BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Tank Shattered!

On Christmas day, out of the blue, the front of my fishtank shattered into thousands of pieces, and 20 gallons of water, fish and gravel went pouring all over my coffee table, rug and my son's Christmas gifts. I was able to save 4 of the 9 fish in the tank. I currently have them in a 5 gallon acrylic Marineland hexagon tank. Does anyone have any idea what would have caused such a catastrophe? We were able to clean up as best we could, and I'm hoping that there will be no lasting problems with the carpeting.

That's scary, to say the least. I'm a newbie and only have 2 - 1 1/2 gal tanks, but I've never heard of tanks shattering before. Don't have any suggestions or knowledge to impart. Just wanted to offer you some sympathy and wish you luck on not having any lasting damage.

I have never heard of a tank just shattering like that before! I am so sorry! I've only heard of cases where the tank was repeatedly bumped or very very old having problems - and even then not completely shattering. Sorry you lost some of your babies. :-(

Wow! I'm so sorry! How old was your fishtank? Was it new? Is it under warranty? Can you get your money back at the store? Maybe we need more information to help. If it was old or defective or had been under some stress like weight or temperature changes or being moved it could happen. Could you tell us more - was it really completely out of the blue? Are you the one who's been the owner of the tank since it was bought and are you the one who always changes the water and cleans it?

The shattering of the glass was totally unexpected, and not caused by anything hitting the tank. There were no signs of leaking at all.

I've been doing some research on the internet, and apparently the tank was not level where it was sitting on the coffee table. The uneven distribution of the weight of the water against the glass is what caused the blowout. Now, in hindsight, I can tell you that I remember the water line having a slight difference between the two sides. I had the tank for several years, bought it new from the pet store. I honestly was not aware of how critical it is to keep the tank perfectly level. I've replaced that tank with a small hexagonal tank holding the survivors and they seem to be happy and healthy. The tank is level too.

That is really odd JMS - I've had many tanks in my lifetime and we never got any of them exactly level. It would seem extremely odd to me that a tank with only 20 gallons of water in it would even notice a fluctuation in water pressure like that. The water pressure difference would be really small, compared with the thickness of the glass.

I would really bet there was some sort of a pinpoint fracture caused by who knows what - maybe a slight ding by a fish net at some point - that was bearing the general water pressure stress and just snapped.

Hi, JMS - How's your 5 gallon acrylic Marineland hexagon tank and your four surivors doing? What kind of fish do you have in this tank? Could you send us a photo on the forum?