# Well, that'll learn ya.



## raeven (May 12, 2011)

I have decided I am never, EVER, getting a used tank again if it's been sitting around collecting dust for even just a few weeks.


My aunt had given me her 30g tank not more than two weeks ago. I was suppose to grab it off her sooner, but there were some delays and such in the process. For a month she had that thing sitting outside.


Two weeks later, my friggen tank quite literally explodes out the back. There's nothing wrong with the seal or anything. The glass just decided to give away and smash all throughout my living room. One really doesn't realize how much 30 gallons of water looks like till it's all over your floor. My theory: Sitting outside for that month was probably what did it in. The temperature changes from hot to cold likely weakened the glass.

It's a good thing I'm on the bottom floor, otherwise I would have some serious issues with my downstairs neighbors. It's just concrete beneath the carpet. Still, it's SOOOOOOO much water. Even after having taken the attachment to my carpet cleaner, there's still the chance that it's going to mold and become gross.

Thankfully, I've had some people answer my plea for help quickly in trying to rehome all the surviving fish inside. There were several that didn't make it sadly, but I have high hopes that the remaining ones are going to make it. Poor things. They've had such a horrible night.


Honestly, I never want to have to deal with that sort of thing again. I've never been so scared in my life to first hear someone shoot a gun in my home (yeah, it was that friggen loud), and then find out that one of my tanks is utterly destroyed.


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## gsneufeld (Jan 28, 2012)

wow... that's so awful, makes me glad for my acrylic tanks. my they do scratch easily, but no worrying about nonsense like exploding tanks, and i agree, going from cold to hot is likely what did it.


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

once upon a I had a friend pick up a tank for me from out of town, i trusted his judgement , it was a 75 gallon, needless to say i got it all set up , cleaned it all and then set it up and filled it....when i noticed there was a drip coming from the side seal i went to investigate, i touched the seal and then......it happened, the silicone unzipped like a zipper and it began.... the flood of 2010 lol, i think i got most of it out but i did end up with about 10 gallons on the lino<thankfully>but it can happen that fast .

sorry to hear about your flood,
it didnt deter me though i still buy used tanks i just cut off the seals inside and re do it myself now.
at the same time i paint the backs black.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

You will have to take the underpad out if you want that floor to dry any time soon without mould first, once wet underpad is out, give carpet a good suck and then setup fans so you have air flow above and below the carpet. This will also dry out the concrete that will keep a bit of water for awhile too


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

"Big bang" stories like this are what make me glad that:

a) All the really big tanks (150+ gallons) in the house are shortly going to be acrylic
b) That the basement floor is concrete.

Sorry you had to deal with this!


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## roshan (Jul 19, 2010)

So sorry to hear about that i hope you dont loose faith in used tanks though, just reseal them yourself and to think i was contemplating changing my tank for a glass version because of all the scratches that mine has!!, i think i will live with the scratches.


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## gsneufeld (Jan 28, 2012)

a trick i've found that works on the scratches on the inside of the acrylic tanks - deliberately stain the inside of the tank with tannin water - it seems like the scratches become invisible once they're stained. 


-George


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

the same polish kits used for headlight lens repair work on acrylic also, $20 at canadian tire and you can shine that bad boy up like new , headlight lenses are comprised of almost the same thing as aquarium acrylic, just thought you might like to know....


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

This whole icky process has really cleaned up over the past several hours. We managed to rent a shop vac, and have given the carpet a very thorough cleaning. We're still going at it, actually, just to make sure that we get as much as we possibly can.

It's been a long, draining night, with so much glass that's been getting shoved in our skin lol. I'm just glad that it looks like we'll make a full recovery. I'll see if I can attach a photo later so you guys can see just how brutal the tank looks now that it's absolutely demolished.

I'm still not sure about how I'm going to view used tanks in the future. I'm so scared of this happening again, and we have plans to go up in sizes, not down, so the damage would be -so- much worse if it suddenly decided to smash. Maybe we'll look into the acrylic next time. I think I would rather deal with a couple scratches as opposed to 125 gallons of water on my floor. I literally think it would cover my entire house lol


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## roshan (Jul 19, 2010)

macframalama said:


> the same polish kits used for headlight lens repair work on acrylic also, $20 at canadian tire and you can shine that bad boy up like new , headlight lenses are comprised of almost the same thing as aquarium acrylic, just thought you might like to know....


I have used that stuff on the outside of the tank before i set it up (about 3 months ago, i was old the ones on the inside would disappear once i had water in it...didnt happen so unless i drain the tank then polish it inside then clean the heck out of it after i am stuck with those scratches...the tanin idea sounds interesting although i dont think i would want my water looking brown.


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## gsneufeld (Jan 28, 2012)

actually, the brown water seems to stain the acrylic itself, i've found a few threads online complaining about having to buff the tannin stains out, so i boiled the heck out of my driftwood hoping it wouldnt stain my tank, but it did end up staining the water a little not too noticeable, but i could tell when i was doing water changes, so i moved the driftwood to a glass tank, then right after i realized i couldnt see those annoying scratches [except the ones on the outside, my cat likes to attack the fish from ouitside] and i've had the driftwood out of there for over a month doing 25 percent wc every week, so the water is clear again, but the scratches are still invisible.


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## gsneufeld (Jan 28, 2012)

And yeah raeven, look into acrylic for any large/not located right over a drain or something tanks in the future... you could probably get used ones that have a couple scratches for a good price, then just patch them up yourself. and they're a hell of a lot lighter than glass tanks to boot. 


-George


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

Yeah, my plan is definately to stick with acrylic from now on. There's already so many benefits as oppose to cons. I can deal with the scratches, and considering how careful we are with moving things around (with no exterior pets and somesuch), it's likely to not suffer too much damage.

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. This has certainly given me a lot to think about.


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