Fish tank leaked... again.. this time badly

[candymancan]

So my discus tank leaked about 4 days ago. I caught it because it happened by shooting water directly on me when I was at my desk... Drained it and asked for advice on other fish forums.. they told me to cut some of the silicon off where the leak was about 2-3 inches and clean it up and use aquarium silicon on it to cover the new hole I made.. well I did that and it worked fine for 3 days.. but as I walked up to my room tonight I hear water splashing from my spray bar and 10 gallons of water was gone from my 44g tank.. so about 1/3 of the tank almost 1/4 all over my carpet I dried it up with like 10 towels as best as I could and went down stairs to check the ceiling and sure enough it leaked through the ceiling in like 4 different spots..

Not enough to drip through or make it sag, but enough to show wet water stains some are pretty big... So what now ?? What do I do ?? Do I have to replace the ceiling.. or can I just let it dry and paint over it with kills which is for swater tains on dry wall. What about the carpet ? Do I have to pull it up and dry the subfloor as well ? or would my ceiling fan and a floor fan be enough after I use my carpet machine on it..

As for the tank... what do I do ? Im going to have to put my fish in another tank.. Probably my 55g tank.. which is already overstocked.. but I have no other choice.. I cant keep them in a 2 gallon bucket..

Is the tank repairable ?? Obviously that patch job didn't work.. so im guessing ill have to remove all the silicon seals and reseal the entire tank...

 

[tonedogz]

new silicone will not stick to old silicone very well so try to clean off as much as possible

 

[vance1013]

Sounds like you need to do a full reseal of your tank also use a dehumidifier and a heater your carpet should be good to go as long as you most of the water out first. If your ceiling isn't bubbled out or bowed out the yes you can use killz or any other interior primer then paint it

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[EndlersEatGuppies]

Sorry to hear this!

This is what gives me nightmares!

 

[candymancan]

This is the leak that caused so much damage. Its in the front of the hexagon where the panels are like this /\ with a gap between them unlike rectangle tanks where the glass is flat together..

Yea I have 3 fish tanks in this bedroom too.. One is a 10g bowfront but its brand new.. The other is my 27g hexagon which is like 15 years old.. and the seals looks preety bad lol.. Sooo I think when I get this tank back up and running im going to redo my hexagon.. lol but omg the hex doesn't have much room to work with and so many panels will be a pain in the rear..




Anyway I went to a local fish shop that mostly sell salt water fish but they have literally every medicine or accessory you could possibly want and they had 10 oz tubes of aqueon silicon.. I scooped all my fish up.. I put my discus in my 55g tank... and all my rams and like 20 neons and shrimp in my 10g bowfront (yea I know that's a lot for a tank that size but its just temp anyway.. The discus I really didn't want to put in another tank because of disease but whatever... I haven't had a fish die in that 55g tank in over a year.


So I brought my tank out and rinsed it off to get the little specs of gravel out.. and scraped all the inside silicon out.. I went over each section like 10 times to get every last spec of silicon off and cleaned it many times with rubbing alcohal.. The main problem though was the 2 panels in the front... Its a Hexagon so the glass panels aren't touching eachother like a normal rectangle tank does.. They are like this /\ That gap between the two lines there.. So I scraped the outside silicon off too.. The issue I had was the braces or trim on the tank.. since I had to scrap the silicon on the outside on those 2 panels off I couldn't get the last inch on top or bottom.. But since I got all the inside out I don't think that's a problem.. I masked up the tank panels and used a crap ton of silicon and smeared it with my finger using a glove to keep oils off the silicon. I also did the outside of those two panels I mentioned since they have a big gap in between (This is actually where the leak was coming from those two panels with the /\ gap. I noticed when I was cutting the old silicon off in the gaps there was nasty water inside it so the seals were all bad.


Oh and I had to hook my eheim 2217 to my 27g hexagon so I don't have a major die off of my BB . I think the reason why it leaked there was due to pressure over years the tank is very flimsy and bows in and out if you push on it slightly.


Anyway im going to wait 48 hours for it to dry and fill it up on my deck out back and wait another 24-48 hours with it full and hopefully I fixed it by resealing the whole tank..


My only worry is the trim I couldn't get off to remove the last inch of silicon on the bottom.. But since its on the outside of the /\ gap and not the inside of the tank.. Im pretty sure the inside silicon will be enough.


My hexagon has like 6 panels with the /\ gap lol... surprised it hasn't leaked.. I think its because the panels are so small it doesn't have great pressure and bow like the hexagon does.


Also my 30 long gallon tank was made in 1994.. its 21 years old.. and lol yea I think that one should probly be done as well lol

 

[vance1013]

This is the leak that caused so much damage. Its in the front of the hexagon where the panels are like this /\ with a gap between them unlike rectangle tanks where the glass is flat together..

Yea I have 3 fish tanks in this bedroom too.. One is a 10g bowfront but its brand new.. The other is my 27g hexagon which is like 15 years old.. and the seals looks preety bad lol.. Sooo I think when I get this tank back up and running im going to redo my hexagon.. lol but omg the hex doesn't have much room to work with and so many panels will be a pain in the rear..




Anyway I went to a local fish shop that mostly sell salt water fish but they have literally every medicine or accessory you could possibly want and they had 10 oz tubes of aqueon silicon.. I scooped all my fish up.. I put my discus in my 55g tank... and all my rams and like 20 neons and shrimp in my 10g bowfront (yea I know that's a lot for a tank that size but its just temp anyway.. The discus I really didn't want to put in another tank because of disease but whatever... I haven't had a fish die in that 55g tank in over a year.


So I brought my tank out and rinsed it off to get the little specs of gravel out.. and scraped all the inside silicon out.. I went over each section like 10 times to get every last spec of silicon off and cleaned it many times with rubbing alcohal.. The main problem though was the 2 panels in the front... Its a Hexagon so the glass panels aren't touching eachother like a normal rectangle tank does.. They are like this /\ That gap between the two lines there.. So I scraped the outside silicon off too.. The issue I had was the braces or trim on the tank.. since I had to scrap the silicon on the outside on those 2 panels off I couldn't get the last inch on top or bottom.. But since I got all the inside out I don't think that's a problem.. I masked up the tank panels and used a crap ton of silicon and smeared it with my finger using a glove to keep oils off the silicon. I also did the outside of those two panels I mentioned since they have a big gap in between (This is actually where the leak was coming from those two panels with the /\ gap. I noticed when I was cutting the old silicon off in the gaps there was nasty water inside it so the seals were all bad.


Oh and I had to hook my eheim 2217 to my 27g hexagon so I don't have a major die off of my BB . I think the reason why it leaked there was due to pressure over years the tank is very flimsy and bows in and out if you push on it slightly.


Anyway im going to wait 48 hours for it to dry and fill it up on my deck out back and wait another 24-48 hours with it full and hopefully I fixed it by resealing the whole tank..


My only worry is the trim I couldn't get off to remove the last inch of silicon on the bottom.. But since its on the outside of the /\ gap and not the inside of the tank.. Im pretty sure the inside silicon will be enough.


My hexagon has like 6 panels with the /\ gap lol... surprised it hasn't leaked.. I think its because the panels are so small it doesn't have great pressure and bow like the hexagon does.


Also my 30 long gallon tank was made in 1994.. its 21 years old.. and lol yea I think that one should probly be done as well lol

That sounds like a solid plan keep us posted I would like to know how it goes

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[gilpi]

I'm thinking it's time for a new rectangular tank vs the hexagon?
Four corners are less problems than six.
Hope you get your tank fixed!
As far as the ceiling in the floor below the tank.... If it seeped through and it just left a stain without the bulge...
Let it dry and use primer to cover up the stain before you paint.


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[candymancan]

well everything is fixed I puddied the bad parts of the ceiling and even screw holes and cracks from just age all around the ceiling not water related.. Sanded it all down looks good, tomorrow going to repaint the whole ceiling.


Used my carpet machine with bleach as the cleaner today after I vacuumed the baking soda up and the stains are gone and so is the smell.. Poured more baking soda over it.




As for the tank its been drying for 40 hours I think that was enough so I filled it to the brim this morning.. Its been sitting for 8-9 hours now and its still full and feels dry.. The new silicon looks nice too,, all clear vs being cloudy.


Im a hands on guy I don't pay ppl for fix my cars or anything in the house.. And im not about to buy a new Pentagon.. 44g pentagons are expensive.. 150-200$ just for the tanks.. plus shipping. And I cant fit a rectangle tank in my bedroom which is why I have a pentagon and hexagon in there.


Do you guys think 8-9 hours is enough ? I kinda want to bring it in because its going to be 28-30f tonight and I don't want the extreme cold to crack my glass or anything

 

[sealife]

So is tank fixed 100%
That's pretty impressive if it is.

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[candymancan]

Yea it is.. I scraped every spec of silicon out from inside the tank. use aceton and rubbing alcohol to clean it also scraped the outside 2 front panels as well since they are / \ like that vs flat, and scraped it all 15 times again switching to new razor blades.. let it dry, wiped it down again and taped it up using painters tape and used the 10.3 Oz tube of Aqueon aquarium silicon and wore gloves and pressed lightly and made a nice even seem on all the sections and bottom.. Let is dry for 40 hours.. filled it up for 9 hours today.. due to the cold I brought it in and its been running now for the last 3 hours.. here is a picture.

The only hard part was scraping the old silicon off.. the tank has a a lot more ends then a typical rectangle tank and I wanted to make absolutetly sure I got every spec of silicon off.. so it took me like 2-3 hours to do.. But I enjoyed it.. I shoulda just done this the first time vs that other fix everyone said would work lol..

 

[vance1013]

Looks solid and you did a good job

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[candymancan]

thanks,


well been 4 days now and still no leaks. Silicon seems to be holding to the glass fine.. But im still keeping an eye on it.