Fish Tank Help

[marbles21]

My fishtank is set up to be a salter water tank, (but was never used as salt, and prob. never will be...

) it has the half circle seperators in the back two corners that salt water tanks have with little slits at the top and bottom of both sides. my question is the water seeps into the slits at the top and I noticed the stuff settles in there and does not excape. is there a way to block the slits of so no water gets in the and crap builds up or is it not an issue, or should I fill these pockets with rocks......??????

 

[jsoong]

Those are your internal overflows? And the tank is drilled?

If so, you must have the holes plugged - or are the standpipes still in?

If the standpipes are in & not set higher than your tank level, you might get into a flood situation if you allow enough water to get into your overflows. Even if the holes are plugged, I would think that having stagnant water & stuff in those compartments is not healthy. <It might smell for one.>

You can go for a sump setup & utilize those overflows. This is esp. useful if you want to keep golds or other really messy fish. Otherwise, I would silicone those slits shut. <Best way is to bend a piece of acrylic to fit inside the overflows & silicone it in place.>

 

[marbles21]

yea they are the overflows....

how long will it take for the silicone to dry do you think?

yes the pipes are pluged at the bottom but the top of the pip just sticks out above the water and is not sealed.

someone told me to fill the overflows with gravel and this would help?????

 

[FishEggs]

i'm not sure how overflows are attached in the tank but if they are just siliconed in cant you just cut the silicone and pull them out? otherwise i would let the silicone dry for a full 24 hours. i would worry about filling them up with gravel and have toxic gases build up from decaying organic matter that gets into the overflow.

 

[jsoong]

I wouldn't put gravel into the overflow, esp. if stuff can get into them. It is a real PITA to try to get the gravel out again if you ever need to clean in the overflows (and you will!)

I suppose you could remove the overflows & rely only on the plugged bulkheads to keep your aquarium sealed ..... but you would be really brave to try that. If the bulkhead ever fails, you'd have your entire tank water on the floor.

If your want to silicone the slits, I would suggest dropping the water level to well below the slits & silicone from behind. Wait at least 24-48 hours for the silicone to cure and make sure you don't get tank water on it. (It won't cure properly if wet, and curing silicone gives off gases that might be bad for your fishies.) BTW, I suggested silicone rather than an acrylic glue like Weld-on because it is semi-reversible. If you ever decided to use the overflows, you can scrape off the silicone, whereas sealing iwht Weld-on is permanent.