Marineland survival guide

[mattcoug]

I rolled the dice a couple years back and got a Marineland 200DD. I love the deep look and was hoping my luck would hold. Well tonight my luck ran out.

While returning from walking the dog this evening, I walked though the family room with the tank, and the sound was slightly off. Figuring, better safe than sorry, I turned on the light to check and saw a stream of water emanating from the front side seal of my Marineland 200DD. It was quite a sight, arching over the UPS, Kessil power supplies, and a leather couch, landing about 3 feet away and puddling up on my wood floor.

After loudly alerting the household to the situation with a few emotionally selected words, I did the only thing I could think of - slam a ball of plumbers putty on the leak and see if it would hold. Surprisingly it did, and I went about the task of getting all the salt water cleaned up before anything worse would happen.

I estimate I caught it after leaking for ~5 minutes. My wife was cooking dinner 20 feet away and didn't know anything was wrong.

I am now sitting here debating with myself on next steps.

So here is my guide to surviving a Marineland 200dd.

1) Keep all electrical equipment elevated and away from any possible spray angle, a slightly different angle would have had salt water directly into the tanks UPS causing potential house fire, etc.
2) Keep an emergency supply of towels, plumbers putty, calk, tape, etc within 20 feet.
3) Make sure you have home insurance that will take care of you should the worst happen.
4) Walk by your tank every 5 minutes, night and day. Set up rotations with your family if you have to.
5) Have a secondary tank with the same capacity running and ready at all times. Heck, if it is the same tank, you might as well have a third.

 

[mattcoug]

 

[fishcrf450r]

I feel for you . This is not what any of us want to walk into . I am glad you caught it early . And reacted well .
Now what are your plans ?

 

[mattcoug]

I feel for you . This is not what any of us want to walk into . I am glad you caught it early . And reacted well .
Now what are your plans ?

I'll have to keep this tank half full(up to the leak hole) and alive for now, but for tonight I have an old 125G sitting empty in the garage that I will clean and fill with water from the leaking tank. Add a heater, power head, and move some live rocks and whatever fish if I can catch. I'll move corals to the bottom of this tank, and move heaters from the sump to the tank and move powerheads to work with the lower level.

Tomorrow will be phone call time. I'll need to get some replacement quotes. I haven't decided if I will (1) replace only the tank with a new 200dd, (2) keep the stand, sump etc, and replace tank with another brand (3) rebuild from scratch.

 

[fishcrf450r]

Wow , thats going to be a lot more work than it sounds like . I'm glad you have a backup plan/tank .
If you decide to go with the same tank doesn't marine land offer replacement under warranty ?

 

[revhtree]

Oh man so sorry! Keep us updated on what they say!

 

[revhtree]

Oh man so sorry! Keep us updated on what they say!

 

[Ryengoth]

I have a 90g starfire rimless that has the same adhesive. Everyday I scrap the glass and hit the silicone inside and it flaps away, then I think.. "is it gonna crack open?" I know it's going to fail at some point but will it be the entire panel, a small crack like that or a gradual leak I don't see that rots the stand from under the base glass where I can't see it. I swapped the receptacle last week with a GFCI and while it's annoying that the Hydra power packs pop it sometimes at least I don't have to worry about the tank causing a short. There is one on the adjacent wall that needs to be swapped soon as well.

 

[Sir Chris]

They make a glass repair at autostores for when a rock hits ur windshield. That or some clear epoxy use Wax paper and plumbers putty 2 hold it and inject it through the inside and it'll fill all the voids. Also can do with the glass fixer they supply a syringe in the glass 1. The wax paper is for the outside so that the epoxy hits it and has a smooth finnish. And the putty 2 keep it from leaking anywhere but where the whole is. Then with normal seem sealer put a dot on the inside as a 1st defense. Of just squirt seem sealer in it. I did the 1st one for a friend and worked perfect. Also is it the seem or the actual glass hard 2 see from photo.

 

[Sir Chris]

Wow , thats going to be a lot more work than it sounds like . I'm glad you have a backup plan/tank .
If you decide to go with the same tank doesn't marine land offer replacement under warranty ?[/QUOTE/] if the tank was reg 10 days after purchase and ur the original owner no modifications have been done 2 the tank then ur golden with marine land warranty. They wouldn't warranty mine as I reg my warranty 1 day late. Awesome customer service

 

[Sir Chris]

Wow , thats going to be a lot more work than it sounds like . I'm glad you have a backup plan/tank .
If you decide to go with the same tank doesn't marine land offer replacement under warranty ?

Idk what happened with that reply but here's it again... if the tank was reg 10 days after purchase and ur the original owner no modifications have been done 2 the tank then ur golden with marine land warranty. They wouldn't warranty mine as I reg my warranty 1 day late. Awesome customer service

 

[Reef2zach]

I bought a marineland 220 about a year ago with a leak in the bottom seal. I got it real cheap tank was only 200 bucks. But I took the old seal out completely cleaned the glass as best I could and resealed it using rtv 100 series. I also doubled the thickness of the seal area cause I'm paranoid about that stuff. So far it's held really well I also ran a bead around the outside in between the plastic brace and the glass just to be safe.

 

[VbReefer]

Be sure to contact marineland via email .

http://www.marineland.com/contact-us-aquarium-help-and-support/Email-Marineland-contact-us.aspx

Unfortunately I cannot legally disclose the details of what they did or did not do for me.

You came home to a leaking seal. Luckily caught it in time and it's holding with putty. So no loss of property or livestock. First I'd ask them to replace the tank. Get a quote on a new one from your nearest retailer. Ask them to replace the tank personally or pay the amount for the same tank new from your LFS.
Provide pictures. Especially close ups of ANY seam that has bubbles.

 

[WandaMay]

Thank God I have never had a tank leak, yet :/ We have owned many used aquariums in the last 13 years we have had saltwater tanks. Kudos for quick thinking, I don't have any plumbers putty in my house (This may change soon) Is this a common problem with Marine Land tanks? I just bought a starfire SCA 24" cube I don't have water in it yet...now I am worried Is this a problem with rimless tanks?

 

[Fishface1970]

Contact Marineland customer service, as long as it is on a Marineland stand you have a warranty that they will honor. I had the back of my 55 blow out and they covered it.

 

[Sir Chris]

Get the new leak tape from that flex seal guy. Haha

 

[pickupman66]

I hate reading this about anyone's tank. This popped up in our local forum.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/300809/

 

[WandaMay]

Get the new leak tape from that flex seal guy. Haha

That ods what my husband said we should get lol

 

[LbulletM]

I hate reading this about anyone's tank. This popped up in our local forum.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/300809/

Hahaha was thinking about asking OP's location and posting the same thing!

 

[mattcoug]

Thanks for the advise

For folks that experienced this, did Marineland swap out the tank, or refund for the tank(+plus stand and hood)? I am considering if it would be better to get a refund and use that to help pay for a custom-built and presumably more reliable tank, vs just swapping out with an exact Marineland replacement.