Tank disaster

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Hi steve,
I have always wondered about the force generated by these powerful wavemakers over an extended period. This too can cause tank failure in the long run.
 
Steve1714 said:
This is for those who are worrying about their tanks breaking.

First lets calculate the average force pushing on the front panel of this tank;

96" long x 30" tall = 2880 square inches
Pressure increases linear with 0 at the top and 'Y' at 30" of depth.
Y = weight of a column of sea water that is 30" high. Sea water has a weight of around 1.027 grams per cubic centimeter, there are 16.387cubic centimeters per cubic inch or 16.83 grams in a cubic inch which translates to .0361 pounds per cubic inch of sea water.
30" x .0361 = 1.083 pounds per square inch.
Typically to find the total force on the side you would divide this by 2 and multiply this by the total square inches. 2880 x (1.083/2) = 1,559 pounds of force pushing against that front panel.
So let's assume all that pressure is focused on just the silicone joint at the bottom of the front panel.
96" long x 3/4" thick = 74 cubic inches of silicone strength. Referencing the chart provided by a reputable aquarium silicone manufacture it shows that after 300 days in the water it requires 203 pounds per square inch to make the joint fail and that is at 100% cohesion. This means the silicon itself is torn down the middle of the joint. (Silicone would be left on both sides of the separated joint)
So if we have 74 cubic inches X 203 pounds of force per inch, this gives us a grand total of 14,616 pounds of force on this joint to make it fail. This means that just the bottom joint alone if properly sealed with silicone can handle a little more than 9 times the force being applied to it by the water pressure.

These are all facts and not opinions, please check my maths and methods if you'd like.

Hypothetically, if we slowly increased the density/weight of the water to 9x normal weight, I think the glass would blow out around the 4-5x mark before the silicone joints would separate.

Steve G
Click to expand...


f32c18077bc58bb113965c85e7cb97e5.jpg
 
pandimus said:
Don't worry son.. I'll splain

0 volume of water= 0 force on tank seams..= 0 chance of breaking..play it safe=0 chance of fun
Click to expand...

:lolspin: awe man. spilled my coffee from laughing.

That's some impressive work Steve. I would copy all that and save it if I were the OP. May need it one day and now know who to get as an expert witness if it comes down to that.
 
Oh boy,
CAD light just humiliated them self by posting this:

Unfortunately we cannot cover this under our custom aquarium warranty due to the following reasons:

•The stand was not constructed, inspected, or approved by us.

•The installation was not overseen, inspected, or approved by us.

•The plumbing was not overseen, inspected, or approved by us.

What a joke, so how many tanks does CAD actually has overseen, inspected or approved?

Plumbing?? seriously? his front panel has blown out!!!!! I am sure it happened because he didn't glue one of the couplings correctly!!!

And look at his stand! look at his house! Its not a trailer (no offense)

CAD Light you are a joke and any good Lawyer will destroy your warranty in court.

My question is, after a disaster like that did the company send a engineer to see what really happened? probably not because its just easier to hide behind their BS warranty.

"We’re a small company; our work is for the passion of the hobby and the growth of the community"

I see no passion at all.

They responded so obviously are fallowing and reading now every post. This will fallow them for a very long time. No body said its an easy business to be in. But they decided to do it so they should stand behind their product! Simple.
 
drukkosz said:
Oh boy,
CAD light just humiliated them self by posting this:

Unfortunately we cannot cover this under our custom aquarium warranty due to the following reasons:

"¢The stand was not constructed, inspected, or approved by us.

"¢The installation was not overseen, inspected, or approved by us.

"¢The plumbing was not overseen, inspected, or approved by us.

What a joke, so how many tanks does CAD actually has overseen, inspected or approved?

Plumbing?? seriously? his front panel has blown out!!!!! I am sure it happened because he didn't glue one of the couplings correctly!!!

And look at his stand! look at his house! Its not a trailer (no offense)

CAD Light you are a joke and any good Lawyer will destroy your warranty in court.

My question is, after a disaster like that did the company send a engineer to see what really happened? probably not because its just easier to hide behind their BS warranty.

"We're a small company; our work is for the passion of the hobby and the growth of the community"

I see no passion at all.

They responded so obviously are fallowing and reading now every post. This will fallow them for a very long time. No body said its an easy business to be in. But they decided to do it so they should stand behind their product! Simple.
Click to expand...

Did I miss it in this thread? where did Cadlight post this at?
 
I am not sure what the reason of the thread is... Another post on buyer beware. A thread as the could become fixthemgoodlights. Maybe this is all a warning on what we need to do when we all do our own custom tanks. Sad to say we all just need a legal advisor. Maybe just a legal team before we walk out side every day. -(.
 
I'm not the op but I assume he wanted to share the story to perhaps put some pressure on cad to capitulate and pay for what he is asking for. The other reason is to get some moral support
 
I'm confused here and perhaps I'm too new to this hobby but how would the stand/plumbing/installation affect the front panel for an aquarium getting blown out?
 
I honestly feel like CadLights will lose less by paying for any damages versus losing customers and business. This happened less than a week ago and just alone on this one thread has over 9,000 views, not to mention all the other sites and forums this is on at the moment. Regardless of what the final outcome is on whether or not CadLights is found to be responsible this is still going to cause quite an impact on the company and make people second guess going to them. Anybody who has seen this or even heard about it very likely to go wait, remember that CadLights incident, yeah let me look around elsewhere. That being said, I remember recently reading on another forum where a member ordered a CadLights tank and even though it is still holding the tank really didn't look all that great, misaligned seams, sloppy silicone job etc.
 
If the stand isn't made correctly, it will have pressure points on parts of the glass or if it's tilting one way there will be more water pressure on that glass pane
 
Steve1714 said:
This is for those who are worrying about their tanks breaking.

Hypothetically, if we slowly increased the density/weight of the water to 9x normal weight, I think the glass would blow out around the 4-5x mark before the silicone joints would separate.

Steve G
Click to expand...

Hello Steve, so are you saying the water weight in this tank could not have popped the front glass like it did?
 
CAD Light isn't getting my business ever!! I'm looking to upgrade my 220g to a 500g in a couple of years. This thread scares me.
 
MetroKat said:
Hello Steve, so are you saying the water weight in this tank could not have popped the front glass like it did?
Click to expand...

I THINK what Mr. Garrett is saying is that is should NOT have "popped" the pane off IF the silicone was applied and cured correctly, I could be wrong since I haven't had much time to read it thoroughly...
 
I would not even consider Cad after this. The Stand was Steel and level, it is not a stand issue. Same stand builder under the 400 at Rap this weekend. How can plumbing void a warranty? Anyways this is not a warranty claim it is a damages claim.
 
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