HELP! My stand is splitting!!!!

hoopscity

Premium Member
:worried2:

aghh... my tank stand is splitting. I bought it along with my tank when i set it up 2 months ago. Its a 60 gallon acrylic tank. My first mistake was probably just placing the tank on the carpet directly. Anywho, the stand is splitting on the left end of the tank. I can see the wood starting to split a little at the seams but what is more scary is the wood is bowing under the pressure of the tank.... its not signficant yet, but I'm worried it will keep getting worse as time goes on.... Any ideas on what I can do? Should I replace the stand? And if so, how do I move my tank?
drain it all?
drain it half way?

please help!!!
 
Drain it all and try to save half the water. If you get 6 5 gallon buckets from the hardware store, you can save half your water and throw the other half away. Then take that stand back and get a new one.
 
What are you waiting for? Hurry up and go to the nearest Home Depot or Target store and get a 50 gal. Rubbermaid storage container and tear down that tank before you lose everything.
 
Yeah, go - run - RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN AND WHATEVER YOU DO ---- DON'T LOOK BACK!:eek2:

Seriously, I had the same problem.. hesitation in this hobby is not good, at least when it comes to stands and tanks cracking or giving way :)
 
I would buy some ratcheting straps from your hardware store and winch it up(around) to be safe until you can get it moved and replaced
 
Since he he has yet to reply, either of the following has/is happening -

1 - the tank met its doom - doubtful but possible

2 - the stand is getting worse and hes arguing with the seller of the stand trying to get a new one

3 - he made a temporary "band-aid" in the meantime while he is at work

4 - he got a new stand and is currently switching everything over

5 - hes got the wet dry vac out sucking up all the water :)


I think everything is ok - at least I hope it is.
 
Definately get that stand replaced ASAP! Why not build one yourself and not worry about another mass produced underbuilt POS stand again. In my opinion a few pieces of plywood (or worse yet particle board) held together with staples is not enough. I am sure it works great on paper to an engineer talking about shear strength and all that but they fail to factor in real life. I am talking about the uneven floors we put them on (no matter how well shimmed) and the water that WILL get spilled in and on the stand. Sorry just had to vent a little:D Hope you get it all worked out with good results.

Bender
 
6 - he's curled up in the corner singing mr crowley by ozzy osbourne as fast as he can swinging back and forth :confused:

haha
 
Hoop

Get a rubermaid coutainer save everything and return that POS.

Hey Bender

Just taking up for those of us engineers that do know about the real word. I do know the type you are talking about boy are they a PITA.
 
that is an awesome song, ozzy rules. yeah yeah get a new stand like everyone says. or use duct tape, duct tape fixes everything. just use a lot of it.
 
Duck tape might work but the major flaw with it, is if anything is wet or gets wet.. it is worthless.

They need a SUPER DUCT Tape! Flame, Water, Acid resistant. We can only hope.
 
Well... I guess this thread exploded while i was away.
I'm still alive after all!!

Here's the story:

7:30 AM - I wake up this morning, after semi sleeping, and first thing i check up on obviously is the tank. Everything seems okay, the stand is still pretty much in the same state, so I leave it be, as I had to head off to church. I called the LFS after posting and they said to bring in some pictures.

12:30 PM
I get home from church haul *** over to the LFS with the pictures and show them what's happening. I dropped most of my money on these guys and I was going to demand they help me! Lucky enough I didn't have to say much, they hd an extra tank stand (the same one, Island??) in stock so they just gave it to me. I loaded it onto my truck and off I went.

12:45 PM
Quck stop into target. I pick up 3 rubbermaids... (30gallon, 18gallon, 10 gallon) and load those into my truck, and haul home as fast as I can.

1:30 PM
I'm home!!! My tank is still standing :D and I drain my water storage tank and start mixing salt and water in the 10 gallon only to realize i don't have enough salt! My friend is on his way over to help move the tank so I get him to stop by at Pet Co to get some salt for me. I rinse out all the rubbermaids, and start the ro/di making more water. Thank God for PetCo!!!

2:00 PM
I began the massive task. Buf of course I plan to have this all done by 5:30 so i can watch the nets lakers game. HAHAHAHHAHAA wishful thinking.... (err the nets winning or me finishing in time?) Anyways, I shut everything off and I begin draining water from the tank into the rubbermaids.

2:30 PM
Water is 75% drained, fish and corals are in the rubbermaids along with most of my LR. (a coupla shrooms, a xenia, hammer, bubble, 2 clowns, yellow polyps, and a bicolor blenny). My buddies show up at this point and kinda just watch me freak out.

3:00 PM
I have powerheads in the two rubbermaids and everything looks okay so far in there. I drain some more water into 3 buckets to use again.

3:30 PM
Finally, enough water is out of the tank, and I get my friends over to move the tank (they had turned on the tv and popped in top gun on the big screen while i was freaking out :mad:

The tank is off and placed on some chairs.

At this point i move the stand out, and it now I look to see how it got so screwed up.... apparently i had some water spillage inside the tank that caused the wood to start warping... ARGH!!!!

I move out the old stand, drill a hole in the new stand, and move it into place. I spend about an hour looking around trying to get something to protect the wood but can't seem to find anything good around the house to use. I finally decide to put the sump in the middle of the stand. Now the negative to this is if the hose to the overflow ever leaks at the bulkhead, i'm screwed!!


5:00 PM
I finally get the stand drilled and my roommate (who is now home, and my buddies now done with the movie decided to head out around 4:30 to go and watch the game elsewhere!!! :mad: ) helps me place the tank on the stand.

I turn on the tv and intermittently start watching the game. I pump the water from my buckets back into the tank. My sand bed is totally stirred up now, NOT GOOD!!!!

5:30 PM
I continue to fill the tank. I pump the new water that's been mixing for the last coupla hours into the tank and make a new batch.

6:30 PM
All the LR without corals on it is back in the tank. The Lakers are winning.. NOOOOO!!! The tank is mostly full by now.

7:00 PM
The corals and fish go into the tank.

7:30 PM
The Nets are winning!!!! I add more water into the tank, and start up the skimmer and the pumps in the sump. Water is really cloudy! fish and corals are probably ****ed as heck with me.

8:00 PM
The Nets Lose again! Sigh...... I hate the lakers! My tank is starting to settle down.... I look around in my living room and it looks like a war zone....

8:30 PM
II move some of my LR and corals around some more, wasn't happy entirely with the aquascaping.

9:00 PM
Okay things seem back in order now. The new stand is in place, the lights are on, the water is settling. I start cleaning up. Boy I'm hungry....

9:30 PM
Still can't believe the Nets let one slip away. I feed my fish. They go nuts, but still seem quite upset with me.... I then feed my self.

10:30 PM
tank is clearing up real nice now. skimmer is going crazy. snails are out on the sand.... everybody seems happy again. including me as I'm sitting here updating y'all on RC.

until my next adventure... What a day!!!!

Here are some pics of the damage. I'll get some pics of the new setup once i have a chance to take a few new shots...



damage1.jpg

damage2.jpg
 
Wow. Its nice to hear that the LFS didn't give you too much hassle with the stand.

Looking at the cracking and warping, that thing looks like it was going to bust.:eek1:
 
I don't think a little water spillage would cause that. Did your carpet get wet and stay saturated for a while? Could it have been damaged before you set it up?

Just trying to say don't go to back to the lfs and claim guilt unless your sure it was your fault.

david
 
heheh yeah. i was totally freaking out....

good thing the stand held up for a while. But yeah any longer and i think it woulda just busted out.

Thanks for making me laugh thru the posts... i was half expecting y'all to start taking bets on what I was doing :D

I still need to take the stand in so they may ask me to pay since it was water damage... :(

now that the tank has settled down a bit:

new1.jpg
 
yeah i think part of it was due to some water spillage... but still
i don't see how the stand could have seriously been that damaged. I personally don't think the stand is very well built. but given the time constraints and circumstances I had to get the same stand.

I think long term, I will upgrade to a bigger tank within the next year or so, and at that point its gonna be DIY all the way!!!

Even though this was a painful experience, and my tank is only 2 months old... I'm still loving this hobby!!!

Of course I still haven't faced the algae wars yet... hopefully i dont :)
 
Back
Top