Sealant adhesion issue with Red Sea? Lets take a look

[helmsreef]

Hey everyone, so I had the opportunity to pick up a used RedSea 250 G1 from a local reefer/friend. The tank was in great shape minus the front seal starting to show separation halfway down the sealant seam at the base. To preface, I only bought the tank as to experiment and remove the front pane and perform a reseal. My intentions were not to really dive into the reasoning or investigate the issue further. So anyways, I went ahead and removed the panel, to my surprise it took almost very little effect to cut the sides with a fresh razorblade. I will also mention at this point that I have built a few glass tanks and performed panel replacements and have stuck with using ASi sealant, so it had caught me off guard with how easy it was. Once I had the 2 sides cut down to the corner I immediately noticed how much water had been stuck in the seam as I was running my razor through it. So looking down at this panel, I quickly asserted how bad the adhesion of the sealant was. Anyone who has used a good quality sealant and tried to remove it from the glass edge will understand that its going to be few strokes of the razor blade and maybe some acetone/alcohol to get the panel clean. To my surprise the sealant is peeling off the glass surface, and keep in mind this is the lower seal with almost zero adhesion. To my understanding, could the front seal issue with Red Seas really come down to just bad sealant adhesion and or sealant quality?

 

[brandon429]

that sounds mighty plausible. I will link to our break thread as a reference.

 

[helmsreef]

Further investigating… could the quality control in panel alignment cause the front panel adhesion to not be noticed? This looking from the bottom of the tank down the side of the right panel

Left panel alignment

 

[rtparty]

It could certainly be a junk silicone/adhesive being used. Multiple Red Sea failures have been at a top corner where the glass just cleanly separates away from the other other glass. Like it never adhered properly.

 

[helmsreef]

I was able to re-seal the front and leak test and all went smoothly. Hopefully this works well and this tank can keep running.

 

[Jimbo327]

But....would you trust the bottom and back silicone seals? Logic would say that they used the same stuff on all the seams.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I had a Red Sea xxl 750 g1 fail in the exact spot (top right corner). Fortunately i caught it pretty early, was able to save all fish and most coral (i have another 180g tank and got a couple of loaners from friends) and, even more surprisingly, Red Sea replaced the entire tank and stand even though it was a few months past the 3 year warranty. So, i believe they well know the issue, the cause and that it was on them and, thankfully, owned up to it and replaced mine. Your cause hypothesis sounds very plausible.

This photo was from 12-15-23, new tank arrived 12-21. The second photo is the tank around 1-19-24 - so recovery was quick (saved all live rock and some sand to avoid a new cycle)

 

[helmsreef]

But....would you trust the bottom and back silicone seals? Logic would say that they used the same stuff on all the seams.

Yes and no, I think the majority of the stress is placed on the front panel. The rear panel with the sealed in overflow tends to support it more and the sides are sealed in between the front and back panel. Its been running for a few weeks now and seems to be doing great. Although its in my garage and wont be in the house lol.