Silicone peeling . . . yes, yet another Red Sea seam issue

[waitwut]

So I made the mistake of buying a second hand Red Sea Max E 260 at the start of the year. It was less than a year old (originally bought in early 2022). I thought I'd done my research but somehow missed the endless talk of seam failures - not to mention the warnings against buying these tanks second hand.

I've been keeping a close eye on the seams and on the cabinet - unfortunately the front of the cabinet is clearly sagging and I'm able to slide a piece of paper under the middle of the tank. The tank is nearly level - the bubble on my spirit level is within the lines but only just, with a slight lean to the front that developed after the tank was filled and my floor presumably sunk a little.

The previous owner didn't take very good care of the silicone (another red flag I missed) with some notches taken out of it on the front right hand seam. Now it appears that around a millimeter of silicone has peeled away from the glass down towards the bottom of that seam, it's only really visible because some algae has grown in there so it's hard to know if it's new or if I'm only just noticing it now because of the algae growth.

So far the bottom seam looks fine, no bubbling or peeling that I can see. How worried should I be? It's not exactly a huge tank but there's still plenty of reports of the smaller RS tanks failing. I was already considering a new aluminium stand with proper leveling feet but I don't want to go to all that effort if the tank is going to fail regardless . . .

 

[blaxsun]

I don't think the small nick pictured is necessarily mission critical, but I'd just be careful when scraping up to the silicone on that part of the tank so you don't potentially make it worse.

I can't necessarily see where you mean in the image about the 1mm of missing silicone - but I'll take your word for it.

Red Sea makes an aluminum strut kit that may or may not fit your tank model. In the interim, I might suggest temporarily rigging something up to reinforce the front of the cabinet so the glass doesn't sag.

 

[waitwut]

Unfortunately they only make those struts for much larger tanks. I'm also particularly worried about the overhanging glass as if any part of the silicone holding that on is starting to peel I think it needs to be supported.

I'm already working on better leveling the tank. I'm considering mostly draining it, then bolting/screwing some kind of metal DIN rail or similar onto the front and/or the back. I could clad that with black MDF to make it somewhat seamless, though I'd need to saw the top portion of the doors off. This could support the front pane of glass and hopefully reduce the bowing in the middle because adding a strut would not be easy with the sump blocking the center of the cabinet.

 

[blaxsun]

On my 750XXL v3 I have corner bracing in the tank, the aforementioned aluminum strut and a 1/8" thick aluminum lip under the front of the glass.

 

[divcesar]

So I made the mistake of buying a second hand Red Sea Max E 260 at the start of the year. It was less than a year old (originally bought in early 2022). I thought I'd done my research but somehow missed the endless talk of seam failures - not to mention the warnings against buying these tanks second hand.

I've been keeping a close eye on the seams and on the cabinet - unfortunately the front of the cabinet is clearly sagging and I'm able to slide a piece of paper under the middle of the tank. The tank is nearly level - the bubble on my spirit level is within the lines but only just, with a slight lean to the front that developed after the tank was filled and my floor presumably sunk a little.

The previous owner didn't take very good care of the silicone (another red flag I missed) with some notches taken out of it on the front right hand seam. Now it appears that around a millimeter of silicone has peeled away from the glass down towards the bottom of that seam, it's only really visible because some algae has grown in there so it's hard to know if it's new or if I'm only just noticing it now because of the algae growth.

So far the bottom seam looks fine, no bubbling or peeling that I can see. How worried should I be? It's not exactly a huge tank but there's still plenty of reports of the smaller RS tanks failing. I was already considering a new aluminium stand with proper leveling feet but I don't want to go to all that effort if the tank is going to fail regardless . . .

I’m having similar issue. Can I ask what happened to your tank?

 

[waitwut]

So far, it hasn't got any worse. I used some shims to make it more level, I haven't put installed a brace or anything yet.

The centre of the stand is still sagging quite a bit which concerns me but I don't see an easy way to fix it.

 

[Derrick0580]

If it were me, I would build a new stand asap and trash the red sea stand. I don’t think it’s necessarily the silicone or the tank being bad, it’s the sagging stands allowing excess pressure on the seams. I have yet to hear of anyone having a leak in a red sea tank where they built/used a different stand.

 

[tsharpe291]

So I made the mistake of buying a second hand Red Sea Max E 260 at the start of the year. It was less than a year old (originally bought in early 2022). I thought I'd done my research but somehow missed the endless talk of seam failures - not to mention the warnings against buying these tanks second hand.

I've been keeping a close eye on the seams and on the cabinet - unfortunately the front of the cabinet is clearly sagging and I'm able to slide a piece of paper under the middle of the tank. The tank is nearly level - the bubble on my spirit level is within the lines but only just, with a slight lean to the front that developed after the tank was filled and my floor presumably sunk a little.

The previous owner didn't take very good care of the silicone (another red flag I missed) with some notches taken out of it on the front right hand seam. Now it appears that around a millimeter of silicone has peeled away from the glass down towards the bottom of that seam, it's only really visible because some algae has grown in there so it's hard to know if it's new or if I'm only just noticing it now because of the algae growth.

So far the bottom seam looks fine, no bubbling or peeling that I can see. How worried should I be? It's not exactly a huge tank but there's still plenty of reports of the smaller RS tanks failing. I was already considering a new aluminium stand with proper leveling feet but I don't want to go to all that effort if the tank is going to fail regardless . . .

Looks like a good reason to UPGRADE

 

[Bruttall]

So I made the mistake of buying a second hand Red Sea Max E 260 at the start of the year. It was less than a year old (originally bought in early 2022). I thought I'd done my research but somehow missed the endless talk of seam failures - not to mention the warnings against buying these tanks second hand.

I've been keeping a close eye on the seams and on the cabinet - unfortunately the front of the cabinet is clearly sagging and I'm able to slide a piece of paper under the middle of the tank. The tank is nearly level - the bubble on my spirit level is within the lines but only just, with a slight lean to the front that developed after the tank was filled and my floor presumably sunk a little.

The previous owner didn't take very good care of the silicone (another red flag I missed) with some notches taken out of it on the front right hand seam. Now it appears that around a millimeter of silicone has peeled away from the glass down towards the bottom of that seam, it's only really visible because some algae has grown in there so it's hard to know if it's new or if I'm only just noticing it now because of the algae growth.

So far the bottom seam looks fine, no bubbling or peeling that I can see. How worried should I be? It's not exactly a huge tank but there's still plenty of reports of the smaller RS tanks failing. I was already considering a new aluminium stand with proper leveling feet but I don't want to go to all that effort if the tank is going to fail regardless . . .

The best advice I can give on this situation is this, If you're worrying that much about it, if the tank is causing you that level of Anxiety, might be worth your peace of mind to replace the tank so you can stop worrying if it will fail. Planet Aquarium is 2 guys formerly of Oceanic, a Master Designer, and a Master Builder. Waterbox and Innovative Marine also make nice tanks. Cade has a solid rep in the tank game as well.

Myself, I'd be looking for a Used Oceanic tank in the size I want. That is how I ended up with my 96x31x24 300g tank I only paid $600 US Dollars for 10 years ago! Can always tell an Oceanic by the massive center brace on any tank over 6ft long, the brace on my 300 is 22inches wide!