OK People with Red Sea Reefer Failures... Convince me not to....

[avianman]

Bro I went on YouTube and there are plenty of redsea tanks with videos failing. Just face it they had problems and they even admitted it . Don't get me wrong redsea make some fantastic products, but they had issues with some of there tanks! facts .

The question isn't if they had issues - most large manufacturers are going to statistically have issues pop up. (Any one remember Marineland's rimless tank debacle?) The question is whether or not it is wide-spread and likely to happen or if what we are seeing is anomalous. Is it "more likely than not" and if so, are certain models more prone due to the manufacturing process. I will check out youtube now. Bro.

 

[Cell]

You may be better off utilizing the search function and digging up the countless 1st hand account threads that way. There are way more reefers not on R2R who after experiencing a catastrophic failure will come share their story, but not remain active members to be able to rehash it here.

 

[avianman]

SO it has been 24 hours. Most said some from of "You should believe rumors - trust me" with one first hand account. Kind of surprised with the "if you have to ask, it must be true" approach - one of the things I love about message boards is the ability to hear user's experiences in order to grow the hobby. But giving rumors a place to breed and grow hurts the hobby.
I'll go back to my example - there have been thousands of loch ness monster sightings, (including 4 already this year). By the reasonings I am seeing in this thread - why risk visiting Loch Ness - it must be true if you have to ask! Let me say that I have been there, first hand, and it is beautiful - don't let the vast numbers of "I know a guy" rumors to prevent you from visiting...

Thanks so much to those who have truthfully offered help - I really do appreciate it.

 

[avianman]

You may be better off utilizing the search function and digging up the countless 1st hand account threads that way. There are way more reefers not on R2R who after experiencing a catastrophic failure will come share their story, but not remain active members to be able to rehash it here.

I did - and what I got were countless threads linking back to the same thread (also linked above) and countless "I know a guy" and "dude, trust me" threads. The latter outweighed firsthand experiences 50 to 1. Many of the "I know a guys" were actually talking about the same guy on the same thread.

I did the research, which is exactly why I asked for clarification.

 

[Cell]

2 first hand accounts here. Kind of weird though that this one thread and 24 hrs leaves you convinced it's just rumor. You may not be finding the threads, but they are definitely there.

 

[ColoredRock]

SO it has been 24 hours. Most said some from of "You should believe rumors - trust me" with one first hand account. Kind of surprised with the "if you have to ask, it must be true" approach - one of the things I love about message boards is the ability to hear user's experiences in order to grow the hobby. But giving rumors a place to breed and grow hurts the hobby.
I'll go back to my example - there have been thousands of loch ness monster sightings, (including 4 already this year). By the reasonings I am seeing in this thread - why risk visiting Loch Ness - it must be true if you have to ask! Let me say that I have been there, first hand, and it is beautiful - don't let the vast numbers of "I know a guy" rumors to prevent you from visiting...

Thanks so much to those who have truthfully offered help - I really do appreciate it.

I link you mine... and there other first hand accounts on some of the other threads. If you think its safe go for it... I cant support a company that knowingly removed posts from their FB page or what their remedy was for those that where effected. But that is just me. To each their own.

 

[brandon429]

we've also seen in those threads the terrible customer service/left hanging in the wind all wet/RS did to it's G1 customers

why reward them, with any purchase?

 

[avianman]

I checked youtube, as suggested - I did see two people with catastrophic failure - that is, where the water actually exited the tank. The others on youtube were theoretical and probibal failures, meaning there is a bubble in the silicone seal. The catastrophic failues were on very large, G1 tanks.

And, of course, suppliers like BRS popped up with their sponsored videos, titled "We Only Stock Products and Brands That We, As Reefers, Use & Trust, Like Red Sea."
I guess I trusted these guys because I watched their videos. Shame on me, I suppose. I am sure if there was such a massive issue they would stop selling the tanks.

Bottom line is that it seems the G2 is safer - no real first hand accounts yet of catastrophic failure. I did find one instance of a bubble in the seal in a post. Thats it.

I'm not defending Red Sea, either - I don't have a single one of their products. I like the way they look because they seem to be the only place to make a stand that isn't either hideous wood or black. The tanks are beautiful, as is the plumbing. As expensive as they are, I haven't seen a better option. Waterbox, maybe?

Either way, I appreciate my admittedly very short research project - it was as much "try and find the facts" as it was "let's see how many dude, trust me" posts I can get. You guys are great. Lesson learned - user's experiences are invaluable, but before you trust a user, just be sure they know what they are talking about.

 

[Cell]

I recall seeing an account a one G2 failure on R2R and it was a side seam, not front middle. I would assume RS addressed the previous issues adequately but who knows.

 

[avianman]

we've also seen in those threads the terrible customer service/left hanging in the wind all wet/RS did to it's G1 customers

why reward them, with any purchase?

I see that point - As a former LFS manager, I can tell you that not a single aquarium company is going to pay for anything other than the tank itself. This isn't a "dude trust me" either - it's in the warranty in black and white. People asking for damages aren't going to get reimbursed. Plenty of instances of Red Sea providing a new tank, which is the limit of their liability and the most I have ever seen a manufacturer do. Providing a repair kit is kind of bizarre, and a first for me, but it is something!

I do agree - don't give a bad company your money, and I don't want to do that. As for FB messages being removed? Well, I haven't found a company that doesn't do that - yet. Doesn't mean they arent out there.

 

[Goaway]

Just buy one.

Sounds like your minds made up.

 

[OrionN]

New tanks should not have leak as long as the stand is level. When we have as many complaints over the years as Red Sea has, there is problem in design.
The main problem is they are cutting the support structures to have the sleek look, namely the supports on top. That is why they have tank failure. That sleek top looks come with a price. Other manufactures put in the Euro-brace in for a reason and it is NOT so the tank look ugly. Large tanks need that top support, either center brace or Euro-brace, or metal frame on top. Without it, the margin of error is too small, and they have tanks failure (not 100% but even 1-2% is too high. If they are responsible for the content of the aquariums and damages associated with these failures, they will change their tune and design the supports better.

 

[Goaway]

Okay. Im dumb..

Plenty of instances of Red Sea providing a new tank

If the tanks aren't failing, why are they providing new tanks?

 

[TheDuude]

This thread is pointless since you have no DATA to show PPM or failures. On a long enough timeline EVERYTHING degrades and fails. You would need to know the population of red sea tanks in existence by model and generation, the number of failures per each model, and the age of each of those tanks. Only then could you calculate the expected life and probability of failure.

In addition to the DATA above you would need the same data from other aquarium manufacturers to determine if Red Sea is Better than, equal to, or worse than the rest of the market.

If Red Sea sells a lot more tanks than anyone else then statistically you will hear about more failures.

For what it's worth I have a G1 525XL that has been moved twice and have not had an issue.

 

[Troylee]

Here’s a baby Red Sea leaker.. stand wasn’t the issue here..

 

[jimfish98]

It doesn't take much to find more than 4 if you look. I have had two pop up in my local Facebook group in the last year.

 

[OrionN]

It is a large force push to separate those corners that hold together by silicone only without solid supports of other hard ware.
In the picture above (and below)I don't know why some people cannot see that if there are other hardware to hold that corner together, it would not separate anywhere as easy.

 

[Lavey29]

So I've read the myriad of threads here about Red Sea Reefers failing and ruining the world. I currently have an old school 90 gallon reef tank that has the overflow (this was from WAY before people drilled their tanks) that has caused issues to the point where I fear the stand's integrity is in question. Time to upgrade to a new tank. I love the look of the Red Sea Reefers (who doesn't?) and begin looking for a tank.

The new one's seem overpriced. I check the used ones and come across the threads here. Uh Oh! Red Sea Reefer tanks fail and destroy the earth, one apartment at a time. Some say it is the seam from the factory...others blame indiscriminate tank cleaning...still others claim their tank wasn't level or that the stand itself was bowed... all interesting claims from people who have never actually seen the tanks in question...

But the biggest commonality in the threads is that everyone "knows a guy" who had a Red Sea Reefer catastrophic failure. I spent an hour reading through and came across 4 legitimate, verifiable, stories of people with FIRST HAND experiences, and two of those were catastrophic, and only one had a photo.

Meanwhile, others refer to "hundreds of instances" but I don't really see hundreds of instances. There are thousands of reports of people seeing the Loch Ness Monster, after all. (Pictures or it didn't happen!) Since the next part of the story is a complaint on how Red Sea won't honor their warranty, I assume these people got photos, because no one is honoring any claims without photos.

I've been in the hobby for 30 years, with 20 of those at the pro-level. I've seen tank failures. If Red Sea is that bad, I would think that reputable dealers like BRS would drop them (Isn't BRS all about standing behind their hobbyists?)

Long story short - I want to hear your first hand accounts of buying a Red Sea Reefer that had a catastrophic failure. Not a tank with a bubble in the seam, or a story about a friend of a friend or a guy who was deleted on FB. Let's see these compiled into one thread. Please don't reply with your opinions on why you wouldn't buy one, or why you shouldn't get a used tank, or your opinion on whatever.

Let's show that Red Sea Failure footage!

Convince me, through your own first hand account, why I shouldn't buy one.

It's to bad you can't send this out directly to the 10s of thousands of Red Sea tank owners currently in use around the world instead of the less then 1% of the owners here who posted a failure often from a second hand tank they purchased used.

 

[Tazman]

Got myself a RedSea Reefer S-850 about a year ago. Fantastic tank with Eurobrace and metal stand. I don't think there has been any report of failure or leak with this line of tank from RS.

 

[apista]

I'm not asking "randoms" - I am asking those in the reef hobby, on the message board where the greatest number of people "know a guy" who has had problems, but a vast majority have had zero issues themselves.. I trust the reef community when it comes to first hand experiences. I'm trying to weed out first hand experiences from rumors.

Listening to rumors as fact is not a good way to go about life