The Journey Continues - Mike & Terry's 280g Reef Savvy

[SPSREEFS]

In all fairness to marineland their tanks come with a lifetime guarantee if you use their stand. Did you use their stands on these tanks???
They make some of the nicest large tanks I have ever seen. Sorry to hear about the failures, bit tanks of this size need very precise and level stanks.
If they are not perfectly level and built right failures will occur.
I just cannot imagine the tank was notnpit together correctly.....

 

[hatfielj]

That is my dream tank for sure! Those dimensions are to die for! Ha ha! Beautiful workmanship. Can't wait to see it mature

 

[spspirate]

Looks as if you guys are off to a great start! Glad to see the progression......hard work is starting to pay off!! Good luck guys can't wait to see this beast in reef mode!!

 

[jt17]

Your resilience is inspirational. You've experienced our worst tank nightmare twice and you perservere. I've read most of your other build thread and am very much looking forward to following along.

FWIW, your stand looks very well built. It's likely not the stand. There's a LFS in Orlando who stopped carrying marine land after there 300 DD did the exact same thing as yours.

 

[Mike&Terry]

First off, your tank prior to the tank failure is one of the very best I've ever seen. Certainly worthy of TOTM

The new tank looks great and the remodeling of the fish room is no less then "brilliant"!! You have outstanding taste. Very much looking forward to updates and thrilled I'm subscribed. Get that beast WET!!

Looking amazing can't wait to see this tank wet

Woah! The tile wall is amazing. You guys are so handy! The reef savvy tank is just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing!!!

Most amazing, love the backsplash, of course now I want one. It never ends

Wow, beautiful. Having been following through both tank failures and don't know if I would stay in the hobby after all that. This is going to be an epic build and will be following.

So sorry about your 300. I can't imagine.
Congrats on the new build! The tile is amazing and love the bonsai structure.

I've followed your tanks for years and I'll be enjoying the progression on this one! Glad to see you went with a bomb proof tank!!!

Wow I can't believe you had a SECOND blowout with marine land, after my 120 I was so scared getting a second one, and now y'all got me worried lol.

But glad y'all are still goin! That new tank looks insane!

Awesome tank build!!!

Thanks so much to ALL of YOU for the kind words and for taking the time to participate in our continuing journey. We truly are appreciative!!!

Man I am so glad to see you guys progressing with the new tank after all you went through. Y'all always do things excellent and this new system is no exception!

Thank You very much Rev!

In all fairness to marineland their tanks come with a lifetime guarantee if you use their stand. Did you use their stands on these tanks???
They make some of the nicest large tanks I have ever seen. Sorry to hear about the failures, bit tanks of this size need very precise and level stanks.
If they are not perfectly level and built right failures will occur.
I just cannot imagine the tank was notnpit together correctly.....

We would prefer not to spend a lot of time dwelling on what happened with the previous tanks in this thread, but for those who don't know the history and don't care to browse through the old build threads for details, we will re-cap. Our last 300g tank was a custom Marineland tank which was a replacement for the first that failed in 2010 due to a bottom seal rupture. At that time, there were 3 (including ours) deep dimension tanks in our area that failed due to a bottom seal rupture within a 2 month period (2 were within a week). The other 2 tanks were quickly replaced under warranty. Ours had been drilled by the LFS, so technically, wasn't covered under warranty. However, the tank was replaced for us 7 months later (2011 - at no cost to us) with the custom Marineland 300 - Standard glass (not Starphyre), custom center overflow box, 3" bottom eurobracing, drilled for closed loop.

During the build of the custom tank, the bottom 3/4" sheet of glass was cracked by the manufacturer while drilling bulk heads. The tank had to be disassembled/reassembled. Two weeks after it was installed, the center overflow box PEELED away from the back glass - all the way down one side, and halfway down the other . The tank had to be drained (over Easter weekend) and all livestock/rock/sand moved to a temporary 180g stock vat for a week for the repair. Interestingly, Perfecto stopped manufacturing custom tanks shortly after that. They did finally offer to pay for the repair ($75 ). The customer service representative was quite abrasive over the phone and informed us that no future warranty claims would be honored going forward. Really?!?

As for the stand, after the seal rupture on the first tank and devastating damage to our home, we brought in a structural engineer for both the floor support and the NEW stand, rather than relying on the LFS as we had done with the original 300. The stand was/is level and over-built by design. The pinhole leak in the custom tank was caused by a bubble in the silicone in the back left corner.

Your resilience is inspirational. You've experienced our worst tank nightmare twice and you persevere. I've read most of your other build thread and am very much looking forward to following along.

FWIW, your stand looks very well built. It's likely not the stand. There's a LFS in Orlando who stopped carrying marine land after there 300 DD did the exact same thing as yours.

Thank You for your kind words of support and for taking the time to participate in our thread! We have had more than our fair share of hard knocks, but we have also learned a lot along the way. We have complete confidence in the build integrity of our new Reef Savvy and are looking forward to good things ahead...

 

[Mike&Terry]

That is my dream tank for sure! Those dimensions are to die for! Ha ha! Beautiful workmanship. Can't wait to see it mature

Thank You! We went two inches shorter with the 25" height this time to make it a bit easier to reach the bottom.

Looks as if you guys are off to a great start! Glad to see the progression......hard work is starting to pay off!! Good luck guys can't wait to see this beast in reef mode!!

Thanks so much Andy!

 

[harley3]

Sorry to hear about the tank failures. I look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[Borchers]

I've read so many horror stories about the Marineland tanks busting seams. For the outrages costs of the ML tanks you would think the build would be held to a higher standard

 

[Scottsquatch]

Well now I don't know if I should even set up my 220....it's a Marineland.

 

[underwaterfirefighter]

Looks amazing! Did Brad do your tile work? It looks great! If I would have known you were doing tile I would have come and helped. I've been doing tile around 20 years. Again. Awesome job!

 

[Mike&Terry]

Sorry to hear about the tank failures. I look forward to seeing your progress.

Thank You harley!

I've read so many horror stories about the Marineland tanks busting seams. For the outrages costs of the ML tanks you would think the build would be held to a higher standard

We were drawn to the 300 deep dimension because of the 36" depth (front to back). It is a lot of tank for the price. We were a bit naive with the first 300 and learned some hard lessons. Had we known what we were getting into, we would have gone with a custom tank builder from the start, rather than choosing a tank that is mass produced.

Well now I don't know if I should even set up my 220....it's a Marineland.

The only issue we've heard with the 220g tanks is with the top bracing cracking/splitting. Not sure whether this is still an issue with them or not.

 

[Mike&Terry]

Looks amazing! Did Brad do your tile work? It looks great! If I had known you were doing tile I would have come and helped. I've been doing tile around 20 years. Again. Awesome job!

Thank You! Wish we had known that... You would have been hired on the spot! We wish Brad (or another tile expert like yourself) had done the work as it could have been done so much better! He was kind enough to give us some advice beforehand though.

 

[smtwinn]

I totally understand your problem with Marineland tanks. I had a 250g DD did fine for 1 year 364 days on exactly the 2 year anniversary it had massive seam failure. Luckily I had water sensors installed on my home alarm system. When the tank started leaking it set my home alarm off at 1:30 in the morning. I caught it with about 20-30g of water on floor. Immediately went into drain mode. It's a huge decision to stay in the hobby once something like this happens. I, like you went with a custom build from Planet Aquariums. I also upgraded from 250 to 300. Good luck in the new build.

 

[Mark...]

I remember the first failure and rebuild. Can't believe it happened again. I'm surprised you didn't go with an over built acrylic this time. But then again the guy from Canada had a failure with his 1100 L shaped tank built by the "Tanked" team. New tank is beautiful. Best of luck, you guys are artists with your tanks.

 

[billw]

I remember the first failure and rebuild. Can't believe it happened again. I'm surprised you didn't go with an over built acrylic this time. But then again the guy from Canada had a failure with his 1100 L shaped tank built by the "Tanked" team. New tank is beautiful. Best of luck, you guys are artists with your tanks.

They went with the best! (Disclaimer: not affiliated, just another customer).

 

[Mark...]

Meant to ask: What do they mean by "Armored seams"? Sounds like a good idea...

 

[usernam invalid]

Great to see you guys back at it good luck with the new tank

 

[Lowell Lemon]

They went with the best! (Disclaimer: not affiliated, just another customer).

The guy with the 1100 gallon flood in Canada might not agree that they are the best. Pretty sure that is not ATM's only failure. Just saying.

Building large tanks is risky business no matter if it is glass (more risk) or acrylic. My insurance company would not underwrite glass tank manufacturing so we used acrylic for over 30 years. I had one failure due to commercially sold solvents and too thin of material (1/2 " for a 300 gallon "industry standard" tank 96" x 24" x 30"). Some in the industry are still willing to mass produce tanks that are on the thin side for glass and acrylic due to the fact that most tanks only run for a year or two and end up in the garage sale. (Published industry statistic from many years ago).

For larger tanks you are better off at least using the stresses and strains formulas found on several sites that calculate panel thickness due to length and height of the largest panel.

Silicones for glass are a problem unless you use high quality german silicones or equivalents for glass. One manufacture used to test each batch before constructing tanks. If the silicone was bad the batch was returned and the replacement tested. This made inventory control a battle for the manufacturer until they just gave up and closed production.

Add the problems of mass produced stands and cabinets and you have a potential problem for any tank 55 gallons and above. Particle board or MDF painted or not is not suitable for use in wet environments. One seam or screw hole that is not sealed and the water starts to swell the board. If the swell is under a tank then a fracture can result. I have seen this in several glass tanks with this type of stand or cabinet. I have seen MDF so wet and swollen it was a fortunate that the tank did not hit the floor before we got it drained and broken down.

Even with all the attention to detail these are hand made and prone to human error. Most people do not set out to build a tank that fails but some have had more than their fair share so buyer beware. If a company starts to become agressive on the phone about a warranty it would be best to shop elsewhere in the future.

Many times you get what you pay for.

 

[Mike&Terry]

I totally understand your problem with Marineland tanks. I had a 250g DD did fine for 1 year 364 days on exactly the 2 year anniversary it had massive seam failure. Luckily I had water sensors installed on my home alarm system. When the tank started leaking it set my home alarm off at 1:30 in the morning. I caught it with about 20-30g of water on floor. Immediately went into drain mode. It's a huge decision to stay in the hobby once something like this happens. I, like you went with a custom build from Planet Aquariums. I also upgraded from 250 to 300. Good luck in the new build.

Thanks for the support and so sorry to see this happened to you as well. I have to admit I felt a bit queasy watching your video...

I remember the first failure and rebuild. Can't believe it happened again. I'm surprised you didn't go with an over built acrylic this time. But then again the guy from Canada had a failure with his 1100 L shaped tank built by the "Tanked" team. New tank is beautiful. Best of luck, you guys are artists with your tanks.

Meant to ask: What do they mean by "Armored seams"? Sounds like a good idea...

Mark, thank you for the compliment and support! A large acrylic display just isn't for us. Yes they are crystal clear, at least til they get scratched. After running a 60g acrylic frag tank and a 70g sump for a few years now, we know it would be impossible for us to keep a large display scratch free.

We're paraphrasing here from the RS site: Armored Seams are glass reinforced seams which protect joints against magnet cleaners and contribute to the structural integrity of the aquarium.
It was our choice to add this option as Felix told us it wasn't required for our build. We like the additional layer of protection and are glad we went with them.

Great to see you guys back at it good luck with the new tank

Thank You so much!

The guy with the 1100 gallon flood in Canada might not agree that they are the best. Pretty sure that is not ATM's only failure. Just saying.

Building large tanks is risky business no matter if it is glass (more risk) or acrylic. My insurance company would not underwrite glass tank manufacturing so we used acrylic for over 30 years. I had one failure due to commercially sold solvents and too thin of material (1/2 " for a 300 gallon "industry standard" tank 96" x 24" x 30"). Some in the industry are still willing to mass produce tanks that are on the thin side for glass and acrylic due to the fact that most tanks only run for a year or two and end up in the garage sale. (Published industry statistic from many years ago).

For larger tanks you are better off at least using the stresses and strains formulas found on several sites that calculate panel thickness due to length and height of the largest panel.

Silicones for glass are a problem unless you use high quality german silicones or equivalents for glass. One manufacture used to test each batch before constructing tanks. If the silicone was bad the batch was returned and the replacement tested. This made inventory control a battle for the manufacturer until they just gave up and closed production.

Add the problems of mass produced stands and cabinets and you have a potential problem for any tank 55 gallons and above. Particle board or MDF painted or not is not suitable for use in wet environments. One seam or screw hole that is not sealed and the water starts to swell the board. If the swell is under a tank then a fracture can result. I have seen this in several glass tanks with this type of stand or cabinet. I have seen MDF so wet and swollen it was a fortunate that the tank did not hit the floor before we got it drained and broken down.

Even with all the attention to detail these are hand made and prone to human error. Most people do not set out to build a tank that fails but some have had more than their fair share so buyer beware. If a company starts to become agressive on the phone about a warranty it would be best to shop elsewhere in the future.

Many times you get what you pay for.

Interesting stuff there, Lowell. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Black Pearl]

Meant to ask: What do they mean by "Armored seams"? Sounds like a good idea...

Adds strength and integrity to the tank and protects the seams from being torn by your algae scrapper. This is the only tank I know that's actually built like a Tank