And for the saddest update I have had in my reefing years. Couple years back I started noticing tiny bubbles in the left front seam which somehow looked to increase very slow. I discussed them with tank builder and also with couple of other builders and the input from all after inspecting the bracing for stress mark and the look of the silicone was that this was either a normal occurance with time (although only at the 5 years mark) or a bad patch of silicone (after the bubbles started looking like a dry area of silicone and I could see either water or vacuum in) they agreed on that in a worse case scenario this would lead to a minor drip and that could either be fixed by silicon injection in the seam, an internal resilicon of the seam or an internal/external glass being added on that side to seal it if it happened.
With time my concern grew especially after I could see water moving inside the seam. The fact that I was now remotely located made it more annoying as I didn’t want my wife or family to struggle with a tank leak or burst when I’m away which most probably would result in total loss of the livestock, water damage and most important risk of injury electrocution or fire.
The idea of the tank failing kept getting worse that I decided despite all reassurances, to have a new tank made and do a 1 day swap of the glass. So I flew back to Lebanon on Dec 1 and we had the new tank assembled by Dec 5th.
Although previous tank was built beyond safety factors, and that I couldn't attribute the seam issue to the build I decided to make the following changes:
Glass thickness: from 15 to 19mm glass with starphire front
Bottom pannel: from 15+10 mm glass to 2x19mm glass pannel and front pannel in front and not on top of bottom pannel. Also bottom pannle is made in 2 pieces for lower glass and 3 pieces for upper part which would give a bit of flexibility to the glass.
Bracing: from 2x12mm Euro bracing with no front to back bracing to 20 mm horizontal front and back braces and 3 front to back 19mm braces on top of those. I have grown to love a braceless design, and although I didn't atribute the happening to bracing I felt that this would proved an added security that is higher priority than flexibility when scaping or adding corals or a bit of shadowing. I had hte braces made from starphire glass for less shadowing.
Overflow: still external and in same position but made it a bit deeper for easier tuning.
Tank dimensions: made the tank a bit higher to allow for a higher wave without seing water/air so from 220x85x75(88x34x30) to 220x85x81 (88x34x32.5) 1400L (365G) 1515(410 G)
Believe the clarity of the bracing will minimize shadowing.
Double bottom
front to back braces added
Front and back braces added
