Tank leak!

[Bmtiz92]

So I walk into my living room to find my 20H with my GBR/EBR pair with eggs in it is leaking! There's a huge puddle on the floor, the tank appears to have lost about 4-5 inches of water. This tank was a goodwill find, a little beat up but has held fine until now. Now looking at the water marks on my wall it almost looks like it was the filter that did it. Trying to quickly move all of my fish into my spare ten gallon until I can see what's going on.

Edit: It looks like it was the filter overflowing off the back of it. It's an aquaclear 40, anyone ever had that problem? I'm gonna turn the filter off, refill the tank, and make sure there isn't a leak but it looks like it was just the filter overflowing.

 

[absolutangel04]

I have a filter that sometimes overflows too. One day when I saw all the water, I also thought my tank was leaking. Hopefully its just your filter.
For me, I learned I had to clean the filter pad more frequently because it would get scummed up and the water didn't pass through it as fast anymore. Assuming it is the filter and not a leak, I suggest trying to clean off the filter cartridge in old tank water (not tap water) and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Bmtiz92]

Ok, I'm anal about cleaning so I've never had this happen to me before. Could it have happened because I've shoved extra media in there from my other tanks? Ugh, now I have to move the tank off of what it was sitting on to dry it off.

 

[absolutangel04]

That is possible. Some filters are designed without a large enough reservoir area so any little thing that slows down the water flow through it results in back-up and overflow.

 

[Bmtiz92]

Ok, refilled, moved, dried. Looks like it was just the filter, THANK GOODNESS!!! Everyone is in the tank and coloring back up, I added some extra stress coat to help them out a little, and the filter issue has been fixed. Now I need a nap :/

 

[phoenixkiller]

Ok, refilled, moved, dried. Looks like it was just the filter, THANK GOODNESS!!! Everyone is in the tank and coloring back up, I added some extra stress coat to help them out a little, and the filter issue has been fixed. Now I need a nap :/

Glad it worked out. Yes, my filter overflowed, not too much but it did make a bit of a mess. I replaced the filter pad, and it worked fine after that. Whew, I'm glad that's over!!

 

[Bmtiz92]

Me too, the stand I had it on wasn't too stable, so I was terrified with it being wet I'd wind up picking my tank up off the floor in pieces. I just haven't been able to find anything to put it on yet that both me and my mom like since it's going in the living room. She may be a little easier to please after this whole ordeal LOL It had been previously used for my ten gallon, and it held that fine, but the 20...not so much.

 

[phoenixkiller]

Yeah the 20 gallon weighs twice as heavy. I hope you find a good stand for it!!