melev

Not a silly question at all.
I remember discussing it with an engineer (with some subspecialty in glass structure...) a few weeks back. He said that silicone is not good for continuous strain. It is very good at sealing but long term with non stop pressure will eventually degrade it. He was suggesting some external metal bracing for my new tank and silicon only to seal the seams that are held by metal bracing.... to add to that most of our tanks were built before those new wavemakers hit the markets and if you read the note on Vortech packaging (same for Tunze or others I would assume) it mentions not using it for tanks not made to tolerate vibrations caused by the wave.... for sure its just a disclaimer to avoid being blamed/Sued however I do believe that the excessive vibrations of a wave making system will eventually cause many tanks to loose a seam...
Maybe it would be worth it to decrease flow a bit to decrease the vibrations which willl act on the silicon like a hammer.
Lowering the water level if you can do it without exposing corals would be a great. Not sure I'll sleep peacefully seeing it drip and have airbubbles in the seams so I really hope it holds.
My old 80 G did show air and water bubbles in the seams and when pressing on the glass I could see them move inside the silicon and it held for 4-5 weeks. is the glass only 1/2 inch on this tank? And yes we all hate to see this tank being broken down.

four sixty! 460! four sixty! 460!

So exhausted. The tank is essentially empty of all livestock. I'll pick through the substrate tomorrow to see if any more hermits or snails appear.

All the livestock has been transferred to holding vessels plumbed into the sump, with the filtration (skimmer, refugium, carbon, calcium reactor, vodka dosing, ATO, heaters....).

It was sad, somewhat amazing, and there were times we were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. My carpet is soaked, the scale is broken (we tried to weigh the Toadstool leather), and my AT&T Uverse's tv receiver died thanks to Drew. LOL

Tomorrow I'll get the Vortechs on the SPS vat and get the lights up over those two bins. A lot of pictures were taken, and Wes used his iPhone 4 to record two hours of video. Who knows if any of that is usable.

Need to sleep, then deal with the aftermath tomorrow.

WOW, glad you got stuff transferred over. I know that at least takes a lot of stress off, don't have to worry about the tank blowing out and being a total loss.

At least you guys all got to have a little fun doing things though, it can be sad tearing something apart that you have worked so hard to make nice. Your tank was and has been "gorgeous" as my wife says. Would have loved to seen it in person before this happened. Anyway sounds like Wes has an idea of what will be happening next. . . 460 in the works?????? Hmmmmm sounds like a little challenge and change of design but really interesting at the same time.

Carpet will dry eventually and I am sure you have something in your arsenal to get it clean again, the scale can be replaced though did you even get a little reading on weight? And your Uverse receiver got messed up. . . aw Man no cartoons tomorrow, LOL.

Sleep well, I can bet a lot of others will as well knowing things are looking better.

glad to hear you are steaming thru this ordeal, and being in a good mood about it all. Im sure there will be lots to see in the next few days, and im sure we will be able to hear all about it in next months podast.

Keep your chin up

not good!!! i see you have already drilled a hole through the wall, why not keep going and add a longger tank. Even if it is only an extra inch or 2.

This is a sad day indeed. I've seen this sort of repair at a LFS here in SoCal. It was a 300 gallon Lee-Mar tank that started leaking after some kids were hanging from the rim of the tank to get a better look. Lee-Mar came out the next day and added more euro bracing to the whole top of the tank. Fixed the leak. Just a thought.

Glad you got it all emptied.
+1 on how sad it is to empty your tank

Very sad time for sure! I could hardly sleep the night it happened, just wanted fly north two hours with my blind mans cane and help. ;-p. Marc, your new tank will be awesome though! As a regular for the past few months I feel like the sites main inspiration passed away. Marc, did you get frags off the corals that was growing on the glass?

Well hopefully the hardest part is over. I always enjoy setting them up over tearing them down. Just think; on the next one you can make subtle adjustments that you maybe had in the back of your mind...

I just heard about this. Sorry to hear man. Even though it is a forced possible upgrade it's still going to be nice and anything you would have done differently now is the time. If you need anything let us know. We're here for ya

I'm going to have to start a new entry soon with all the latest.

Today, I got all the live rock out of the plastic pond liner and into a barrel of tank water. I added the Cskim-1200 skimmer to work on the rock, but so far it isn't doing much. Hmmm. The pond thing was removed since the carpet under it was soaked. I also got the lighting rack suspended over the vats, and when I get up, I'll figure out where to put the ballasts so the cords can reach the pendants.

Humidity in my house is 67%, but I just adjusted the A/C to get that down. We are expecting thunderstorms Tuesday and Wednesday, which will also be a factor. Plus my wet carpet - I hate to bother with it since I'm just going to mess it up further as I remove all the sand and possibly the aquarium. Because of the front seam, I have a feeling I have to take the tank out in pieces as I don't know if it could be moved out in its weakened state.

Well things at least coming along. I don't know what you may want to do with the carpet. I would suggest pulling it up and taking it outside to dry/be cleaned but since it is going to rain I don't think that would do much good. A couple days of dry weather would do some good. Then again now that I think of it we had a leak in the basement of the building and had some majorly wet carpet and pulled out a carpet shampooer to suck up the excess water which really did help. The one we used wasn't great but renting a rug doctor getting the salt water cleaned up and then actually cleaning it may not be a bad thing and would hopefully be drier than it is now. But it probably would be better to wait until after you get things figured out with the tank.

I don't know what would be easier to do with the tank. . . if you are going to break it down anyway I would go for that. If you don't really want to mess with it a ratchetting strap around the top and then one ran underneath on each end and wrapped over the top should reinforce it enough to get it moved out of the opening. Then I would get two movers dollies and a piece of plywood about the same size as the tank and attach it to the movers dollies and then you can roll it most anywhere you want.

Interesting. I hadn't thought about straps. With the pink foam underneath, I suppose it would be possible to work some under to help hold it together. The LFS has suction cups I can borrow for a day, and I'd need some worker bees to help get it out of the hole. I think we would take it out to the back porch if we could pull it out in one piece.

I started a new blog entry to discuss what could come next. Some of you may have bookmarked this entry to keep up with the latest. What you should do is "Subscribe to this blog" (at the top of the page under the profile picture), and then select "via email notification". That way each time I create a new entry you'll be notified.

I know I haven't been thanking all of you individually, but I do want you to know that it did not go by unread or ignored. I appreciated each and every person's comments and it helped keep my spirits up. Thank you for support, ideas and suggestions. Your input is valued, and there are times when others make excellent suggestions that I'll immediately incorporate, adjusting my plans accordingly for a better outcome.

So here's the idea entry: http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php...eaming-a-dream

I have no doubt in my mind that regardless which tank setup you choose to go with it will become an amazing creation in short time. Though if this keeps up you're going to end up with like a 10,000 gallon built in your back yard one day like that Arabian tank lol

All the best wishes for you. We will be following along....could there be an expanded topic about what to do in an emergency in the future....??. It also sounds like so many people are there to help out....Good luck, and will be watching to see what you do next.

Thanks. Even now, it is a delicate balance to keep the livestock healthy since there is no sand and no rock in the system to buffer the water. Alkalinity was up to 15 dKH today, so the calcium reactor has been taken offline. I didn't get a chance to run all my tests yet, but will today.

look on the bright side, this is an test of your website. Our support group, our place to share knowagle.

Marc, what a bummer! But you've already got a plan in progress and you're a lot more prepared than most of us would ever be. You are a great resource to the hobby, so please continue to show everyone your new plan, which is here if anyone hasn't seen it.

I'm going to be editing the pictures so you guys can see some of the breakdown and the current set up soon. Hopefully by Sunday.