Reefer Nightmare

[WETSTUFF]

I have/had a 72Gal bowfront reef acquarium that had been up and fully stocked for over four years. Last week as I checked on the tank, I noticed that the water level was about 15 to 20 gallons low. The tank had "sprung a leak" along the bottom edge. Water was cascading out at a rapid rate. I was able to quickly dump some of the livestock, live rock and sand into a smaller spare tank.

The end result is a loss of most of my livestock, a ruined carpet, ceiling, and carpet below the tank - a thorough mess. Oceanic (the manufacturer has offered to replace the tank, and will reimburse for home damage).

I am curious if anyone else on the site has had a similiar experience? Is this comparitively common? Is there anything that I need to be aware of regarding my dealings with Oceanic (thus far they have been very supportive and professional).

My plan, in working with my retailer is to replace the tank with a 120Gal long, reef ready Perfecto - any issues there? Thank you for whatever help you can provide.

Regards,
Wetstuff

[Ninong]

Hi WETSTUFF,




The only Oceanic tank failure that I remember reading about on Reefland was a 180-gal tank that cracked within 30 days of being set up. That was back in 2000. The guy's name was Nathan. Unfortunately we lost most of our threads from 2000 during a software upgrade in late 2000 or early 2001. If I remember correctly, his front pane cracked catastrophically in the middle of the night about three weeks after the tank was set up.

You could try contacting him but his last activity on Reefland was in November 2006. I believe Oceanic agreed to cover the cost of cleaning up the mess. It's important to note that Oceanic has changed ownership at least three times since then. In 2000 they were independent. Then they were bought out by All-Glass. Then All-Glass was bought out. Then the company that bought out All-Glass was bought out themselves. Right now I believe it's Central Garden and Pet and they changed the name of All-Glass to Aqueon. I'm pretty sure they still own the Oceanic division but I wouldn't stake my life on it.

The important thing is that the Oceanic warranty has been changed at least three or four times in the past eight years. The warranty, as currently written, doesn't cover consequential damages but the manufacturer's approach to claims resolution is greatly influenced by the individual state laws and by a desire to maintain good customer relations.

Good luck!



P.S. -- Perfecto is owned by Marineland. Marineland has recently introduced a new line of tanks under the Marineland brand. I assume they're still producing tanks under the Perfecto brand but I'm really not sure about that.

[WETSTUFF]

Thank you,

The largeer corporate entity that Oceanic is a part of appears to be standing by the Oceanic warranty - at this point. I'm surprised that as much experience as is resident on this site - that a tank failure is that rare.

I guess I was just "lucky". Thanks again - in any event setting up a new tank is most of the fun of this hobby, so despite the mess, and hassle, it will be fun to start all over again. (sort of).

Regards,
Wetstuff

[Ninong]

I don't know if tank failures are rare or not but I wanted to limit my response to just Oceanic failures and just on Reefland and just failures that were not caused by negligence on the part of the hobbyist.

I can think of dozens of reported tank failures on another, larger bulletin board, including at least half a dozen that involved Oceanic tanks but most of those also involved negligence on the part of the owner -- for example, placing a 400w metal halide lamp 4" above a glass cross brace.

In general, I would say that tank failures due to manufacturing defects are relatively rare. I really have no idea what the percentage might be but I suspect it's fairly low.

When you purchased your Oceanic 72-gal bowfront tank, did you also purchase the Oceanic stand? You probably did. Oceanic's warranty used to require that you purchase their stand to get the longer warranty period. At one time, several years back before Oceanic was acquired by All-Glass, the Oceanic warranty was as long as 15 years if you purchased their stand. Then I believe it was reduced to five years. I haven't checked it lately to see what it is now.

I guess the good news is that the company is taking care of you. I don't believe their current warranty would cover your situation since you say the tank has been in operation more than four years.

[WETSTUFF]

Ninong:

You are correct that the fact that I had purchased the Oceanic tank and stand as a combo was a condition of warranty coverage, If the tank had not been on an Oceanic stand, I would have been out of luck.

I was advised by the Oceanic rep that central brace failures are more common (and catastrphic) than what I experienced. He did advise that as in any manufacturing process, there are defective tanks that occassionally leave the plant.

Wetstuff

[dougc]

I had a catastrophic failure of a 210 gallon tank about 3 years ago, but it was an AGA, not an Oceanic. After the tank had been up and running for about 1.5 years, the front glass cracked diagonally and spewed a stream of water across the room. Fortunately, I was there when it happened and with the help of lots of hands, I was able to save almost all the livestock and avoid significant damage to the house. Although the livestock was rescued, it was all lost to me, as I sold it off through my LFS. It took a few months to get back up and running and I didn't want to try to maintain the livestock for that long.