Nobody said this was easy.....

[epaz]

Well got home from work today to find my 125g leaking at the bulkhead in the bottom. So I drained the tank took out all my rock put it in the barrels I saved my water in, caught all my fish put them in a separate barrel and began work. After scrambling around town and calling in some help I got the parts I needed and it's fixed now at 1am central time. Here's my question for you experienced people my sand was never dry I just leaned the tank to shift the water to one side I did have to dig down and move sand away from the bulkhead so some sand was disturbed. Is there anything I should be watching or wary of since all this has happened? Sorry for the long thread but I'm kind of freaking out. Thanks guys

 

[jeffaquarius]

Not sure how old your tank is but once the substrate is disturbed you will expect a cycling spike. Just be prepared to do large water change once it happens. I would use new substrate to have peace of mind. It will quickly colonized with bb from your LR.

 

[carey]

I'd wanna know a bit more about the sandbed. Age, depth any critters that eat from the existing sandbed?

 

[epaz]

The tanks is maybe 6-8 mo. Old the only critters I have per se is a CUC on the sandbed I have seen pods swimming around as well. The bed itself was not really disturbed only about a 6 " x6" square around the bulkhead. Just an fyi just went and checked the tank I haven't lost anyone so far and nobody looks stressed

 

[epaz]

Carey it's about a 3-4" sandbed depending where you measure in the tank

 

[Holygral]

what caused the leak, cracked fittings, bad gasket or just not tight enough

 

[epaz]

I actually think I am you see I was doing a sump overhaul underneath and doing so was moving hoses out of my way and it must have been just enough on the one bulkhead to loosen it enough to leak. It doesn't help matters that I have really fine sand I did find plenty of it in between the gaskets as well.