paste to take the roughness off the scratch and hide it a little. After we filled the tank with water we can't see the scratch anymore, unless we look from an awkward angle and hunt for it. Try putting some water in it, you might be surprised how well the water can hide a scratch.. I know that I was surprised.

If you want more information on my experience using lapping paste please let me know. I had some decent success with it after reading some input from other users on here. Good luck!

 

[fcmatt]

If they can fix cracks in windshields can the right company for xxx bucks fix a small scratch by injecting/filling it with something?

 

[DS204]

If they can fix cracks in windshields can the right company for xxx bucks fix a small scratch by injecting/filling it with something?

I called a local glass company to ask the same thing and they said no. But, take that for what it's worth. You might be able to find another expert that can.

We found that our best option or safest option was a diamond paste. I had decent success with that, but it isn't for the faint of heart.

 

[imagineapuddle]

If those “scratches” are straight lines that you can feel when you pass your fingertips over them then you are likely dealing with glass that was damaged on the cutting table. That’s really bad news because those scratches can easily break under pressure. I hope this isn’t the case but I’d get a new tank before I’d fill a large scratched tank in my house.

Could you elaborate on this? I haven't actually contacted the manufacturer yet, but I guess I'm still planning to to just to see what he says, but I hadn't heard of this. I have about four scratches that are straight lines, 3 of them are about a 3/4" and the fourth is about 2" I think. Could these really cause the tank to break?

 

[imagineapuddle]

I am a city p&d driver for a frieght company. From my experience you will have a hard time with this if you signed off on it.
I make sure customers know this and take the time to let them inspect thier purchase.
Cant hurt to reach out to the builder but most will not do anything once it is signed for and you have taken delivery.
Anytime you take delivery make sure you take the time to inspect it no matter what it is.
Many frieght companys will try to get you to sign and are in a hurry. Dont rush it. If its not right refuse it and make them take it back.
It is the only protection you have.
Not trying to make it sound bad but it is reality from someone who does this every day.
If its any consolation when I picked up my 120 at the lfs I ordered I looked it over and did not see any issues until I got home. 1 small scratch and a defect in the trim.

I did attempt to inspect, but I had a difficult time as the stand was strapped to the top of the crate and I couldn't get it completely off by myself. I don't think I ever would have been able to see a lot of the scratches without taking the crate completely apart and removing all the styrofoam, but I would have needed more straps and to get a much larger trailer to do that. I guess if there's a next time I'll probably try this, but I didn't really know what to expect.

Chiming in again - We had a scratch on the front viewing pane and we used a diamond/lapping paste to take the roughness off the scratch and hide it a little. After we filled the tank with water we can't see the scratch anymore, unless we look from an awkward angle and hunt for it. Try putting some water in it, you might be surprised how well the water can hide a scratch.. I know that I was surprised.

If you want more information on my experience using lapping paste please let me know. I had some decent success with it after reading some input from other users on here. Good luck!

I think I'll be alright with it, it's disappointing but most of them aren't too easy to see unless you are specifically looking really close to the glass. When viewing from a normal viewing distance, I don't think it'll bother me too much.

 

[KrisReef]

Could you elaborate on this? I haven't actually contacted the manufacturer yet, but I guess I'm still planning to to just to see what he says, but I hadn't heard of this. I have about four scratches that are straight lines, 3 of them are about a 3/4" and the fourth is about 2" I think. Could these really cause the tank to break?

Glass production uses large tables to cut glass on with moveable cutters that are spaced on the sheet of glass to make cuts to size. A line of cutters are set up so that with one pass puts multiple (parallel) cut lines are made in the glass.
Sometimes a cutter that is not supposed to be engaged will volunteer as the cut is being made and you end up with a nice "scratch" that usually is parallel to the edge of the other cuts, (which would be the edges of your tank in this instance.) These cutters make a very clean, deep surface fracture that is easy to feel if you run your finger tips across the face of the glass. Sometimes these cuts are not parallel to the edges, but generally they tend to be fairly straight lines, but the problem is that they are deep fractures in the surface that are made so that the glass will break ("cut") along these lines.

These deep scratches are similar to a major fault line in the earth. When pressure is placed upon these scratches (Pressure, in this case, = filling the tank with water, a bump while moving rock around in the tank, or a kid tapping on the glass with a hard toy) they are prone to expanding rapidly and "cutting" along the fault.

It might not ever fail but these kinds of injuries to the surface are made with tools that are designed to cause a smooth break clear through the glass during tank manufacture.

If your glass was scratched during the manufacturing process it should have been scrapped and not used. If they missed it on accident then they need to fix it on purpose.

 

[Slawman]

I had this exact thing happen with my current custom Starphire build, two obvious "if you knew where they were" scratches on the inside of the tank that only became apparent when it was installed. They were deep but not long (about 1 inch each). At the time I was very upset about it and obsessed over it, the builder ended up building me a whole new tank and delivering it but I never ended up swapping it out. I mean really, who goes to the cost and trouble of Starphire if the visual appearance is not important so fair enough.

After a month or two I stopped obsessing and it made very little difference, certainly no-one in my family or any of my friends ever noticed it unless I told them where to look. By the time the time I had finished negotiating with the builder and the new tank was ready, the extreme trauma of swapping out a 300kg tank, plumbing, rocks, sand, water was no longer appealing and I chose to leave it in place.

7 years later I have no regrets. The scratches are still there but they make no difference to how cool the tank looks. Everyone including me just looks at what is inside it.

The only thing I would suggest you do is come to some satisfactory arrangement with the builder/supplier so you don't feel ripped off, it is definitely not OK to supply something like that and expect to be paid in full for it.

 

[imagineapuddle]

Glass production uses large tables to cut glass on with moveable cutters that are spaced on the sheet of glass to make cuts to size. A line of cutters are set up so that with one pass puts multiple (parallel) cut lines are made in the glass.
Sometimes a cutter that is not supposed to be engaged will volunteer as the cut is being made and you end up with a nice "scratch" that usually is parallel to the edge of the other cuts, (which would be the edges of your tank in this instance.) These cutters make a very clean, deep surface fracture that is easy to feel if you run your finger tips across the face of the glass. Sometimes these cuts are not parallel to the edges, but generally they tend to be fairly straight lines, but the problem is that they are deep fractures in the surface that are made so that the glass will break ("cut") along these lines.

These deep scratches are similar to a major fault line in the earth. When pressure is placed upon these scratches (Pressure, in this case, = filling the tank with water, a bump while moving rock around in the tank, or a kid tapping on the glass with a hard toy) they are prone to expanding rapidly and "cutting" along the fault.

It might not ever fail but these kinds of injuries to the surface are made with tools that are designed to cause a smooth break clear through the glass during tank manufacture.

If your glass was scratched during the manufacturing process it should have been scrapped and not used. If they missed it on accident then they need to fix it on purpose.

Thank you, I'll ask him about this specifically. The aquarium has a warranty as far as I know, so if there is a chance that any of these can cause problems to the structural integrity of the aquarium, I think he'd inform me. Thanks for the information

 

[imagineapuddle]

I had this exact thing happen with my current custom Starphire build, two obvious "if you knew where they were" scratches on the inside of the tank. They were deep but not long (about 1 inch each). At the time I was very upset about it and obsessed over it, the builder ended up building me a whole new tank and delivering it but I never ended up swapping it out. I mean really, who goes to the cost and trouble of Starphire if the visual appearance is not important so fair enough.

After a month or two I stopped obsessing and it made very little difference, certainly no-one in my family or any of my friends ever noticed it unless I told them where to look. By the time the time I had finished negotiating with the builder and the new tank was ready, the extreme trauma of swapping out a 300kg tank, plumbing, rocks, sand, water was no longer appealing and I chose to leave it in place.

7 years later I have no regrets. The scratches are still there but they make no difference to how cool the tank looks. Everyone including me just looks at what is inside it.

The only thing I would suggest you do is come to some satisfactory arrangement with the builder/supplier so you don't feel ripped off, it is definitely not OK to supply something like that and expect to be paid in full for it.

Thanks for the advice. That's kind of where I am at, I think I can get over the scratches, but I'm a little more upset at this happening just based on the reputation of the manufacturer I went with. I went over the glass meticulously with a flash light again and there's a total of 35 scratches I can count, most aren't noticeable unless you are specifically looking for them, but I don't know how I'd attribute these to the moving company. I'm already starting to cool off so I'm sure I'll get over it at some point.

 

[ReefCheef]

Thanks for the advice. That's kind of where I am at, I think I can get over the scratches, but I'm a little more upset at this happening just based on the reputation of the manufacturer I went with. I went over the glass meticulously with a flash light again and there's a total of 35 scratches I can count, most aren't noticeable unless you are specifically looking for them, but I don't know how I'd attribute these to the moving company. I'm already starting to cool off so I'm sure I'll get over it at some point.

What ended up happening? How much did they refund you? I just paid over $12,000 for a custom starphire tank that arrived with 7 pretty sizable scratches. One was immediately obvious upon unboxing because it was on the outside and parallel like someone else was talking about. Id assume from the cutting table. The movers and delivery guy were not trying to wait while i fully inspected. No offense to the guy playing devils advocate, but youve clearly never bought an expensive tank before. All the people youre paying to help get it inside are not trying to wait around all day. That said, i decided to make them wait and really went over it. Found 5-6 other scratches on the inside. My tank is a 450 gallon peninsula, and most of the obnoxiously large scratches (3-4”) are on the inside pain of the front pane i called the manufacturer and he suggested sending me a polishing kit or paying the fee for a local “pro” to come polish it. Debating filing a claim with my CC company. Wonder if we have the same builder.. wish i would have paid the extra money and got the tankmeusa.

Did your builder refund you? And if so, what %?