Silicone separating on Red Sea tank???

TheKylersFire

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@redsea should I be worried about this? This spans about 16 inches on my side panel on my 650 peninsula. There’s grains of sand and water that go down as far as 90% into the silicone. I’d say on the 1 inch seam there’s a spot where 1/8 of an inch is all that separates from the water and my floor. I have had this tank for less then 6 months. I don’t even have fish or coral in it yet just live rock and some inverts. I’ll attach a few pictures of the seam please let me know what you think.
8ED1AFFF-9180-4472-A0EA-F11E0AE7B55A.jpeg
7C4D1455-C885-46CA-9DEA-21B4C3E700C4.jpeg
E6BFB608-666A-4112-A899-240AF3A31E4F.jpeg
 

ca1ore

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The structural part of the seam is the silicone between the glass panels. That’s what holds the tank together. The rest of it is the internal squeeze out a that usually gets referred to as the ‘seal’, but really only serves to protect the structural part. Having said that, it is not good that the internal ‘seal’ is separating from the glass. Whatever is causing that may also affect the structural parts. While I suspect the tank isn’t going to fail tomorrow, no way to know for sure and I would be contacting the manufacturer.
 

JoshO

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The structural part of the seam is the silicone between the glass panels. That’s what holds the tank together. The rest of it is the internal squeeze out a that usually gets referred to as the ‘seal’, but really only serves to protect the structural part. Having said that, it is not good that the internal ‘seal’ is separating from the glass. Whatever is causing that may also affect the structural parts. While I suspect the tank isn’t going to fail tomorrow, no way to know for sure and I would be contacting the manufacturer.
That is the silicone between the glass, not the "seal"
 

Millwright

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Personally as stated above I would drain it immediately. To the point if you don’t have a spare tank or garbage can I would put rock in the sump and dump all the water down the drain. This seam failing is your warning. Be thankful you noticed this before a complete failure. My belief is the next event will with be an insurance claim if you don’t drain it. .
I’ve had a seam fail. be just be glad you got warning that it’s failing instead of water on the floor.
 

JoshH

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The structural part of the seam is the silicone between the glass panels. That’s what holds the tank together. The rest of it is the internal squeeze out a that usually gets referred to as the ‘seal’, but really only serves to protect the structural part. Having said that, it is not good that the internal ‘seal’ is separating from the glass. Whatever is causing that may also affect the structural parts. While I suspect the tank isn’t going to fail tomorrow, no way to know for sure and I would be contacting the manufacturer.

@ca1ore if you look at the second last photo closely you can clearly see the separation is WELL beyond the "Seal" and 3/4's through the structural portion of the seam.

@TheKylersFire I would as others have mentioned, take a few more photos and drain it. It's probably VERY close to failing especially where the separation is occurring..
 

ca1ore

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@ca1ore if you look at the second last photo closely you can clearly see the separation is WELL beyond the "Seal" and 3/4's through the structural portion of the seam.

I would as others have mentioned, take a few more photos and drain it. It's probably VERY close to failing especially where the separation is occurring..

Yikes, you’re right .... perils of trying to view pictures on my phone. That’s bad, don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that before. Does seem RedSea are having more than their share of tanks problems. Surprised more glass tanks makers don’t eurobrace the bottom seams.
 

Quietman

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How old is tank? Take photos with time stamp both for Red Sea and your home insurance just in case. If it's in the main silicone joint, you're going to have to drain it. I have no idea if that's how blow outs start but I'd have a hard time sleeping.
 

JoshH

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Yikes, you’re right .... perils of trying to view pictures on my phone. That’s bad, don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that before.

I didn't see it at first either, I couldn't see anything atall and thought I was going crazy. Probably because we don't expect to find something that bad.
 

Mastiffsrule

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Surprised more glass tanks makers don’t eurobrace the bottom seams.

That is an interesting idea I would have never thought of, but I could see that as somethings really helpful. The only thing I wonder in this case is that the failure a result of pressure or the build quality?
 

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