[singman]

The top plastic support on my 125 is slightly cracked. I noticed tonight my tank is bowing in the middle slightly. By looking down at the middle section and comparing the glass top to the plastic support the tank seems to be bowing approximately 1/8 inch. What to do? Am I going to have 125 gallons of fish tank all over my house soon?

 

[Mike]

thats a scary proposistion! I would call captive reef or pruess and get some advice from them on what to do in this case for your sake and the fishes sake

 

[Kenbow19]

Do you have a long carpenters clamp to shore up the middle,just apply where support was,just snug not to tight just till you can find a permanent fix.

 

[Newts]

The carpenters clamp would be the to go for now. What caused it to crack, do you have halides mounted over the brace or something? How old is tank and who's the manufacturer? Maybe there is a warranty.

 

[PaintGuru]

All good suggestions, and I definitely wouldn't screw around with this. The LAST thing you need is your tank all over your floor.

 

[canisson]

be VERY careful with the clamp if you decide to try that!!! Any amount of pressure against the glass, especially with water pressure pushing outward against it, and you could crack the glass without any effort at all! I'd put the clamp on, but not try to relieve the bow, just support it from bowing any farther.

 

[DLBerlin]

I would drop the water level as far as possilbe before clamping it also. Put a peice of wood or something larger between the clamp and the tank to avoid small pressure spots, and tighten just enough to keep it from going any farther till you can fix it.

 

[MeanTony57]

Just a thought
is your tank level
when a tank is not level it can cause to much pressure on one side of your tank. Good luck

 

[breezebabe]

I had the same problem with a 125. I drained about half of the water until it stopped bowing and rebuilt the bottom of my canopy with 2x4's that fit tightly around the top of the tank and filled it back up, never bowed again.

 

[Balkos]

I had the same thing happen to me on one of my cichlid tanks. A 1" crack in the trim at the center turned into an 8" crack in about 3 days. I was fortunate in that the tank was only 6 months old and the LFS had the manufacturer replace the tank for me. Unfortunanatly for ME was they wouldn't give me the new tank untill i gave them the old tank.
I would be carefull. I would look into getting a new tank. I know it is a lot of work to transfer but so i vacuming up 125gal of water out of your carpet. Not to mention all the life that would die.

 

[singman]

I talked to captive reef as well as pruess. Strangely enough they said fish tanks are SUPPOSED to bow slightly in the middle. The guy at pruess told me he has talked to every tank manufacturer there is and the tank is built to bow slightly in the middle. Especially on slightly older tanks. It is just more noticeable on a 6 ft tank. When I described the 1/8 inch bow in the middle section of the tank he said that was normal and if there was no bowing in the tank THEN he would be worried. Who knew? 3 places I called all said it would be fine. Thanks for the advice.

 

[bluespot]

Just one reason why I like my acrylic tank.

 

[Balkos]

I would still keep a close eye on it and measure the crack daily. They are supposed to bow in the middle but with a damaged brace there is nothing to keep it from excessive bowing IMO