What's up with the recent Red Sea Tank failures? 750XXL ? *UPDATE* Design Flaw CONFIRMED by Red Sea !!!

[Dale Winell]

I second this, I’d love to know how the rope helped. I would’ve never thought of that. Very good idea but sucks it happened. 750 are know for many issues.

Rope with twisting tourniquet slowed leak till fish could be removed by our knowledgeable aquarium maintenance person. He was amazing but still hope all will survive. Am feeling so sad.

 

[Ross Petersen]

I was in contact with Red Sea. They will be sending a replacement tank since my tank is under warranty. The implication is I might see an entirely new system as the new tanks aren’t compatible. With my version. That would be great if it goes that way. But I’m not one to count my chickens before they are hatched.

Is the new system going to be any different? Any word from Red Sea about new features to promote greater stability? (e.g., new silicone, more bracing of the stands, eurobracing for larger tanks, etc.)

 

[Mark]

Have a 135 gallon tank Red Sea for two years. It cost a small fortune to establish a beautiful well balanced tank with corals, sea anemones and variety of expensive fish. Woke this morning to hear water dripping. Back corner of tank was separating. Water pouring out. In panic tied rope around tank. Managed to slow leak until our tank caretaker came to save fish and bring them to another tank in his home. What is wrong with quality control at Red Sea. This is a very expensive hobby with great reward at viewing such beauty. Red Sea needs more oversight in their product. I am heart sick over this loss

Do you mind sharing which model?

 

[bsagea]

Really sad that these tanks keep failing. Keep hearing more and more about them and they're certainly not cheap! We have (2) Oceanic and a custom cube by a local maker. Back glass panel on the cube cracked - half circle from the center by the overflow to the corner. No idea why. By the grace of God the (7) or (8) coats of black latex paint is the only thing that helped to keep the water in the tank. There was a bubble of water at the back where it cracked. Must have happened pretty close to the time we got up 5am. No water on our floors but certainly can feel your pain and know how disheartening this is!!! Tankmaster replaced the back glass and thank God every morning when we get up and see it's still holding together! Really wish Oceanic was still making tanks. By far, they were one of the best aquarium makers out there!
bsa

 

[Mark]

I have two red sea reefer tanks and am seriously considering shutting them down. I had my finished basement flood due to a plumbing issue, and the thought of a hobby causing the same potential damage is not sitting well with me.

 

[Barks]

I’d forgotten about this issue after worrying for 3 months, tanks been running for 12 months now, just checked it and now I’m worrying again. how can one of the best get away with selling crap for stupid money??
mine will crack one day, hopefully I will have upgraded to a better designed one.

tank nearly touching sides of cabinet and cabinet bows down in center creating a gap....

 

[AZMSGT]

Is the new system going to be any different? Any word from Red Sea about new features to promote greater stability? (e.g., new silicone, more bracing of the stands, eurobracing for larger tanks, etc.)

The new tank has 3/4” glass now on the sides and bottom. Previous had 1/2”. Also has new thicker armor in the corners. The stand has many modifications too. Look at my build to see the changes. It’s all posted there.

 

[Barks]

They still haven’t put the top of the cabinet on top of the side panels!

 

[AZMSGT]

They still haven’t put the top of the cabinet on top of the side panels!

If you have an older model get the retrofit kit direct from RedSea. It's free. It will help secure your system.

Yes and no. On my 625 they added a ledger on the inside of the side panels that is attached to the side panels that the upper panel sits on and is attached to. They also added several more fasteners to secure the sides to the back and top panel. There is now a piece of aluminum angle the goes across the entire length of the top panel. The floor is now secured to all the side panels which tightens it up and stops bottom flex. Lastly they added the center support on the left cabinet. Over all it's a much more secure and stable stand than it was. After building both units I trust the new stand over the old stand by a land slide.

 

[eeeeek]

I just found this page through my recent imminent failure. Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL, purchased February 2019, front seam starting to go all the way across the bottom. First indication of the issue was sand down in the seam. Red Sea will be sending me a new tank and stand under warranty. I have a lot of reading to catch up on.

For reference, stand is on a concrete slab.

 

[JaimeAdams]

I have a customer ( I run a LFS ) who sent my a video of a waterfall coming out of the bottom front seal of his first generation 750 yesterday. I went to his house this morning and right in the middle of the open expanse the bottom posable and front panel and split. I wish I would have known about the retrofit fix prior to the tank failure.

 

[Pntbll687]

I have a customer ( I run a LFS ) who sent my a video of a waterfall coming out of the bottom front seal of his first generation 750 yesterday. I went to his house this morning and right in the middle of the open expanse the bottom posable and front panel and split. I wish I would have known about the retrofit fix prior to the tank failure.

Was this a used tank?

If they bought it new from you, some responsibility is on the consumer to register the product with the manufacturer.

Recalls happen. Quality control in production can fail. This is why registering products is important. Manufacturers WANT to fix things, so they're not scrambling to fix problems just like the one you and your customer are going through now.

Get in contact with the red sea territory rep in your area, probably going to be easiest way to get through all the back and forth bs.

 

[JaimeAdams]

Was this a used tank?

If they bought it new from you, some responsibility is on the consumer to register the product with the manufacturer.

Recalls happen. Quality control in production can fail. This is why registering products is important. Manufacturers WANT to fix things, so they're not scrambling to fix problems just like the one you and your customer are going through now.

Get in contact with the red sea territory rep in your area, probably going to be easiest way to get through all the back and forth bs.

It was a new tank that we sold him. It was at the beginning of the product line though so the 2yr and probably even 3yr warranty period has expired. Obviously he is not happy about a $4,000 tanks having a seam issue after 3 or 4 years, but it is what it is. Our display 170 had the top seam split between the side and back panels at the store. It was out of warranty as well. RedSea did offer me a replacement tank for around $450 - $500 with shipping on the reefer 170.

 

[Marco S]

 

[Pntbll687]

While I agree that the customer should have registered it...This has been a known issue for a long time now and as an LFS who is selling these tanks you should have known about this and ordered the retro fit kit or at least let the customer know about it so they could have ordered it. Part of that responsibility should be on you to educate and help your customers, (or at least any good LFS would see it that way).

I know should have is of no use now, but for future reference you may want to stay on top of your trade. I am an IT Consultant and I guaranty that if I left a customer with a known security exploit in their system that got exploited, I would never work in IT again

The difference in your IT analogy is in that scenario you "knew" about the issue.

Both the customer and the lfs owner may not have known about the recall. Just because someone owns an lfs doesn't mean they know everything about every brand of tank. And this could have been the only 750 they ever sold, probably even before the retrofit came out.

This scenario is more like a car dealer selling a car and it having a recall 3 years after it was sold. When that happens, it is the MANUFACTURER responsibility to contact owners of the vehicle, not the dealer. And the manufacturer can't contact the owner of the vehicle if they never register the car.

 

[MnFish1]

The difference in your IT analogy is in that scenario you "knew" about the issue.

Both the customer and the lfs owner may not have known about the recall. Just because someone owns an lfs doesn't mean they know everything about every brand of tank. And this could have been the only 750 they ever sold, probably even before the retrofit came out.

This scenario is more like a car dealer selling a car and it having a recall 3 years after it was sold. When that happens, it is the MANUFACTURER responsibility to contact owners of the vehicle, not the dealer. And the manufacturer can't contact the owner of the vehicle if they never register the car.

Supposedly, according to Redsea - they notified all dealers and customers about the issue and the 'fix'. there was never (that I know of) a 'recall'. It is the customer's responsibility to register the tank. If they had registered the tank - they would have gotten a notice. I would 'guess' that any LFS that sold Redsea reefers were also notified of the problem and at least at my LFS - they were sent equipment to fix the problem directly from Redsea (my LFS contacted me after Redsea contacted them). I do not believe the time from when the tank was sold is an issue (it would have been covered with the warranty no matter what - and probably still is).

 

[Frogspon]

Are any woodworkers here suprised?

The stands are made out of the crappiest material for water resistance and have an open water source enclosed in it + water splashing around it daily.

 

[eeeeek]

Supposedly, according to Redsea - they notified all dealers and customers about the issue and the 'fix'. there was never (that I know of) a 'recall'. It is the customer's responsibility to register the tank. If they had registered the tank - they would have gotten a notice. I would 'guess' that any LFS that sold Redsea reefers were also notified of the problem and at least at my LFS - they were sent equipment to fix the problem directly from Redsea (my LFS contacted me after Redsea contacted them). I do not believe the time from when the tank was sold is an issue (it would have been covered with the warranty no matter what - and probably still is).

Let's go with reality. The LFS that sold me kine had never heard of the recall. I never heard of it, either, until I had a failure. Don't try to place a design flaw on me. I never heard about the brace, but i had three lights replaced under warranty, so I must have been I. The records somewhere.

As for the recall brace, once I got the v3 stand, I could see a huge improvement. The v3 stand actually supports the entire from piece of glass, where the v1 stand, even with the recall brace, does not.

 

[JaimeAdams]

When we sold the customer the tank we were an authorized Red Sea dealer. Some time later we were no longer an authorized dealer. This change came when they forced the stores to stock 3 of each of their products. Being a smaller store we felt that buying the tanks direct and saving 5% over buying from one of our big wholesalers was not worth losing that amount of retail space. I can tell you that we were never informed of a retrofit kit, had we still been an authorized dealer we may have been.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Are any woodworkers here suprised?

The stands are made out of the crappiest material for water resistance and have an open water source enclosed in it + water splashing around it daily.

Yeah, I would never use such cheap materials and flimsy design for a stand that I built myself.
Having owned a Red Sea tank I can say that the tanks themselves are fairly decent but the stand is utter garbage. I would expect more when paying a premium price.
My stand was all kinds of wonky but luckily the tank didn’t burst.