Yesterday I noticed that there was a little bit of water pooling up on the ledge of my tank stand. It was on the back edge and not visible from the front or side. Not even sure why I was looking back there but lucky that I spotted it. Once I discovered the issue, i wiped up all the water until it was dry and watched to see where the water was coming from. It was coming over the plastic trim on the bottom back edge of the tank. I believe the bottom/back inside seam had started to fail. I checked the plumbing for overflow and verified everything was dry and no leaks. The tank is 55 gallon drilled with internal overflow box. Made a call to fish den and they had a 55 gallon in stock. Made it there 10 minutes before closing bought the tank and some new sand. Stopped by a friends house to borrow glass hole saws (thanks BrianH!) and made a stop at home depot for paint (for background ) and silicone. Went home, drilled the new tank, and then started emptying old tank into a spare 90 I had laying around. Moved all the coral, rock, fish, etc into 90 and put a heater and power head in there and called it a day. This morning I siliconed the overflow into the new 55 and next step is painting the back of tank. Hoping to have the new tank up and running by end of day.
Tank sprung a leak
- Thread starter neil82
- Start date
I was assuming a 1 incher, think I even have a spare. If hole is made I'm sure I'm at leasure for installing it, or is the bulkhead used in some way to keep saw in place? That always spooked me getting er started. Course I'm semi home bound as I keep hurting myself moving heavy stuff lol... 
Not sure how or what I did, but not sore muscle but have like a long tendon thru deep thigh into my hips that any leaning over/sitting/random other things sends an instant massive charley horse/quickering pain. Think my builds gonna kill me aha... Just wish I had like a week off to focus on the tank rather than pesky work interupting.
Not sure how or what I did, but not sore muscle but have like a long tendon thru deep thigh into my hips that any leaning over/sitting/random other things sends an instant massive charley horse/quickering pain. Think my builds gonna kill me aha... Just wish I had like a week off to focus on the tank rather than pesky work interupting.
Fitz19d;n651601 said:
I was assuming a 1 incher, think I even have a spare. If hole is made I'm sure I'm at leasure for installing it, or is the bulkhead used in some way to keep saw in place? That always spooked me getting er started. Course I'm semi home bound as I keep hurting myself moving heavy stuff lol... Not sure how or what I did, but not sore muscle but have like a long tendon thru deep thigh into my hips that any leaning over/sitting/random other things sends an instant massive charley horse/quickering pain. Think my builds gonna kill me aha... Just wish I had like a week off to focus on the tank rather than pesky work interupting.
Not sure how or what I did, but not sore muscle but have like a long tendon thru deep thigh into my hips that any leaning over/sitting/random other things sends an instant massive charley horse/quickering pain. Think my builds gonna kill me aha... Just wish I had like a week off to focus on the tank rather than pesky work interupting.
Hey guys, so now I have put the new tank in place and checked it for level. It has a significant lean back towards the wall. Now I suspect that may have contributed to the seam failure and leak on the previous tank.
The stand has four load bearing legs and sits on carpet. I just tried putting 1/4 inch acrylic cut to 3 inch square pieces under the back two legs (closest to the wall) and now it has a significant lean forward away from the wall. Once the tank is full of water I'm thinking it will level out some though.
What is the best way to go about leveling the stand and tank?
The stand has four load bearing legs and sits on carpet. I just tried putting 1/4 inch acrylic cut to 3 inch square pieces under the back two legs (closest to the wall) and now it has a significant lean forward away from the wall. Once the tank is full of water I'm thinking it will level out some though.
What is the best way to go about leveling the stand and tank?
Need to get real shims.
These plastic ones are supposed to be nice, otherwise typical wood ones at home depot. https://www.google.com/search?q=ez+...ourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=ez+shims+home+depot
I would not count on it "settling" in flatter, it would I think just keep mostly the same uneveness. With that carpet the shims if done right will not even really be visible I dont think. (Though usually my stands have runners rather than just legs, with ultra big tanks point load would punch thru floor)
That's another idea, for drips or anything, if you can get some decorative or otherwise nice looking board, could basically sit the stand on that, then just shim the board under it. Wont see shims, you'll have extra place to set things down and be able to drip a bit.
These plastic ones are supposed to be nice, otherwise typical wood ones at home depot. https://www.google.com/search?q=ez+...ourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=ez+shims+home+depot
I would not count on it "settling" in flatter, it would I think just keep mostly the same uneveness. With that carpet the shims if done right will not even really be visible I dont think. (Though usually my stands have runners rather than just legs, with ultra big tanks point load would punch thru floor)
That's another idea, for drips or anything, if you can get some decorative or otherwise nice looking board, could basically sit the stand on that, then just shim the board under it. Wont see shims, you'll have extra place to set things down and be able to drip a bit.
Thought I might as well update this thread with the solution to the problem I encountered. I ended up building a 2x4 frame/platform to set the tank stand on. I screwed a sheet of plywood to the bottom of the 2x4 frame to help keep the frame rigid. Then I painted it black to match the stand. This allowed me to use shims (went with composite type) to level the stand on top of the platform. To be honest, I never even bothered to check if the stand was level when I initially setup the previous tank. Lesson learned.
I discovered the leak on Saturday afternoon. It was a very slow leak. I purchased the new tank same day. I drilled it, installed the overflow, painted the back, and had it up and running by Monday night. Didn't lose any fish or inverts in the process. Corals are all doing well with exception of some sps looking unhappy. We'll see if they come around. All's well that ends well.