My second Red Sea Reefer seam failure.

[Hakon]

Not jumping into the Red Sea is a bad company debate, but asking about the specific symptom. I have a Red Sea (2 years old) and I do notice one seam has a more "cloudy" looking area to it. Is that the sign of a seam failure? I'm just trying to get a sense of what a Red Sea failing seam is before a full on panic. Which I not need lol. Thanks

From what I've been able to gather it's their larger tanks that have the problem, anything 50g and under is probably fine. It seems like they don't properly brace larger tanks which leads to the seem failures on their bigger systems. There's a limit to how much weight Silicone can hold indefinitely separate from it's ability to seal against water pressure. If I had to guess what's happening is that their larger tanks are relying on the silicone to hold the glass together against the water weight and it's slowly being pushed apart over a period of years and that's why they fail, the silicone is being slowly stretched past it's breaking point as it does degrade over time.

In a smaller tank you don't notice because the pressure is low enough that you're unlikely to ever reach breaking point over the lifetime of the tank, but bigger ones are subjecting the seal to never ending pressure that it can't take and fails within a noticeable period.

 

[DHill6]

From what I've been able to gather it's their larger tanks that have the problem, anything 50g and under is probably fine. It seems like they don't properly brace larger tanks which leads to the seem failures on their bigger systems. There's a limit to how much weight Silicone can hold indefinitely separate from it's ability to seal against water pressure. If I had to guess what's happening is that their larger tanks are relying on the silicone to hold the glass together against the water weight and it's slowly being pushed apart over a period of years and that's why they fail, the silicone is being slowly stretched past it's breaking point as it does degrade over time.

In a smaller tank you don't notice because the pressure is low enough that you're unlikely to ever reach breaking point over the lifetime of the tank, but bigger ones are subjecting the seal to never ending pressure that it can't take and fails within a noticeable period.

Hold on… happens to reefer 170s which are 34 g. I know, it happened to me,

 

[UncommonSense]

but bigger ones are subjecting the seal to never ending pressure that it can't take and fails within a noticeable period.

All pressure vessels subject their walls to continuous pressure, not just the large ones…

There is extensive discussion on the topic of these tanks failing, I recommend searching around here for “Red Sea seam failure” to further educate yourself!

 

[BeanAnimal]

From what I've been able to gather it's their larger tanks that have the problem, anything 50g and under is probably fine. It seems like they don't properly brace larger tanks which leads to the seem failures on their bigger systems.

There are multiple design issues -- similar to tolerance stacking, the each of the issues erode safety factor. I have covered these in detail elsewhere, but silicone properties (quality), assembler (the person who did the assembly) and quality control (tolerance checking of materials and workflows) likely come into play.

 

[exnisstech]

Mine found its happy place at the dump.
I wouldn’t even try a second one, I ran far…straight to Cade

Same and the dump is on my property so I get to keep track of the tanks progress lol. My Gen 1 reefer 170.

My LFS is an Authorized RS Dealer and they don't seem to push them much at all and seem to prefer Planet. Anyway

Talking to the owner of my go-to LFS and this is exactly what he is doing now. He said he talked to his RS rep and asked him about the failures. He didn't say what the reps reply was but said it did nothing to instill confidence and he is no longer recommending RS tanks.

From what I've been able to gather it's their larger tanks that have the problem, anything 50g and under is probably fine.

RS wants us to believe that so we'll believe it was a Gen 1 stand design causing the failures and a center brace is the cure. Not sure what excuse they're using on the Gen 2 failures. My reefer 170 shown above failed at the top of a vertical seam.




IMO which is worth nothing the silicone is crap. This is a seam on my Gen 2 reefer 300. For the sake of argument lets say this is scraper damage which means I've damaged silicone the same on many different tanks because I don't clean this one any differently. The algae looks to be degrading the silicone. RS is the only tank manufacturer I'm aware of that algae can destroyed a silicone seam. It not quite past the seam guard yet.

I'm in two battle coral grow out contests so I'm going to try to get 1 more year out of it so I don't have to tear it down untill after the competitions end then I'll replace it.
Fortunately all the rock work is modular but I am not looking forward to breaking this tank down.

 

[Ziggy17]

They are replacing the tank only, which is fine. I’ll keep it in the box and sell the system. Actually much better than having to clean out the old one.

 

[BryanM]

Not jumping into the Red Sea is a bad company debate, but asking about the specific symptom. I have a Red Sea (2 years old) and I do notice one seam has a more "cloudy" looking area to it. Is that the sign of a seam failure? I'm just trying to get a sense of what a Red Sea failing seam is before a full on panic. Which I not need lol. Thanks

Best bet is to take pics and start your own thread and ask for opinions on the issue.

 

[BryanM]

Same and the dump is on my property so I get to keep track of the tanks progress lol. My Gen 1 reefer 170.

Talking to the owner of my go-to LFS and this is exactly what he is doing now. He said he talked to his RS rep and asked him about the failures. He didn't say what the reps reply was but said it did nothing to instill confidence and he is no longer recommending RS tanks.


RS wants us to believe that so we'll believe it was a Gen 1 stand design causing the failures and a center brace is the cure. Not sure what excuse they're using on the Gen 2 failures. My reefer 170 shown above failed at the top of a vertical seam.




IMO which is worth nothing the silicone is crap. This is a seam on my Gen 2 reefer 300. For the sake of argument lets say this is scraper damage which means I've damaged silicone the same on many different tanks because I don't clean this one any differently. The algae looks to be degrading the silicone. RS is the only tank manufacturer I'm aware of that algae can destroyed a silicone seam. It not quite past the seam guard yet.

I'm in two battle coral grow out contests so I'm going to try to get 1 more year out of it so I don't have to tear it down untill after the competitions end then I'll replace it.
Fortunately all the rock work is modular but I am not looking forward to breaking this tank down.

Look at that outdoors bad boy holding water.

I see rage release potential here :D

 

[BeanAnimal]

I see malaria

 

[exnisstech]

Look at that outdoors bad boy holding water.

I see rage release potential here :D

That's the sump holding the water lol.

I've been wanting to teach my grandson to shoot so maybe I'll let him use them for target practice. Its always more satisfying shooting stuff that breaks vs paper targets.

 

[BeanAnimal]

No desire to destroy stuff that I have to cleanup later. Paper targets don’t make a mess. Bottles, aquariums, old houseware and electronics makes a huge mess to deal with.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

If anyone wants a tank built like a tank, please check out the eshopps mariner. Never knew about them until about a year ago and they offer a 4 year warranty. Excellent customer service too. Glass is crazy thick and tank is bottom braced, and has seam guards so you can scrape up your glass and not worry about ripping into your seams with the blade on the corners

 

[Ziggy17]

Well, with a little motivation by a RedSea failure, I got the new WB 150 build finished ahead of schedule.

 

[Ziggy17]

I should also add that Red Sea contacted me this morning to say that I will have to wait until the end of November to get my replacement as they have none in stock. Apparently, because the failure isn’t beneath the seam guard (1/4”) , they don’t feel it’s a time concern. And in the same breath advised me to remove all the water from the affected tank as the seam will eventually fail. I guess they expect everyone to have a spare 80g tank at the ready….

I’m not an expert, but I’d call that talking out of both sides of your mouth…..

 

[BryanM]

I should also add that Red Sea contacted me this morning to say that I will have to wait until the end of November to get my replacement as they have none in stock. Apparently, because the failure isn’t beneath the seam guard (1/4”) , they don’t feel it’s a time concern. And in the same breath advised me to remove all the water from the affected tank as the seam will eventually fail. I guess they expect everyone to have a spare 80g tank at the ready….

I’m not an expert, but I’d call that talking out of both sides of your mouth…..

Congrats on the new tank!

 

[Cranie]

To quote White Snake, “Here we go again on my own”……. So just cleaning the glass and noticed the unmistakable rectangle box occurring on the middle bottom seam. This was the G2+ replacement they sent me less than a year ago to replace the seam failure I had on the 2 year old G1. Thank goodness I’ve got the new WB 150 up and running, just waiting to transfer fish and coral over in the next few days. I was originally going to wait a few weeks to move the coral over, but this moves up my schedule.

I’ll reach out to Red Sea and go through the warranty process again.

I can change my signature to “double Red Sea seam failure survivor” now….

One more musical reference. “Tick tick boom”. Well hopefully not

Same here. My 3rd replacement is coming today. Last time is the was the FULL setup free. This time, JUST the tank. The first non G2+ last 4 years. This current one..a year. To upgrade to G3+ they wanted almost $2k. I'm leaving it wrapped and selling if I can find a taker. Looking at another company's acrylic cause I can't take more deaths from transfer this is causing. Not to mention the leak.

 

[Cranie]

I should also add that Red Sea contacted me this morning to say that I will have to wait until the end of November to get my replacement as they have none in stock. Apparently, because the failure isn’t beneath the seam guard (1/4”) , they don’t feel it’s a time concern. And in the same breath advised me to remove all the water from the affected tank as the seam will eventually fail. I guess they expect everyone to have a spare 80g tank at the ready….

I’m not an expert, but I’d call that talking out of both sides of your mouth…..

They KNOW it's a problem. But they SHOULD replace with the current "better" G3+

 

[Ziggy17]

I lost about $1500 in coral on the fist fail, this time so far so good aside some from sticks that were in the frag rack. It’s super frustrating.

And they told me it’s literally just the glass. I have to keep the plumping in the overflow box and return nozzle.

 

[Cranie]

Getting a replacement G2+ from Red Sea today. I placed an order with Waterbox for a custom tank the same exact size. It will go on the RS stand and the new tank will remain on the pallet until I find a buyer.

 

[Ziggy17]

I was at my LFS today and talked a guy out of buying a used RS Reefer 350. The girl in the fish room jumped in to say hers popped as well……. So we both actually talked him out of it.