Brand with highest tank failure rate?

[Shawn O]

As titled, I've read one of the big names moved manufacturing to china and the quality is sub-par and tank failures are common. I forget which brand it was that they were speaking of. What I'd really like to know is which brands seem to have had the most failures in the last 5-10 years.

55 gallons of water on the floor is bad enough, but the current plan is to move up to a 90 and then a 200+ and would rather not risk those amounts of water hitting the floor.

Thanks.

[whosurcaddie]

I know Marineland moved their manufacturing to china. I cant speak on their current tanks but I have an older Marineland 120 that's solid.

[davocean]

Marineland had a fair number of brace failures, maybe search that out, no idea if that has been resolved or not.

[Deinonych]

I've been happy with my Deep Sea Aquatics tank. They still build their tanks here in the US (Dallas, TX).

[whosurcaddie]

Originally Posted by davocean

Marineland had a fair number of brace failures, maybe search that out, no idea if that has been resolved or not.

That's true I remember reading quite a few of those.

[hogfanreefer]

Originally Posted by Deinonych

I've been happy with my Deep Sea Aquatics tank. They still build their tanks here in the US (Dallas, TX).

Me too Deinonych but it looks like they don't make my tank any more and only 5 standard tanks (only one 6 ' tank). Wonder why?

[Shawn O]

Thanks folks, that's good to know.

[Cosmojo]

Instead of the 90, since that isn't much different than your 55, I would find a 120.

[davocean]

Originally Posted by Cosmojo

Instead of the 90, since that isn't much different than your 55, I would find a 120.

I agree, not much difference in volume, but footprint for scaping is huge.

[Shawn O]

Needs to be 48x18 footprint to fit the stand on which I just spent too much money building. I suppose I could manage a 110/115 tank @ 48x18x30 tall tank. Thanks folks.

[LuciDog]

I've kept a ton of tanks over the years and the only one I have ever had a problem with is the one leaking now... It's Marineland.

[toothybugs]

The Marineland DDs are notorious for it.

[Shawn O]

So there it is. Marineland gets the distinction of being my "must avoid" brand.

Thanks folks.

[Sk8r]

I have an Oceanic 54 and an Aquavim 105, both of which are 5/8ths inch glass bow wedges, and both are solid as can be.

[nuxx]

I'd get a bit nervous getting a tank in the 200+ range that was mass manufactured.

Get so much more out of it if you get a custom built tank.

Our display is 120x29x31" @ 1" acrylic pretty much speced to fit perfectly in a recessed area in our dining room.

Then did a 60x36x16" @ 1/2" starphire for our frag tank. The exactly dimensions and depth I wanted.

Couldn't be happier... except I wish I went with starphire for the big tank. Just too easy to scratch up acrylic.

[Shawn O]

Will look into Oceanic and some custom builders, thanks folks.

[ca1ore]

It is, of course, impossible to know for sure the actual tank failure rate. Tank A sells 1,000 units and Tank B sells 100 units. Ten people are apoplectic on RC because their Tank A broke; 5 people likewise because their Tank B broke. Tank A must be twice as likely to fail, right ....... see what I mean. Mass market tanks are always going to have a higher incidence of failure (though not necessarily failure rate) because they are selling in higher numbers.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to look at reputable custom manufacturers and see a 'better built' tank, one that could be assumed to be less likely to fail - and you pay a sizable premium for that. Heck, my first 180 was a custom job and it's still going strong at 25 years old. Yet custom tanks do fail as well.

[Shawn O]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Mass market tanks are always going to have a higher incidence of failure (though not necessarily failure rate) because they are selling in higher numbers.

Absolutely true. Unfortunately, we don't get that kind of information from manufacturers, as it could put potential customers off. Without knowing actual failure rates we can only go by the number of incidences of any given manufacturer. We would have to assume, as you said, more tanks means more failures even if they fail at a rate half that of a smaller manufacturer. We can make a good ball park guess among the biggies if we only consider the mass manufacturers (apples). I guess the same would go for the custom shops (oranges) who have similar volumes.

Just trying to get an idea of the companies that have made themselves a reputation for tank failures.

[ca1ore]

Understood.

So, if I give the old memory banks a shake, it seems to me that the most frequent reports of tank failure here on RC are from Marineland and GlassCages. Yet, I would also imagine they are the most popular mass market and custom tanks, respectively. So, not sure how that gives you any useful insight, for example, on whether ML have a higher failure rate than, say, Aqueon.

Sorry to say, therefore, that I think your question is an unanswerable one if you want useful data. If you are willing to accept anecdotes and opinions, then you have certainly come to the right place

[stingeragent]

Marineland. I've read of 2 or 3 tanks in the last week where the whole front glass pane blew out. ( they blow out may have been a year ago, but I just read it in the last week)

[Reef Frog]

It blows my mind to think it could ever be financially & logistically logical to build a fragile glass box so far away from where it will be sold and used. I always assumed the mass market tanks were built in automated factories where the cheap overseas labor wouldn't make up for the presumably huge shipping costs and inventory losses due to shipping, not to mention the costs of fulfilling warranty obligations on poorly made product.

[Shawn O]

Thin glass saves on sand (raw materials), fuel to melt the sand into glass and shipping costs to get them to the distributors. Makes sense, from a business standpoint, to make them as thin and light as possible as long as you have enough structural integrity. Sometimes companies push it too far and failure rates rise, but so does their bottom line, in the short term. Companies that over-do structural strength to lower failure rates, needlessly spending gross profits, reduce their bottom line. The fine line between is what makes or breaks a company's reputation, if not the company itself.

[viking48]

Well I just had my 2 year old marinelands 265 spill 265 gallons of water on my floor, and I'm thinking of not replacing it with another marinelands.

[toothybugs]

Okay now that sucks.

[WaReefer458]

I've heard the marine land DD tank have a relatively high failure rate as well as any cadlights tank over 70 gallons.