260 gallon leak!!!

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Checking the tanks this morning like usual and noticed a leak in our large tank! The front right seam is pooched I'm pretty sure. The water enters the tank near the top then dribbles down the whole length of the seam and exits near the bottom. We lowered the tank this morning so its no longer leaking. Should we remove the whole side panel? Is there any way of fixing the one seam without wrecking the other two? I'm thinking the whole end panel will need to be removed and resealed...this will be a huge job

Here is the seam that is leaking

Here is a close up of where it is leaking from (red circle)

as you can see the whole seem is filled with air. Here is how the other seam on the left side of the tank looks, notice how it has no air and is sealed tightly.

Here is the pond/bin that my parents picked up today to put the rock, sand, and fish in. Some fish might go into the sump too.

We plan on emptying the whole tank tomorrow, I'm hoping for zero fish losses. I will keep this posted and hopefully get more pics tomorrow.

Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

 

[XxVooDooxX]

I don't think you would need to remove the whole side panel. Just cut out the old silicone with a razor and throw some new stuff in there. Might cost you 9 bucks

 

[Redfrog]

I have tried to reseal alot of tanks with no luck
Good luck to u

 

[roydooms]

I don't think you would need to remove the whole side panel. Just cut out the old silicone with a razor and throw some new stuff in there. Might cost you 9 bucks

+1

That's what I did with my 33g but with your tank I know it's different. I agree though of you not having to remove the whole panel and just replacing the silicone and let it cure for a couple of days or until you can't smell the silicone anymore. If you can still smell it, it's still curing. Good luck!

 

[Krypt]

I'd also try to just remove and replace that seal first before going to the trouble of fully taking the side panel off.

 

[pat8you]

As the others have said start by cutting the old silicone off. Make sure you start with just the seam and not the silicone that is sandwiched between the pieces of glass. Once you do that you will need to look really carefully to make sure the seal in between the glass is not in bad shape. If the seal between the glass looks like it is failing and isn't just some pin hole leak you are probably going to have to take the side panel off and i wouldn't recommend trying that repair your self. Especially not on a tank that size.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

So you guys are saying to just try to repair the inner seam?? Not the stuff in between the glass panels? The stuff in between the glass panels is failed for sure. The whole thing is just air, you can see into the crack on the side. There is a black piece of acrylic or something that is siliconed onto the glass and i think this is what is holding the tank together still.

Or are you guys saying to try to get the silicone out that is in between the glass panels and then try to squeeze some silicone in there?

I am definitely not doing this repair myself haha don't worry. Our LFS owner said he would come help, he built his own tank which is very similar to ours. I just want to get as much advice as possible to ensure we don't have any other problems.

Thanks a lot guys!

Also we had a blizzard yesterday night so it looks like im missing school for the day. Gives me and my brother a lot more time to get the tank emptied . Living out on an acreage has its perks!

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Oh and i noticed i said we were putting the sand rock and fish all in the one bin. This is incorrect, we also have another bin about half the size of that one that our LFS owner lent to us so we will be putting any base rock in that one and possibly the sand. (either that or the sand will be going in buckets)

Does the sand need to be in heated SW? Or will we have a lot of die off if we just keep in submerged in buckets with no heater?

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Following with interest. I've never had a seam issue.

If you have a good relationship with the LFS and have any fish you are more fond of, ask them about boarding.

Yep - I know! I couldn't believe it but the other day I went into a fish store I had never been in before and saw a sign on a tank saying "not for sale - these fish are boarding temporarily". It might cost you, but it also might save you losses.

 

[XxVooDooxX]

I'm not sure about the sand but as far as the seam, yeah I would cut out the corner then dig out as much as you can from the inner seam. Just be careful because it's tempered glass and that's where the weak spot is, on the edge! Hit the edge of that glass wrong and the panel will pop

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Should i be worried about keeping the fish in the big tub?? Our LFS owner would definitely hold our fish for us but its just under an hour drive into the city..maybe more with the blizzard we just had haha. Will the fish be in any danger in the tub? I was hoping there wouldn't be much of a cycle if we just put the top rocks in (which have the corals) and the fish into the bucket. Maybe a bucket of sand so the wrasse can burrow himself since I'm sure they will all be scared/stressed.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Okay fish, rock, sand and corals all moved to bins.

Tank is now completely empty

fish and corals

base rock

hope the light isn't too close for the corals

 

[nxb161]

good luck, are you having someone fix the seal for you?

 

[hackteck]

sorry to hear about that hope everything turns out good for your tank

 

[Sqasnatch]

I tried to fix a seal on I 125 gal before but the glass had a warp to it. The tank was scrap. Hope you have better luck. And if you take all the sand out and put it in buckets , you will definitely have a die off and a cycle or algea outbreak. I had A bulkhead break on me like 2 months ago and that resulted in a huge algea outbreak. Not to mention the mess. But I never lost anything

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

My dad and our LFS owner will be attempting the fix tomorrow while I'm at school. I really hope it's fixable, my dad has put a lot of money into this tank. We decided to put some of the sand in a bin with a heater and some of it just in buckets. The sand in the buckets will be rinsed many times before we put it back into the tank. We will also wait at least a week to make sure there is no cycle when the tank is back up and running....if all goes well that is.

 

[Darwin]

best of luck on the fix hope for the best! With that size and expense of item in the tank I wouldn't risk a patch job do it right and take the hole panel off IMO. when silicone is stressed it does that air pocket deal I would also check the stand/floor and make sure it hasn't failed you in some way and put the stress on the tank in the first place. a 4 corner "X" string test might help tell if the stand is warped
test = 4 blocks(all exact same) screwed down(on each corner) then run string in a X patten (pulled very tight) if the strings in the middle don't hit or hit so much one hold up the other then table is warped. anything over a 1/8 IMO is tooooo much for a tank that size. a level kinda works but you can get errors in the bubble reading. Good luck

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Thanks Darwin that's a really good idea to check if its level! I let my dad know about it

They ended up removing the end panel, striping the silicone, and re-siliconing it back in place. It went pretty smoothly with only a few minor cuts to the fingers They think that the black piece that was attached the the glass panel might be what caused the failed seal. It was cut wrong and was actually bigger than the panel itself. This would have caused stress especially if the black piece was expanding/contracting at all.

We will be waiting probably 3 or 4 days before checking for leaks since my dad wants to make sure its 100% dry.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Awesome job. How do the fish seem to be doing?

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

They all seem to be fine . I Bought a small eibli tang a few weeks ago that i tried to put in the tank..the coral beauty intermediately attacked. I moved the tang to my seahorse tank temporarily. I am now going to try to add the tang to the large tank again. I'm going to add him first with the cardinals probably and am going to leave the angel in the sump for awhile. Hopefully he does okay..hes a very cute little fishy.