# 350 gallon tank exploded



## fisher

Yep the tank i just bought exploded i set it up 1 week ago with fresh water till i found some one to drill it for a sump and was running great then this morning the front of the tank came out at 7:02 350 gallons of water everywere nice the glass is not tempered that is on way to find out. what should i do with the tank the front is broken the other 3 sides are still standing? that was a short lived monster tank set up


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## target

Wow, that sucks. Hopefully it didn't do too much damage to your place. You can always get a new piece of glass cut at any glass shop and silicone it in. I haven't done it, but I know others have. Any idea why it failed though?


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## tony1928

Wow, sorry to hear about that. You can get a new piece of glass put in no problem....glass isn't cheap though.


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## donjuan_corn

Awww man, that's like my worst nightmare!


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## Aquaman

....OMG That sucks big time !!
Never had one blow out on me thank God !....had big overflowing when filling problems ...but not 350 gallons . Thank god it wasn't stocked. So sorry to hear that....I was so looking forward to seeing it as it progressed .
I would try to figure out WHY it blew before putting time and money into repacing the front glass. 
WOW !! What a nightmare for you.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

OMG! I had the same happen but with a full stocked, newly set up 225g sw tank.

I really feel for you man. Good luck with the clean up. Lots of fans & a good wet/dry helped us out a lot.


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## logan22

very sorry to hear that..thats any fishkeepers worst F*%#@*&# Nightmare!!.. not to mention the damages.. and all the hard work spent in to making it a work of art!!..i dont wish this on anyone!!..Hopefully you find out where the problem is..to keep anything like that from ever happening again...Thank god there was no fish in there...Chin up, things will work themselves out!!


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## tang daddy

I hate seeing these posts, I feel for you man.... if this happened to me all my tanks would be gone for sure!


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## fkshiu

If you've got the time during your cleanup, can you take a few pics?


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## Keri

I'm so sorry that's awful!! The glass van be replaced for sure, maybe something on the floor/stand was uneven?


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## Adz1

wow does not even touch this!
my wife would be ultra pissed.
good luck with the clean up.


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## TCR

EEK.... now im nervous to set up my 250gal.. with the sump it will be a good 350+ gal of water (but i know the sump can hold water)...

I feel for you and feeling the nerves now

good luck with the clean up, hope you can get it fixed anf functioning properly


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## fisher

Looks like it gave way at the top then cracked all the way down


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## fisher




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## fisher




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## snow

oh wow, that is crazy. No patch job will fix that. Good luck on getting it back up and running. I would fix it...nice big tank.


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## summit

so sorry to see this happen to anyone, and to think I was paranoid about a comparatively small 69 gallons on my floor, I can't even imagine how your feeling right now. It almost looks like it failed on the right side? Its strange the glass seperated cleanly on that side, but broken on the other. Either way really unfortunate, was it at least on the bottom floor?


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## fisher

Yep this tank was on the bottom floor luckly the glass is 1/2 thick I will have check around for new glass not what I was planning on doing today thanks for all the support..


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## charles

was it a new tank you bought or used?


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## Aquaman

Well,sheesh man.!!! what a mess.
If you redo the tank....Never set it up on the floor like that  . ( floors are not 100% true and flat...if its concrete ..even more so .. Also put a 3/4 or 1 inch piece of foam under it. ( your bottom glass is not recessed !! you NEED Foam on them tanks. Hate to say it but 99.9 % sure that is what caused it to explode.The glass had to be under way more tension that it should of been to break up like that.
I feel ill just looking at that


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## beN

holy crap..
i feel terrible for you my freind!


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## fisher

Thanks aquaman i will definitely be doing something so this does not happen again just a hard pill to swallow as i was just at the start up stage on this tank i am just glad the kids were not in front of it when it went


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## Aquaman

fisher said:


> Thanks aquaman i will definitely be doing something so this does not happen again just a hard pill to swallow as i was just at the start up stage on this tank i am just glad the kids were not in front of it when it went


No kidding ...so sorry that happened .And I never even thought of kids etc,  my goodness that would of been terrible at the least. My God ...never really thought about my tanks failing like that ....I sleep on the floor snuggled up ( okay ..a foot and a bit away ) to my 180 stacker and never considered the glass blowing out like that....you know maybe a crack and a leak or something .But not that ....sheesh ...but now that I really think about it....WHAT was I thinking .... 
I will be snugglin with the coffee table tank now I think.


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## effox

I'm glad no one was hurt, especially your children.


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## target

Only good thing is there was no livestock to have to rescue. And definitely a good thing your kids weren't in the way. I know my son loves putting his face right up to the glass of my tank.


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## fkshiu

Aquaman said:


> Well,sheesh man.!!! what a mess.
> If you redo the tank....Never set it up on the floor like that  . ( floors are not 100% true and flat...if its concrete ..even more so .. Also put a 3/4 or 1 inch piece of foam under it. ( your bottom glass is not recessed !! you NEED Foam on them tanks. Hate to say it but 99.9 % sure that is what caused it to explode.The glass had to be under way more tension that it should of been to break up like that.
> I feel ill just looking at that


Unfortunately, that does seem like the prime culprit: frameless base on an uneven surface.


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## roadrunner

Wow, 350G! I'm always worried what if my 20G will leak? I never even though that front can give just like that. I feel for ya! I can only imagine the panic after you discovered it. I live on the 3rd floor so I was wondering how much damage spill like this can cause. I guess insurance can pay for it, but still.....all that hard work and money put into it. Lucky nobody got hurt when it happened. I guess water forcing the glass could seriously hurt someone if they would stand in front of it. Good luck with cleanup, I hope it won't cost you fortune to clean up. Thanx for sharing.


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## Mferko

sorry for your loss... i blame the carpet, a friend of mine had it happen at 2am with a tank that was placed directly on a thick carpet. 
next time you need a completely flat hard surface between the carpet and the tank and make sure its perfectly level, then the foam under the glass, then the tank.
you may just wanna build a really low profile stand of some sort if you want the tank that low.


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## Munster Tankguy

fkshiu said:


> Unfortunately, that does seem like the prime culprit: frameless base on an uneven surface.





Aquaman said:


> Well,sheesh man.!!! what a mess.
> If you redo the tank....Never set it up on the floor like that  . ( floors are not 100% true and flat...if its concrete ..even more so .. Also put a 3/4 or 1 inch piece of foam under it. ( your bottom glass is not recessed !! you NEED Foam on them tanks. Hate to say it but 99.9 % sure that is what caused it to explode.The glass had to be under way more tension that it should of been to break up like that.
> I feel ill just looking at that


Sorry for your loss, fisher. I think that both Aquaman and fkshiu are right on the money. A third reason may be the fact that the glass might be on the thin side for that size of tank. I would be inclined to go with at least 5/8" or thicker for the glass. I may even go 3/4" for the base. A fourth reason may be the lack of a brace in the centre of the top of the tank. Did it have one, or?


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## BigFatLyre

If you had a high point in the centre of the tank coming from the floor base that would help explain the crack starting at the top. The opposite can happen from both ends supporting more than the centre, but some allowance for tension exists because it's spread throughout the floor glass and sides of the tank. On large tanks we put in a centre brace as well as both ends because we didn't have any control on the consumer: we didn't manufacture stands.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

Yup, I would NOT rebuild that tank with only 1/2" glass. That is a 3' tall tank if I remember correctly. That's a LOT of pressure for 1/2" to handle. But mainly, it was the tank being on a floor that may have some unevenness I think that caused this catastrophic blow out. Mine only cracked, not completely let go like that. The silicone on the right side also looked like it peeled.

Anthony


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## fisher

I had 27 tetras in the tank all saved but i have no other tank is there anybody in Kelowna that wants.


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## fisher

Fish are taken care thanks now back to cleaning


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## fisher

If anyone wants this tank they can have it for free my wife says no #$^^ way am i setting it up again


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## Aquaman

....sorry to hear that.....hopefully its "THAT" tank and not another large one . 
Wow thats a kick in the gonads...what a waste of time effort and money.
Such crappy luck, hope ya win the Lotto or something in the future to make up for it


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## davefrombc

Wives have no sense of haha at all


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## Chronick

davefrombc said:


> Wives have no sense of haha at all


lol that's not really fair to say... she just had 350 gallons of water flood her freakin house lol id be pissed too


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## TCR

I wouldn't be to happy. And I would go ponder about the situation in front of ..... My other tank, on what to do


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## CRS Fan

I'm sorry to hear about your accident and subsequent damage. I feel lucky that my biggest tank is now 29 gallons and I couldn't imagine that on my floor. 

Respectfully,

Stuart


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## Morainy

I really feel for you. I hope that your wife slips out and gets you another (stronger) tank while you're mopping up. This is about as bad as it gets. Amazing that your fish survived, though.


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## cichlid

I remember working in a door shop, and if Glass touches concrete floors they will break, the pic looks like thats concrete, sorry to hear about your loss, Im worried about that too, what if the tank breaks, thats alot of water...


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## Koi Kichi

reading your experience brought me flashbacks of my 33 gallon fowlr bottoming out around half a yr ago....absolutely ridiculous.....never should a fish keeper encounter such a tragedy


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## Rastapus

Something is not right here, besides the obvious. If the floor was to blame. it would be more common for the bottom to crack from the twisting. It looks as though the break started from the top which would indicate that bowing created the break. For the panel to un attach like that from the other side it would appear there was something VERY wrong with this tank. The post was never answered as to who built it etc but I suspect this was not a name brand, home made or private perhaps. It is a terrible thing to have happen, we could all learn from this if we had more information.


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## 604

what make? how old?


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## Kitsune

Hrmmm looking at the photo's now, I would argue that the silicone on the right side failed first. (by the way, I am not a forensic engineer, and glass is the last thing I deal with)

The reason I say that is because like someone else said on the thread, the silicone seems to have come off too cleanly. (and that's how my tank failed too.... crappy silicone) I would guess that that started to peal to the point that what was left could not hold the right side together anymore. When it finally failed the glass then started to twist, which caused the major fracture (the big clean one in the middle). The rest of the fractures followed after that... The failure of the silicone could be because of undue stress from an uneven floor, a bad job, or old silicone...

Fisher, I hope everything goes well for you. Let us know if you need any help.


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## fkshiu

Kitsune said:


> Hrmmm looking at the photo's now, I would argue that the silicone on the right side failed first. (by the way, I am not a forensic engineer, and glass is the last thing I deal with)
> 
> The reason I say that is because like someone else said on the thread, the silicone seems to have come off too cleanly. (and that's how my tank failed too.... crappy silicone) I would guess that that started to peal to the point that what was left could not hold the right side together anymore. When it finally failed the glass then started to twist, which caused the major fracture (the big clean one in the middle). The rest of the fractures followed after that... The failure of the silicone could be because of undue stress from an uneven floor, a bad job, or old silicone...
> 
> Fisher, I hope everything goes well for you. Let us know if you need any help.


I'd have to agree with that conclusion with my completely amateur and non-qualified analysis. Simply based on the location of the rocks piled up on the right side including some which looked like they've been shot out that side on the floor, it seems that there was the most water exiting at that location with the greatest force (i.e. when the tank was the most full, with more water pressure behind it).

[cue your choice of The Who rock anthem]


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## Kitsune

fkshiu said:


> I'd have to agree with that conclusion with my completely amateur and non-qualified analysis. Simply based on the location of the rocks piled up on the right side including some which looked like they've been shot out that side on the floor, it seems that there was the most water exiting at that location with the greatest force (i.e. when the tank was the most full, with more water pressure behind it).
> 
> [cue your choice of The Who rock anthem]


Excellent observation my dear Watson. We make an excellent team!


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## slipstream

Im in agreement as well, most likely caused by the failure in the top right, OR it was caused by the stray boot in the pictures.


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## 123mars

The tank failed because there was no center brace present.


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