Waterbox 4820 cabinet unsafe design

[Altered]

I bought a 65.4 AIO recently, as soon as I had the stand together I was concerned with it. i put the aquarium on the base and immediately noticed the side to side sway. Contacted WB and they made me send a video of the swaying and a photo of the sticker inside the stand. They just notified me today that they are sending a reinforcement kit. I will install it but I already cut a 3/4" piece of plywood for the back. I am going to use self-tapping screws to screw it right into the aluminum profile. WB just needs to own up to the design flaw and include the kit with the stands.

 

[mousehunter]

I am trying to design a T-slot stand. One "problem" with T-slot is you can end up spending virtually more on stability than the actual extrusions. My tank is a cube - so 8 identical extrusions plus legs. Those 8 will cost about $18 each, and have $10 of additional mounting hardware each to help with stability. Most of that is going from end fasteners (which require an access hole and tapping) to double anchor fasteners (which requires milling). Likewise, 4 hole corner braces at about $9 ($5 plus nuts and bolts) each add up quickly. As much as we might hate it, plywood ends up being cheep stability.

That said, I am somewhat shocked they are using 20/20. I was looking at 15/15 (imperial 1.5", which is a little smaller than 40/40 metric) - and have seriously considered using some 15/30 (1.5"x3"). But in all fairness, they should know how much deflection their tank can tolerate.

 

[saltybeverage]

I purchased a waterbox 4820 peninsula from BRS during the blue Friday special last fall.
The tank was delivered and I assembled the cabinet,the instructions were terrible but I am a handy person and figured it out.
I have laminate flooring and had already added a sheet of 3/4 ply under the tank to make sure the tank had a stable surface.
The tank was leveled, and filled and I happened to bump the end of the tank,this was when I noticed the whole tank swayed significantly lengthwise a frightening amount of movement.
I reached out to waterbox with a video of the movement who proceeded to tell me that I probably did not tighten the aluminum stand properly.I assured them that this was not the case.They then said it sounded like I needed the reinforcement kit but they were out of stock and would send it as soon as possible but to enjoy my tank in the meantime.
So now I am thinking they know there is a problem and they have a kit to address it,ok.
So I waited for the kit to come, the kit was actually a couple of piece of extra 20/20 aluminum to add underneath the base of the tank which is only originally supported around the edge by the 20/20 (another scary part of the design) , the kit they sent me would not even fit a peninsula tank due to the drain layout,Waterbox told me to install what I could of the kit, obviously this did zero for the issue.
The issue is the skinny 20/20 aluminum is deflecting when the tank is touched the peninsula tank was doors on both sides so the cabinet panels add not structural integrity.
I purchased some extra 20/20 from Amazon and added to the stand put was unable to improve the situation.
Next I built a wooden chase between the overflow end of the tank and the wall in an effort to stop the movement which did work to a degree.
I continued to reach out to waterbox who had stopped responding by this point, they did eventually offer me gift card to offset what I paid for extra aluminum and wood for the chase I built.
There were several other issues, had to take a razor blade and cut the foam padding away from under the tank in the door opening as it prevented the doors opening,I adjusted them as far As I could,they give you one piece of lock line for the returns so all you can do I point the return straight at the glass 2 inches away.
,had a bowed door.To their credit waterbox did address these small issues right away.
However I am left with a tank which moves back and forth when you clean the glass with a magnet cleaner.
I find it strange that there are no reviews anywhere for waterbox tanks at any vendor including waterbox for anything bigger than a nano.
IMHO these tanks are dangerous,the stand is poor quality and not sufficient to support the tank, the glass bows out lengthwise so Is likely undersized also,I find myself worrying constantly if my kids bump it and the whole thing comes crashing down.The resale value is zero as I could not comfortably pass it on used to someone else when the time came.I have a video of the movement but it says it's too large to upload

I just bought the Waterbox X 90.3 and I am looking at YouTube videos of the same tank from a few years ago(interestingly enough, no recent videos) the stand was completely different. I know they did a redesign and chose an aluminum frame, but after I put this thing together. I am utterly appalled by the quality and lack of engineering. I get the back and forth sweat as well which is a given as the cabinet as almost zero solid support for the lateral movement side to side. The front back is fine and vertical is fine because there are wooden panels on the sides that act as complete support but they chose to rely on the aluminum frame for the side to side support which in my opinion is a complete engineering fail. All they had to do was put another solid wooden panel along the back where the non supporting plastic (splash guard?) is inserted. And the cabinet would have been solid as a rock. They want to fix the problem with a reinforcement bar verticaly across the back… this is again really showing they do not understand engineering.

The main issue is that there is no angular support which anyone who has taken even a highschool level engineering class knows is the strongest way to support a structure (those toothpick bridges, which honestly I’ve seen some that are probably more stable than this cabinet)

There is another issue with this. The aluminum frame is screwed together by really whacky nuts that need to the right position inside the track or it’s not actually gripping anything. This causes user error as you have to basically blindly figure out if the nut has positioned itself correctly. If it hasn’t then it’s basically not holding anything.

and yet ANOTHER issue is that the bolts that hold all of the frame together and incredibly cheap and soft metal. I stripped 3 VERY easily, just tightening things down with 2 fingers using the supplied wrench. This is incredibly scary as these cabinets need to be zero failure for years, even decades. And as they say the weakest link in the chain is how weak the whole chain is. Once I discovered I had stripped the threads of a bolt I went back and found 2 others. That’s just the ones I know about. Putting weight and possible bumping and creating side to side stress on this cabinet could see the frame just fall apart randomly one day.

I have small children, there is no WAY I would put the tank on top of this cabinet and fill it with water. Waterbox is going to kill someone with this negligence.

There is only one real fix I could see myself doing for the side to side movement and that would be drilling my own holes into the aluminum on the back and adding my own marine plywood replacement for the cheap non supporting useless plastic back panel. And cutting a smaller thinner piece and attaching it to the frame in the front top part of the frame(if you look at their old frame a piece exists there) this will create angular structural support that should have been designed into this in the first place.

That is what I would do if I trusted the waterbox hardware for attaching the frame together. Which I do not. So I almost think I am going to have to build my own cabinet for this, which the thought of is really starting to tick me off.

Honestly waterbox should know not to screw around with this amount of weight and water going into peoples homes, with pets and children around. These are disasters waiting to happen. These should be over engineered for safety. The fact that they are not and that waterbox obviously cut corners with this redesign is disturbing. That level of not caring about the safety of their customers is not ok.

Shame on Waterbox.

 

[Hilfigjp]

Does anyone have an update on the reinforcement kit or relief from a custom modification? I wish I read these threads before pulling the trigger on a Peninsula 4820. I'm experiencing the same (side-to-side sway and instability) issue. Thanks in advance!

 

[apista]

Waterbox and Redsea stands are pathetic, Waterbox are so under engineered, cheap and nasty.

2 ticking time bombs in my opinion, I know of one waterbox seam failure and this is first hand as i helped my friend clean up the mess.

 

[Mattdavid121]

Sure here is a corner picture. It's just the same aluminum piece the stand is made of, and goes from side to side and just bolts on.

I just wanted to chime in here, I had a Waterbox 90 6 years ago, got rid of it it was a great tank had no issues. This last week I got back into the hobby purchased a Waterbox 60.2 and I can tell you this new design for the cabinet is awful. I worked on it for 3 days with those bolts and screws on and off no matter what I did I had a sway. So I tested it and filled up the tank with water and 20lbs of live rock and sand. It’s been ok for 2 weeks now but they still sent me a reinforce kit. I’ll chime in again soon, hope everyone else who purchased these cabinets stays safe

 

[VintageReefer]

I just bought the Waterbox X 90.3 and I am looking at YouTube videos of the same tank from a few years ago(interestingly enough, no recent videos) the stand was completely different. I know they did a redesign and chose an aluminum frame, but after I put this thing together. I am utterly appalled by the quality and lack of engineering. I get the back and forth sweat as well which is a given as the cabinet as almost zero solid support for the lateral movement side to side. The front back is fine and vertical is fine because there are wooden panels on the sides that act as complete support but they chose to rely on the aluminum frame for the side to side support which in my opinion is a complete engineering fail. All they had to do was put another solid wooden panel along the back where the non supporting plastic (splash guard?) is inserted. And the cabinet would have been solid as a rock. They want to fix the problem with a reinforcement bar verticaly across the back… this is again really showing they do not understand engineering.

The main issue is that there is no angular support which anyone who has taken even a highschool level engineering class knows is the strongest way to support a structure (those toothpick bridges, which honestly I’ve seen some that are probably more stable than this cabinet)

There is another issue with this. The aluminum frame is screwed together by really whacky nuts that need to the right position inside the track or it’s not actually gripping anything. This causes user error as you have to basically blindly figure out if the nut has positioned itself correctly. If it hasn’t then it’s basically not holding anything.

and yet ANOTHER issue is that the bolts that hold all of the frame together and incredibly cheap and soft metal. I stripped 3 VERY easily, just tightening things down with 2 fingers using the supplied wrench. This is incredibly scary as these cabinets need to be zero failure for years, even decades. And as they say the weakest link in the chain is how weak the whole chain is. Once I discovered I had stripped the threads of a bolt I went back and found 2 others. That’s just the ones I know about. Putting weight and possible bumping and creating side to side stress on this cabinet could see the frame just fall apart randomly one day.

I have small children, there is no WAY I would put the tank on top of this cabinet and fill it with water. Waterbox is going to kill someone with this negligence.

There is only one real fix I could see myself doing for the side to side movement and that would be drilling my own holes into the aluminum on the back and adding my own marine plywood replacement for the cheap non supporting useless plastic back panel. And cutting a smaller thinner piece and attaching it to the frame in the front top part of the frame(if you look at their old frame a piece exists there) this will create angular structural support that should have been designed into this in the first place.

That is what I would do if I trusted the waterbox hardware for attaching the frame together. Which I do not. So I almost think I am going to have to build my own cabinet for this, which the thought of is really starting to tick me off.

Honestly waterbox should know not to screw around with this amount of weight and water going into peoples homes, with pets and children around. These are disasters waiting to happen. These should be over engineered for safety. The fact that they are not and that waterbox obviously cut corners with this redesign is disturbing. That level of not caring about the safety of their customers is not ok.

Shame on Waterbox.

This thread was just bumped and I saw this post. I agree completely with everything here. They should be using a safety margin of at least 5x. It’s common in engineering to overbuild. It’s a safety hazard and while I’m glad they created the reinforcement kit, they dont provide kr and you have to go out of your way to get it, and they aren’t being proactive and contacting all the prior people that bought tanks with these stands, to offer the kit.

I also agree a plank of marine plywood as a rear skin would do wonders but would need drilling tons of attachment points.

I do hope tie works out for everyone and am looking forward to an update from those that added the reinforcement pieces

If anyone comes up with a diy fix, please share. There are lots of t-slot brackets and pieces out there. Maybe someone can figure out the parts to build a X brace on the rear

 

[Mattdavid121]

I recieved my reinforcement kit for my stand yesterday and just installed it this afternoon. What a huge difference in getting rid of the accidental bump and sway of the tank on its stand, and best part was it only took 5 minutes to install without having to access the rear of the stand.

You have pics?