Why No Waterbox seam failures?

Steve and his Animals · Dec 18, 2023

From someone who works in a store that sells a lot of Red Seas, we noticed the ones that failed were often larger G1's produced around 2019. The detail I noticed the most frequently was the direction of the return: unless you used a split return outlet, the return pointed straight at the front panel. The jet of water would then constantly angle downward straight into the bottom seam of the front panel, causing what I assume to be slow but eventual separation when paired with the high general water pressure in their larger tanks.

I saw this rather explicitly in a tank one of our clients put into the third floor of their brownstone in Boston. There was sand getting between that front panel of glass and the silicone, and he wanted it taken down before it blew. This was smart of him. The G2 series seems to have fixed this issue, as they have their returns on the sides of the overflows in their bigger tanks now. I haven't heard of any G2's blowing personally, but it is a rather new line of tanks.

If you ask me, Red Sea has much better customer service than Waterbox, in my experience. As a store, we had to fight for compensation on every single issue we ran into with their tanks. That, or they would take ages to get back to us. Red Sea, on the other hand, is very prompt with helping us with issues, and they have offered to replace or even upgrade our customers to larger tanks when they had leaks or blowouts with their G1's.

That being said, having put together various tanks from both sellers, they're almost identical minus a few orientation differences. Waterbox definitely has a nicer selection of smaller tanks at the moment, however.

jimfish98 · Dec 18, 2023

ErikVR said:
When I look at the amazing build quality of my Red Sea 625. I really doubt it will ever fail. Unless maybe you set it up completely wrong and scrape away at the seems. They seem bulletproof to me.

We’ll see in time but I seriously doubt I’ll be proven wrong.

A local reefer had one of those in his office and back in October came in on a Monday to find his floors soaked and his RS625 leaking. There is a higher possibility of you getting a leak than you think.

ErikVR · Dec 18, 2023

jimfish98 said:
A local reefer had one of those in his office and back in October came in on a Monday to find his floors soaked and his RS625 leaking. There is a higher possibility of you getting a leak than you think.

That's a g2, right?

jimfish98 · Dec 18, 2023

ErikVR said:
That's a g2, right?

No idea, OP on the FB group didn't say.

ErikVR · Dec 18, 2023

I see a support in the middle and I thought only the g2 has those. But a quick Google search tells me the g1 also has the support.

I've never seen a g1 in person so I can't comment on the build quality and finish on those.

Quintin · Dec 18, 2023

Looking the video, waterbox aquariums are made by the same factory in China that Red Sea uses.

Like Apple, “designed in the USA, assembled in China”.

As for the floating front panel - both tanks have the exact same design where the front panel is not supported by anything.

Given that Waterbox have only been around since 2018, it’s probably still too early to tell if their tanks are any better than Red Sea.

jhadaway · Dec 18, 2023

I have a waterbox 100.3 and previously a peninsula 25. Love them both. I do however have a wood stand not the new aluminum.

jason2459 · Dec 18, 2023

Steve and his Animals said:
I haven't heard of any G2's blowing personally, but it is a rather new line of tanks.

Looks like a G2

May we please discuss seam breaks in 2-3 yr tanks

Can you link the video where Ryan talks about this It’s buried in the comments to the actual video 3 days ago. “Tank is 5 years old and we got one of the first 750xxl off the line. This was one of their first attempts at a larger tank. I believe the issue was the front pane was too heavy to...

www.reef2reef.com

Cell · Dec 18, 2023

Quintin said:
Looking the video, waterbox aquariums are made by the same factory in China that Red Sea uses.

Like Apple, “designed in the USA, assembled in China”.

As for the floating front panel - both tanks have the exact same design where the front panel is not supported by anything.

Given that Waterbox have only been around since 2018, it’s probably still too early to tell if their tanks are any better than Red Sea.

Perhaps made in the same factory, but certainly not the exact same specs ie measurements, glass thickness etc.

Aquavaj · Dec 18, 2023

Quintin said:
Looking the video, waterbox aquariums are made by the same factory in China that Red Sea uses.

Like Apple, “designed in the USA, assembled in China”.

As for the floating front panel - both tanks have the exact same design where the front panel is not supported by anything.

Given that Waterbox have only been around since 2018, it’s probably still too early to tell if their tanks are any better than Red Sea.

That's definitely possible but is there any confirmation that it's the same factory? Video shows the workers in Waterbox shirts but of course that could all just be promotional for the video.

RichReef · Dec 18, 2023

Fiji Cube.

Can not find any failures or problems with those either. Which is why I chose one. I am very pleased with it.

Quintin · Dec 18, 2023

Cell said:
Perhaps made in the same factory, but certainly not the exact same specs ie measurements, glass thickness etc.

No idea, never compared glass thickness, ect on a like for like basis.
But yes, thinner glass will tend to bow more as a result of water pressure, which eventually leads to tank failure.

Here is a calculator you can use to check critical glass thickness for size of tank and what’s deemed as safe.

Aquarium Calculator for Different Tank Shapes

Using this aquarium calculator, you can find out how much water your fish tank can hold.

www.omnicalculator.com

gbroadbridge · Dec 18, 2023

Quintin said:
Looking the video, waterbox aquariums are made by the same factory in China that Red Sea uses.

Like Apple, “designed in the USA, assembled in China”.

As for the floating front panel - both tanks have the exact same design where the front panel is not supported by anything.

Given that Waterbox have only been around since 2018, it’s probably still too early to tell if their tanks are any better than Red Sea.

It doesn't matter where it's made, the important thing is the engineering design, production oversight, and final QA testing.

Many very high spec items are manufactured in China, the cost cutting that causes issues are not normally at the production stage.

Quintin · Dec 18, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
It doesn't matter where it's made, the important thing is the engineering design, production oversight, and final QA testing.

Many very high spec items are manufactured in China, the cost cutting that causes issues are not normally at the production stage.

Neither at the initial QA stage - in this case on premise tank tests for leaks that only catches bad workmanship, not design.

Like any item in production, software or hardware, quality control issues will most certainly only pop up in a production environment- in this case, the customer’s home.

As per my original comment, Red Sea has been around for 31 years, WaterBox for 5 years.

Statistically speaking given enough time, tank failures from both companies will fall into a standard distribution curve.

Cell · Dec 18, 2023

Quintin said:
Statistically speaking given enough time, tank failures from both companies will fall along a standard distribution curve.

I don't think you can really make this claim. Maybe your "given enough time" makes it an ambiguous statement though.

gbroadbridge · Dec 18, 2023

Quintin said:
Statistically speaking given enough time, tank failures from both companies will fall into a standard distribution curve.

Given enough time the sun will run out of fuel

Quintin · Dec 18, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
Given enough time the sun will run out of fuel

And given enough time we all get duds.

Like this guy. Go read up.

Had the exact same problem, and the tank plus stand went in the trash and purchased something more reliable.

But to each his own.
If you like that brand, buy it.

Waterbox Frag 165.6 not level, gap on 2 corner, customer support tell me it's "normal"?!?

So, I got a Brand New beautiful waterbox frag 165.6 from waterbox aquarium. Fully assembled and find out it has a big gap on almost all corner, I can slide the paper almost everywhere under the tank. The front right corner is the worst of the bunch, I can see a 2mm gap by my eyes if I look it...

www.reef2reef.com

Cell · Dec 18, 2023

Quintin said:
And given enough time we all get duds.

Like this guy. Go read up.

Had the exact same problem, and the tank plus stand went in the trash and purchased something more reliable.

But to each his own.
If you like that brand, buy it.

Waterbox Frag 165.6 not level, gap on 2 corner, customer support tell me it's "normal"?!?

So, I got a Brand New beautiful waterbox frag 165.6 from waterbox aquarium. Fully assembled and find out it has a big gap on almost all corner, I can slide the paper almost everywhere under the tank. The front right corner is the worst of the bunch, I can see a 2mm gap by my eyes if I look it...

www.reef2reef.com