Glass Tank Broken....advise Needed

[cosevo]

Firstly, I like to say Hello, as this is my first post. And hopefully it wont be my last

I have had a smallish tropical tank for the past 2-3 years, but last week decided I wanted a bigger tank.
So after browsing through ebay as you do, I found a nice 260L Jewel that someone was selling just a few miles away, so I bid and won.
Now we went to collect and the owner still had fish, so left a few inches of water in the bottom seeing as we only had a very very short journey thought it would be easier and best for the fish to stay in their tank.

To say it was heavy was an understatement....but just 2 of us managed it into the back of my van, where we had a very easy drive home. Upon getting home, we enlisted help from a family member, as we live in a small block of flats (ground floor) so had to get it down the halfway into our living room.

But.........The helper slipped and fell as lost grip, and the tank fell 2ft and ..... smash, water and stones went everywhere, now this was a knightmare as it was nearly 10pm last night. Gladly we managed to get all the fish out and into our old tank which was still up and running, and so far today all fish seem to be doing just fine, so thats good.

Now the bottom of the tank is completely cracked all over, now the tank wasnt cheap so ideally I'd like to simply get it repaired, its the tank with the curved front, so the bottom will be curved as well. I dont have much space to carry out a repair myself......or the confidence knowing its gonna be filled up with a lot of water, so what are my options...

Are there places the tank could be taken to get a professional job done so I can sleep knowing I wont wake up to a wet floor and dead fish
Im in the essex area and have the means to move the tank around, so any advise would be greatly recieved.

Lee & Clare

 

[glolite]

Hi and welcome to the forums

That's such a shame. Getting a bargain and that happening

I don't know of any repair shops near you but how about going to your lfs and asking there?
They must know of such places.

 

[mixmaster jay]

Hi and welcome mate
sorry to here about your tank i would get your mate to pay for the repair lol
window glass places sometimes do things like that quite a few round me do and alot of lfs build them too other than that try using double/triple thickness perspex as a temp/perminent repair job its easy to cut and shape
have you got a maidenhead aquatics down there try asking them if they know of anywhere

 

[wullie187]

sorry 2 hear about that m8 but ur prob be cheaper looking into a new tank as repairs r not cheap but i would be making ma m8 pay for it or at least meet half way

next time ur moving a tank take the stones out evan if ur leving water & fish in it as it`ll drop a lot of wait out it

 

[shelaghfishface]

goodness me you sound so cool about it, id be fit to kill ( even if it was an accident) it will be fixable no doubt, may just take a little while to find the right place to do it, but will be worth the wait as they are stunning tanks

hope all goes well for you both

shelagh xxx

have a read thru ( or even make another post) the hardware and DIY section, this cracked tank thing has happend to quite a few people ( tho not on such a grand scale) so maybe a few pointers in there

 

[rabbut]

OK, first rule of moving a tank, NEVER move it with decor, fish or water still in it. You are very lucky that the base did not crack in the van on route home

Jewels are floating based, so this means a 3/2 thickness base of float/plate glass is needed for the base. (basically, if the walls are 10mm, the base needs to be 15mm e.t.c, as the base is supporting all the water and the decor, with an air gap between it and the stand...) You also need to know the contours of the base. Ordering the cut to shape base as a one-off for a repair from any glass shop will likely cost more than a brand new replacement tank Unfortunately, I'd advise you to give that tank up as a bad job

All the best
rabbut