tank has a small leak

[Zagz]

One of my tanks has a small leak on the bottom. A few questions. I have no other tank to house the occupants, how long will fish survive in a pail with an airstone? Most sealants say you should give 24 hours to cure properly. Is there a method of using stop leak for example on the outside of the tank to seal it? It isn't leaking very much but needless to say I am quite nervous that it will suddenly become much worse. It is a 33 [acronym:cfa3b5db01="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:cfa3b5db01] tank. Can I seal it from just the outside or is the only way to dig out the old silicone and reseal it properly right off the bat? Any other ideas or sugggestions?

[Zagz]

Oh I forgot to mention it is all glass.

Um, If you can supply water to the pail almost like tank water changes you should be able to hold a fish in a pale for couple days. If not changing the water would only go a day I think. Had Pike cichlids in five gallon buckets for about 24 hours with no affects w/ airstones.

As far as stopleak goes have no idea if such a product exists for glass, but after having to fix a lot of problems in the automotive industry that weren't fixed when a stop leak product was used I dought that it would work.

Well scraping out all the sealant is not necessary, but getting enough of it out to properly reseal it will be. My first question is the leak coming from a crack in the bottom pane of glass or one of the siliconed seams. If crack in glass absolutly would not try siliconing it, but if at a seem would deffinatly reselicone it. If you know exactly were it is leaking than yeah just take a razor blade and clean that area of silicone away and then clean glass with alcohol. This is needed so that the silicone bonds 100% to glass. Overlap the bead of silicone onto the old stuff so that water does not find any holes and smooth everthing out with you finger. Let dry as per manufacture specs and try out. Should work without any problems.

Oh yeah, Silicone on the outside while good idea often times does not work, what happens is as the silicone tries to adhere to surface that leak tries to push through and does not allow the silicone to completly cure. So you get silicone on the outside and still have a water leak. [acronym:d545c78f88="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:d545c78f88]

[Zagz]

I will keep all of that in mind thanks a bunch! I have inspected the tank closely after about an hour and I think the culprit may have been the filter getting the wood that is holding down the plexiglass top wet and it was dripping off the wood. I have adjusted the wood and it no longer hangs over the side on which the filter sits. The reason for the wood? Plexiglass hood isn't strong enough with 6 cats roaming around. Until I get a proper hood for the tank. Tank was free, so couldn't complain [acronym:35bd1f9ea5="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:35bd1f9ea5]. But if it turns out to be a leak I am grateful for the advice esp with regards to the fish in buckets with air stones.

[xIHaKIx]

You could just take some crazy glue and put it on the edge of the crack and cover it up. Like I dont think it would toxify the water or anything.

[Lonewolfblue]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...lpartial&Np=1&[acronym:eea8b77bea="Power compact fluorescent"]pc[/acronym:eea8b77bea]=1&N=0&Nty=1

Aquarium sealant is only 5 bucks at walmart.. I used it to fix a leak in my filter and it worked like a charm. I would use that to just reseal the leaky spot personally. Some may say you should strip and reseal the entire tank but i don't really think its necessary.

[czcz]

If you seal it where glass meets glass on the outside of a dry tank with time to cure, maybe it will work. I stripped and resealed the inside of my used tank for peace of mind. Worth the time and mess.

[Zagz]

Well it appears that it was from the filter, whew. Thank goodness, but this is all very useful info should I ever need it. I hope not! [acronym:408676d21a="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:408676d21a]