Tank seam coming apart?

[fiji]

So I was pushing on some suction cups inside the tank for a powerhead and I noticed a bunch of tiny bubbles appear in the silicone seam. I stopped pushing and upon closer inspection I noticed that the side wall of the tank has pushed out about 1/16th of an inch. I know its not much but this is a 40 gallon glass breeder so the glass is only 1/4' thick. So basically its like 1/4th of the thickness of the glass. The pushed out section is only at the top of the tank where I was pushing, at the bottom the side glass section is still flush with the front. There are no leaks but its got me kind of nervous, I don't want to have the entire wall blow out. So should I be running to the pet store for a new tank or what? Fortunately this size tank is pretty cheap, but the PITA factor of transferring everything over is high. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[sandiegan]

pics would help. I'm having a hard time picturing eactly what happened. So the entire side of the tank is now slanted? There's 1/16" gap between the end piece and the sides of the tank at the top, and it's flush (normal) at the bottom?

If so, then yeah go get a new tank. You can try resiliconing the whole end but you'd still have to empty the tank, so the pITA factor dictates a new tank w/ peace of mind. I'll take the old one if you don't want it.

[fiji]

Trying to figure out how to post pics. Slanted might be the wrong word more like torsionally flexing since only the front top part of the side panel is pushed out.

[fiji]

Here is the bottom part of the front panel showing how it is supposed to sit with the side panel flush with the front.

[sandiegan]

Not as bad as I was thinking, but it's up to you.

[fiji]

Thanks for the replies! It doesn't look that bad but the fact that its already started to move makes me skeptical, especially since it didn't take much force at all to get it to push out the way it did.

[sandiegan]

Agreed, that's the only thing that has me worried. Unless you're super strong and don't know your own strength, IMO a tank's side shouldn't move like that.

[coral diver]

And that the reason why i made magnetic mount for my power heads.
I have a glass tank too.

[sandiegan]

So what'd you end up doing Fiji?

[fiji]

Marked the tank with a sharpie to see if it moved any more. Hasn't budged, also not leaking or showing any sign of further damage. Figure I will just keep an eye on it for now. Im moving in a month or so, so I will just replace the tank when I move. I also drained about half the water and checked it from the inside and tried to see if I could move it any more with force, seems pretty solid. Hopefully if it does decide to fail it will leak first and give me some warning. Oh and I also got a magnetic mount. Thanks for the advice.

[Flamehawk]

I think you should just replace it, that way you won't be worry when it will leak or fall apart. That way you can sleep better and like you said tank that size is cheap. It is a lot easier to move compare to a 100gal tank, which I just did move my tank 115 miles and I can tell you it is big pain in the behind. Good luck.

[fiji]

Swapped over to a new tank, thanks for all the advice. I used this opportunity to switch from crushed coral to aragonite sand as well. Tank looks way better with the new substrate, plus no worries about finding 40 gals of water and sand on my rental floor.