Overflow and return section of sump empty

[Etoimos]

Sometime over night something happened in my system that caused the return section of my sump to go low enough for the pump not to push enough water back up into the tank.
(no water was going over the baffle from the sump to the return section). When I noticed this I turned the pump and skimmer off and a small amount of water drained back into the return section. I'm assuming that is from the return pipes going back up to the tank.

I also noticed that the overflow area is completely empty (normally just drains down to the two drain pipe levels (a Herbie system). The bottom of my stand had about 2 gallons of water in it and there is some water in the crawlspace below my tank. The floor around and under my tank is completely dry however. There was some evidence of water on top of the doors to my stand, but only a couple of drops.

Any thoughts on what could cause my overflow area and return section to empty, but nothing else in my system?

This is not how my tank looks now, this is from the initial setup 8 months ago. Just trying to give some reference to what my system looks like.

 

[Etoimos]

I just tried adding some water to the overflow area and it started leaking up around the bottom of the tanks frame.

 

[Balz3352]

Do you have an ato?

 

[Off The Deep End]

Are you saying the tank is leaking?

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

Maybe one of the bulkheads is leaking? If the leak then drips down and misses your sump and water ends up flowing toward your crawl space?

 

[Off The Deep End]

I misread that first part, I agree with Chris if your pouring water in the overflow and it's leaking than I would check your bulkhead or if you bumped your overflow pipe it could have cracked the bottom of the tank by the bulkhead, hopefully your bulkhead is just loose.

 

[Etoimos]

It is not leaking from the bulkheads. The bulkheads are up high as you can see in this photo (the overflow section is the reflective area in the middle of the tank):

You can see the water leaking out of the bottom frame on the right hand side.

It is coming over the frame in a couple of places. What is interesting is that with the display part of the tank empty, the overflow area does not leak. It only leaks when there is some water in the display area as well. I can only assume that the pressure for the display water cause a small leak to open up in the overflow area.

Now, can this be repaired if it is "just" the bottom seam, or do I need to get a whole new tank?

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I would think a complete tank reseal would be in order. I don't believe you can just cut the sealant off of 1 section and reseal it....doesn't work that way. I think you need to cut it all out and reseal everything. It's not an expensive job, but it is labor intensive and one of those jobs that needs to be done neatly and not sloppy or else it will look bad.

Best you can tell there are no cracks in the glass?

 

[Off The Deep End]

+1^ I would not reseal just one section as others may be soon to follow.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

Time to reseal! It’s a big job and probably not something you should do and fill the tank right back up either. What size tank is it? Can you replace it or put a post up to borrow a tank temporarily while your silicone sets for Andrew days? Don’t wait as it’s going to get worse.

 

[Etoimos]

Time to reseal! It’s a big job and probably not something you should do and fill the tank right back up either. What size tank is it? Can you replace it or put a post up to borrow a tank temporarily while your silicone sets for Andrew days? Don’t wait as it’s going to get worse.

I had a 20g tank that I was able to setup and move the 3 fish and half dozen corals into. The rest of the water I moved over to a Brute can and put the live rock in it as well. The sand and remaining water went into 5g buckets. So far I've not lost anything but a couple of snails that were out of their shells at the time. Poor planning on their part. lol

The tank is a 60g cube (24x24x24). I leaning towards getting a new (or another used) tank and maybe trying to repair this one down the road.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I've never used this place before - https://boulder.craigslist.org/fod/d/reef-ready-aquariums-holiday/6397929263.html - But they have a 60 RR cube for $208, brand new. That seems like a good deal.

 

[whyamisofly]

I've never used this place before - https://boulder.craigslist.org/fod/d/reef-ready-aquariums-holiday/6397929263.html - But they have a 60 RR cube for $208, brand new. That seems like a good deal.

That is Pidaz (his name is Jim) out of the Springs. He offers discounts for members of MASC and SCMAS.