Leaking Tank Today. Yay!

tlo25

tlo25

Turbo Snail
#1
#1
So, woke up and right before I walked out the door to go to work I decided to take a look at my tank that's been up 3 years. As soon as I stepped on the rug by the tank "squish", water all over the floor. Pulled the plug on everything, after close inspection seam was leaking :( . This was the scene after I drained everything.







I have a 70 gallon sump, I think my livestock could survive in the sump for a few days if I move my lighting over it what do you think?

I am really attached to this tank, I really like it even have more equipment on order coming for it. Do you think I can get it repaired fast enough to reuse it?

Should I just get a new tank?

I have about $500-1000 I could throw at the issue right now.
 
W

Walkpraz

Cyano
#2
#2
As long as the leak was caused by the seal or silicon of the tank it should not be too difficult to repair. If you have a near by LFS I would contact them regarding the possibility of holding livestock, although for the time being as long as you have flow and light in the sump everything will be fine down there. Best of luck wish I could be of more help!
 
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daverf

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
#3
so you still have a little water in the tank? i would definitely check the level of the tank and stand before you fully drain. and where exactly was the leak?

i can see why you like it - looks amazing in that room. hope you can salvage. there are youtube videos on glass tank repair (or rebuild of all silicone joints), should be able to clean all up and DIY.

i would just go light on feeding while all life is in the sump...keep the heat/circulation (and light only if you ahve photosynthetic needs)...throw out the sand...everything should hold on.

how many gallons of water did the floor take? you'd want to make sure there was no floor damage before setting all up...
 
tlo25

tlo25

Turbo Snail
#4
#4
I'm guessing the floor took about 10 gallons I just filled the ATO reservoir yesterday and it was down about 10 gallons or so. The floor seems ok, I am waiting to see if the hardwood warps or anything. There was a big rug right in front of the tank that seemed to soak up most of the water. The rest of the standing water was kind of on top of the hardwood. I guess I was lucky that the floor seems to slope away from the wall so the water pretty much all ran right onto the rug.
 
tlo25

tlo25

Turbo Snail
#6
#6
I was thinking maybe I could just get a new tank with the same footprint, it probably wont be a shallow tank but I'm cool with that. Anyone know where I can get a tank that has a 30" x 30" footprint local?
 
Haulin Oates

Haulin Oates

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
#7
Leaking Tank Today. Yay!

I know Aquamart had some cubes on hand when I was down there last weekend. They seemed to be bigger sized. Might wanna give em a call.
 
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daverf

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
#9
tlo25;254038 said:
the floor seems to slope away from the wall so the water pretty much all ran right onto the rug.
Click to expand...
Could be why your tank seam(s) failed. Need to make sure you address a leveling issue (if one exists), otherwise your next tank could also fail very early.
 
tlo25

tlo25

Turbo Snail
#10
#10
The stand was shimmed with wood shims to level when it was first setup. Guess I should add making sure the tank is level to regular maintenance.
 
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daverf

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
#11
#11
tlo25;254059 said:
The stand was shimmed with wood shims to level when it was first setup. Guess I should add making sure the tank is level to regular maintenance.
Click to expand...
So leveling probably isn't an issue. Unless you think the floor could not sustain the weight (probably not the case if it was only 60G), then I doubt the floor would have deflected. Sounds like it was bad seam(s). Was it a used tank that sat empty for a long time?
 
tlo25

tlo25

Turbo Snail
#12
#12
No, I had it made local and filled it soon after I bought it. Just a bad seam I think, I have it on my deck now and it seems like the spot that gave way has been slowly failing for a while. There is algae growing under the silicone in the area that gave way. It was a back seam that faces the wall so I couldn't see it happening.
 
J

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#14
#14
Rimless tanks are tough. If you do repair it, the whole panel will need to be re-siliconed and it is better to do the whole tank again. I have failed with only replacing the one bad seam/panel and had to redo several tanks a second time and doing the whole thing.

You also might consider a powder coated steel rim to take some of the pressure off of the seams.
 
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