glass cages .com tank cracked, almost burned down my house. For real.

[ca1ore]

I have had dozens of tanks drilled, by myself and by tank builders, over the course of 30 years and none have been polished. None have cracked either . Certainly possible that a rushed drilling job started a crack. Seems unlikely that a hand tightened bulkhead would be able to crack 12mm glass.

 

[FullBoreReefer]

Is that the norm in most instances? I don't have my plumbing supported. I have two bulkheads with....I don't know...maybe a foot and a half of some sort of flex PVC hanging down into my sump.

Here is mine. Mine comes out of my bulkheads and into a 90, then it spans about 18"-22" before another 90 dropping vertical about 24" into the sump.

I've always supported my plumbing, side impacts and "bending" of plumbing can and will crack glass.

 

[zachogden]

everyone seems a little harsh.

when you come on a hobbyist forum with almost 400,000 members and blame a well known tank manufacturer for your system catastrophically failing, there's a lot of important questions to be asked. not saying who's at fault here, as I've had a tank explode (twice...) so I know how frustrating it is, but a bold accusation comes with bold responses

 

[DancingShark]

I just want to see the plumbing at this point. Or at least all the pictures you sent in as evidence. Sounds like your just giving us what you want us to see at this point.

What happened really does sucks. I really want to know more. Best wishes.

 

[ClownNut]

Is that the norm in most instances? I don't have my plumbing supported. I have two bulkheads with....I don't know...maybe a foot and a half of some sort of flex PVC hanging down into my sump.

depend on how the plumbing is coming out the back.
if the plumbing coming out horizontally then go down, i would support the weight. the weight will cause a torque and if you bump into it, it might crack the bulkhead or pipe or worst crack the tank, the older the bulkhead and pipe the more likely those will give out before the glass.
if for ghost overflow or external overflow glue to the back of the tank and plumbing coming out of the bottom and only run a short distant then into your sump. i would secure the pipes in place, so you dont accidentally move the pipes and bulkheads.

 

[mfinn]

Really sorry to read about the tank failure.
But I have to agree with the majority here that the crack was not caused by not polishing the hole.
I've had dozens of holes drilled in tanks ( done a half dozen myself) and none of them have ever been polished.
Something else caused the crack.
I'm not going to say the blame is on you.
I just wanted to say I hope you have good luck dealing with your insurance company.

 

[Lsufan]

I agree not polishing the hole isn’t what caused the leak. It’s really all speculation what & who actually caused it. Glass can be damaged & not be visible to the eye. So it possibly could have been damaged by the drilling. Drilling glass is relatively easy & being these guys do it all the time it would seem unlikely that was the cause. It is definitely possible though, so called professionals make mistakes all the time & some do more then others.

It could have also been caused in transport & not visually seen on setup. Drilled holes are the weakest spot when it comes to are tanks which is why it is so important to support the plumbing. U also have to be careful supporting it so u don’t put pressure on it by supporting it. The post above explained it well, the plumbing is like a big lever or breaker bar used to get leverage & all the pressure goes to the weakest part of the glass.

 

[rvareef]

bulkhead/plumbing pics? update?

 

[tank o tang]

So the tank was set up for almost 5 months then leaked? Any chance bulkhead started to leak and you cracked the tank when you came down early morning and started trying to get the tank to stop leaking (turning pipes or ball valves)? What panel was drilled and where?

 

[Joe0813]

still no pictures?

 

[IPT]

Is that the norm in most instances? I don't have my plumbing supported. I have two bulkheads with....I don't know...maybe a foot and a half of some sort of flex PVC hanging down into my sump.

Never a bad idea to get a clamp type of bracket and secure it. I only cracked one tank (never polished any holes ever, and I've drilled 10+ even with some chips too) and that was when I accidentally bumped the plumbing down pipe. Just too much leverage. It's a small investment (like $1) that as you can see might save you thousands of $$. In fact I am re-doing my tank now and this is a good reminder to plan some sort of bracket to secure the plumbing!

OP - that just plan sucks. Timeframe is a bit long to blame it on the builder but who knows. At the end of the day though thank goodness you and your family are alright. I would keep at it with the insurance. What's the point of having insurance if it doesn't pay for an accident such as this!?

 

[IPT]

Is that the norm in most instances? I don't have my plumbing supported. I have two bulkheads with....I don't know...maybe a foot and a half of some sort of flex PVC hanging down into my sump.

Never a bad idea to get a clamp type of bracket and secure it. I only cracked one tank (never polished any holes ever, and I've drilled 10+ even with some chips too) and that was when I accidentally bumped the plumbing down pipe. Just too much leverage. It's a small investment (like $1) that as you can see might save you thousands of $$. In fact I am re-doing my tank now and this is a good reminder to plan some sort of bracket to secure the plumbing!

OP - that just plan sucks. Timeframe is a bit long to blame it on the builder but who knows. At the end of the day though thank goodness you and your family are alright. I would keep at it with the insurance. What's the point of having insurance if it doesn't pay for an accident such as this!?

 

[alton]

I keep seeing from other members about Insurance will pay, everyone needs to read their policy. I had to change insurance companies because the one I had was not going to pay for any damages if something happened to my tank and it flooded my house.

 

[natanitelite]

OP, I am so sorry this happened to you. Regardless of the reason, it's just awful. Like BrianD said, we all just want to see the details so we can attempt to mitigate some of our own risk. To that point, I just took a flashlight to the 180 I'm about to set back up just to calm my own nerves a bit.

A good reminder to all of us to carefully read our insurance policies.

Yikes.

 

[ClownNut]

A good reminder to all of us to carefully read our insurance policies.

Yikes.

or find an insurance agent that know your needs. i am lucky enough, my agent has a bigger system at home then I do.:lol::lol: he knows what i need.:dance::dance: