tank leaking - what can I do?!?

[hbeth82]

Just got home from work to find that 10-15 gallons had leaked out of my 55. I can't find any cracks or obvious signs of a problem but on the backside of the tank, the sheet between the tank and stand is soaked and water has soaked the carpet in front of the tank. I'm working on moving the fish to my turtle tank (after removing said turtle).

Aside from filling the tank back up & seeing what happens, are there any other ways to find the leak or does anybody have any idea what happened? Should I just go get a new tank & be thankful that I wasn't out of town when this happened?

Please help!

 

[carey]

Wow, sorry to hear about this. That really stinks. :-(

If you can't find the obvious leak Iwould buck up the $55 and go to petco before the sale is over. Get yourself a brand new tank. Either way you're gonna have to empty it.

Good luck!

 

[jcolon]

If there are no cracks in the glass ... then it's a bad seal ... which can be repaired . but involves stripping the old silicone and re-sealing. Some LFS's would probably do it for a $$$$.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Resealing the tank is actually an easy task, just time consuming. Less than $10 in materials and it'll be like new again. My bet is the silicone has a bad spot in it somewhere, since a crack would easily be noticed

 

[reefdiver]

What kind of filter do you have? Was your filter still pushing water. If you think it's a leak add a couple more gallons to raise the water line a couple more inches and try to find it.

 

[hbeth82]

If you can't find the obvious leak Iwould buck up the $55 and go to petco before the sale is over. Get yourself a brand new tank.

At least that is good news, thanks!

Resealing the tank is actually an easy task, just time consuming. Less than $10 in materials and it'll be like new again. My bet is the silicone has a bad spot in it somewhere, since a crack would easily be noticed

May give it a try, thanks. Think you're right, haven't found a crack yet. I've found a few but can you recommend any guides on how to do it?

 

[hbeth82]

Thanks for all the advice & support! Fish safely moved to turtle tank & turtle will spend the next several days trying to get out of her temporary home.

Next question - anybody know how you can tell when a stand is no good due to water damage? If it was just going to be holding light stuff, I'd trust it no problem, but 600+lbs is a different matter.

 

[mfdrookie516]

What kind of filter do you have? Was your filter still pushing water. If you think it's a leak add a couple more gallons to raise the water line a couple more inches and try to find it.

This is something else to consider if you haven't already... I completely forgot about this

 

[hbeth82]

What kind of filter do you have? Was your filter still pushing water. If you think it's a leak add a couple more gallons to raise the water line a couple more inches and try to find it.

Nope, the water level was below the filter intakes. So freaked out to come & find that, I really didn't stop to think about trying this. I may try later on when I have more time & someone a bit more indebted to help me (thank goodness for new friends at work!).

 

[reefdiver]

try to dry it as much as you can, the coating they have will help it from taking in water. bugt the reall test woud be to wait and see if it starts bulging or expanding. I assumong you have a MDF stand

 

[jsoong]

If you have a MDF stand, watch carefully for any swelling. If water gets behind the melamine (at a seam, or a scratch), the MDF will swell up. Swollen MDF is weak & I'd reinforce the area before use.

A solid wood stand can simply be dried. A good wood stand should be screwed & glued, and should not fall apart with water. poorly made ones may have the glue joint fall apart, just check all the joints for gaps.

As for resealing the tank, it is pretty easy (but will take hours of scraping & cleaning and a week of curing). This is the instructions:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/diy-tank-re-seal-full-instructions-15621.html

One hint for a professional looking job: mask all the seams with masking tape to the desired width, then smooth the silicone onto the masking tape. Remove tape carefully while the silicone is still wet (you have ~ 15 min) and you will have sharp & even seams.

 

[hbeth82]

The top of the stand is MDF & I think all the rest is ply wood. Here's a link to a small album of pictures, if people can look them over & let me know what you think I'd appreciate it. There's just two places where I notice swelling.

 

[jsoong]

No link posted?

Where is the swelling? You have to figure out if it is structural or not ... and also how big an area is involved.

 

[hbeth82]

No link posted?

Oops, sorry about that. Here are the pictures. My biggest concerns are the top (first picture) and the back support piece (second & fifth pictures).

 

[jsoong]

That is pretty worrisome. Your whole stand is MDF from what I can see - no plywood anywhere.

The 1st pic- the top is out quite a bit. Your tank will not sit level, and that will put stress on the seams & possibly causing a busted seam down the road. <Perhaps this is old? and the bulge actually caused the current leak??> That can be sanded down or you can shim the entire top with a sheet of rigid styrofoam insulation. <The weight of the tank cause the styrofoam to deform, smoothing out any irregularities ... but it will look ugly with an open top like yours ...>

Pic 2 & 5 are most worrisome. Those are structural pieces (and not very well designed ones at that). Weakening those may cause stand failure. Personally, I would replace both those vertical pieces with plywood or solid wood.

The others look to be non-structural & trim, although the vertical side pieces are structural, the bulging is minimal & only at the ends, so they are probably OK. You can reinforce the sides if you are paranoid.

But there is quite a bit of work to fix the top & the 2 vertical supports ... It is up to you if it is worth your time & $$, or just suck up the loss & buy a new stand (preferably one that is NOT MDF so they don't self-destruct).

 

[jsoong]

PS - if looking for anew stand - even if you go for MDF - look for one without those exposed edges. That is a sure sign of poor construction. The melamine should cover all exposed edges, even at the back where it is not visible. Otherwise, any little bit of water will get into the MDF & cause it to swell & break.

 

[hbeth82]

Thanks for the advice. We checked the bottom of the stand & noticed even more damage, so I decided to use the aquarium stand as a new entertianment center & 'built' a new stand with 2x4's & concrete blocks. Acclimating the fish to the new tank now, fingers crossed that this is one of those things that happens once and only once.