Marineland Perfecto Tank Problems

[MURedhawk]

I wanted to start a thread to see others experiences with tank failures from Marineland Perfecto.

I had a 5+ year old 65g corner overflow reef ready Marineland Perfecto Tank. It was on a custom built level R&J Aquatics Maple Stand (solid wood) with canopy (which was about $900-1000 for stand and canopy). This Summer, the tank had a major leak on the bottom. The silicone was slightly irregular in spots when new, but I did not think much of it. It just looked like slightly sloppy job of applying it. After the leak, Marineland was contacted and I sent pictures and information since floors, oriental rug, electronics, etc. were ruined or damaged.

Liberty Mutual is their insurer and contact me and asked for additional information.

Just this week, they concluded that since it was not on a Marineland stand (usually a cheaper particle board/compressed wood), they would not cover the tank, stand, or any other costs. Several thousand dollars lost overall. I think their silicone sealing was defective, but anyway, it is a loss and they lost a customer. I have since purchased a new Waterbox 100.3 and am very happy with it. If they were going to deny tank and/stand replacement (since stand warped in flood), why would they have taken months to investigate and ultimately say tank was on non-Marineland stand?
They also thought the silicone looked irregular and thin from likely me scraping the glass, however if this was the case the tank would have leaked from the vertical panels and not the bottom somewhere.
(I will try to attach the pictures of the thinned and irregular areas of silicon as example.)

Fortunately, the livestock survived fairly intact with the clean up crew being the exception.

Anyone else have this experience with Marineland Perfecto?
Or tank issues?

 

[MURedhawk]

These are suspect areas located in corner overflow near bottom as example of smeared silicone.
Is this normal?

 

[JBKReef]

Marineland is notorious for their voiding of warranty due to not using their stand. Which is asinine because using their stand with normal wear and tear it gives out within a handful of years anyways.

 

[cromag27]

most manufacturers will void a warranty if you don’t use their stand (if they make them). also, the marineland tanks are notorious for failing.

 

[Captain Quint]

I've had two of their tanks. A 125g with a furniture grade stand my younger brother and I made. Used it for about 6 years with no issue.

And a 93 cube using their cheap wrasse Monterey stand (junk stand) with no issues except the stand swelling when it got wet. Go figure that.

But the one you showed is clearly not silicone applied correctly. It is utter crap that these companies use an escape clause like that.

I'm sorry you have been through so much crud due to their faulty tank build.

Reading their 'escape clause' really licks the red off of a candy cane IMO.

 

[ca1ore]

I have had a bunch of marineland tanks, all the way up to a 265, without even a hint of an issue. Perhaps I’ve been lucky, or perhaps the incidence of failure is overblown. Hardly consolation if you have a failure, but I think probably the exception rather than the rule. Whether notorious or not, ML have always been quite clear than any tank modifications or non approved stands voids the warranty. Use a DIY or ‘aftermarket’ stand and you’re on your own. I build all my stands, but overbuilt and the floor stiffened.

 

[MURedhawk]

UPDATE:
After posting this original post, I wrote back to Liberty Mutual (and Marineland). I showed them additional information about the R&J stand and I showed them additional pictures of the tank (which I still have months later sitting in my garage).
The stand from R&J was a good quality stand.
They reassessed the case and then offered to pay for 50% of the damages (which did cover some of the costs of the damaged stand, tank, damaged electronics, cleaning of a large oriental rug, and part of the damage to the hard wood floors, basement air vents, etc.).

Marineland did ultimately stand by their warranty and their product.

 

[theMeat]

Glad to hear that. Never found Marineland to be poor quality

 

[jpas]

It’s amazing that ML is still in business with all of the payouts they have to make due to tank failures. My brothers ~275 gallon African cichlid tank had a bottom seal failure. They ended up paying out over three times the cost of the tank.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I have a standard Marineland tank and stand. Yeah stand is cheaply made for sure. Inhabe made much nicer and stronger stands and Im bad at wood work. The silicon job is pretty poor and sloppy on my tank also, thick and messy. But I bought it new 6 months ago and voided any warranty by drilling the tank so anything that happens is on me. Your tank being 5 years old was due for replacement imo.

 

[jpas]

What is the life expectancy for a glass tank? I’ve seen some that are decades old.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

For a cheaper tank like an Aqueon, Marinleand, Tipfin ect 5 years. Thin glass, poor QC, poor bracing, and the harshness of a reef tank over time all play a role.

 

[ca1ore]

It’s amazing that ML is still in business with all of the payouts they have to make due to tank failures. My brothers ~275 gallon African cichlid tank had a bottom seal failure. They ended up paying out over three times the cost of the tank.

That they remain in business suggests that your ‘all of the payouts’ premise is incorrect. I have no idea what their tank failure rate is; just that of the 10 plus ML tanks I’ve owned, none have failed.

 

[theMeat]

I’m sure some fail but
Agreed. The only Marineland tank fails i’v seen are drop a rock or cut silicone while cleaning related.

 

[Reefcowboy]

A store here on Long Island set up a $20K+ system with top of the line everything, except the tank, which was a Marineland(go figure)..long story short the bottom seam leaked in less than 6 months in and almost caused a disaster in the store.

Another tank at a store of a friend of mine in Brooklyn had a 3+year tank leak at the bottom seam(coincidence??) and many corals were lost...


The silicone work on those tanks is very inconsistent and at most times the bottom glass, which gets higher pressure will eventually leak at the seams. Time bombs

 

[theMeat]

What lfs on Long Island?

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Mass produced glass tanks have a significant failure rate. So much so my insurance company would not underwrite a policy for my company to manufacture glass tanks. They did however jump at the chance to cover acrylic tanks manufactured by our company. In over 25 years of experience we only had one failure. I never turned in the incident to the insurance company but replaced the tank and items to the customers satisfaction. Now acrylic has its own problems with scratching and sometimes crazing due to customer abuse. I would love to return to manufacturing acrylic tanks but the supply is no longer available for cell cast acrylic.

I had quite a few glass tanks split, leak, and explode when I was selling All Glass and Reef Lake Systems. Not a fan of cheap, dollar a gallon loss leader tanks no matter who makes them. The domestic silicone often fails and you should test each batch before proceeding with the manufacturing process. I was offered the opportunity to purchase two glass tank manufactures back in the 1990's and 2000's and I am glad I passed after hearing the problems with batch processing.

 

[jpas]

That they remain in business suggests that your ‘all of the payouts’ premise is incorrect. I have no idea what their tank failure rate is; just that of the 10 plus ML tanks I’ve owned, none have failed.

It seems the majority of failures I have actually seen are all on their large (200+) tanks which probably make up a small portion of their business. I have had several of their smaller tanks (90g & 60g) with no issues.

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

What lfs on Long Island?

Exactly what I was going to ask.

One of the LFS I frequent is Country Critters and they have been running a couple 300DDs for quite a few years I believe.

 

[ca1ore]

It seems the majority of failures I have actually seen are all on their large (200+) tanks which probably make up a small portion of their business. I have had several of their smaller tanks (90g & 60g) with no issues.

Large tanks present many more challenges than do small - not the least of which is user error - so it may well be that the failure rates are higher. Of my ten, two were larger than 200, and neither failed. But I am OCD about making sure that the stand and floor are absolutely rock solid.