tank sprung a leak

[arnaldolex]

am so upset so am chilling cing tv late weds and my super knocks on my door telling me that theres a leak am like no theres not so we start looking around my tank and find that the tank is leaking from the bottom of the glass i guess that has to be the worst kind of leak. anyone who has been to my house knows my tank is amazing i have so many diff kind of corals and every where in my tank is covered up its hard for me to find a spot for new things i think ive invested over 10,000 into this tank so i start going crazy for a few than put my head together. i had a 55 gallon fresh water which i emptied out in about ten minutes lol donated the fish and pumped my water straight into it i also had a 20 that i use for my ato i emptied that out and put all the dead base rock i have over 200 pounds of rock in total luckily i had a friend that i set up his tank about a month ago and he had no rocks i filled it up with half the rocks that had corals and polyps i threw all the other rocks fish and crustacians in my 55 put heaters and pumps on brut can with rocks and in the tank emptied out 2 5 gallon buckets with sand threw out the rest the worst thing was scrapping all the bottom silicon of the bottom of the tank i did some research and read that am able to go to home depot and buy the ge silicon 1 for doors and windows and to wait 72hrs for it to dry i did that and now on monday i gotta do a wet test am hoping leak is gone it was my first time sealing the tank and i only did the bottom if it leaks i might need some one with experience to give me a hand. i cant believe this happened out of no where luckily i kept my head on and used all of my resources just wanted to get that of my chest i feel like my tank was at its prime and it will never be the same

 

[Flushtown Reefer]

I've sealed up a tank before. Hopefully you dont but you might have an issue. Silicone doesn't adhere to itself so you might get a leak at the corners where the new silicone meets the old. You have to take every bit of silicone off and redo the whole tank. But hopefully I'm wrong and you have your tank up and running on monday.

 

[Awibrandy]

I'm so sorry Arnaldo! God willing your repair will hold.... Any chance you can get a new tank? I just wouldn't be able to sleep with a repaired tank. Sorry just my opinion.

 

[kres1024]

What size tank?
Might be better just for piece of mind to get a new tank

 

[jdnumis]

I feel the same way

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

No way bro , when it starts to go , it's gonna keep going!!! Get a new tank

 

[NYreefNoob]

especially on a bottom seal and definately if you didnt properly strip the old silicone out to make sure it is sealed correctly

 

[fishman1069]

+1 to every post

 

[STHILL]

Don't risk another leak, id get a new tank..

 

[ducati335i]

Hope it works out man! Ugh

 

[edd]

what can be fixed can be used again.

 

[peteyboyny]

Well since you got it empty...why not strip ALL the old silicone out, and reseal the entire tank? I wouldn't use anything from Home Depot. Its worth the $ to get a silicone sealant that is DEFINITELY aquarium safe. LFSs carry tubes for $11-15. Worth the piece of mind to me. Along with resealing the whole tank. Not just "repairing". (Just my .02)

 

[arnaldolex]

thanks for all your advice just to give ya a update the tank is a 125 i stripped all the silicon on the bottom did everything like on youtube didnt do the sides over but still went over them so junctions would seal good waited 4days for it to cure gave it a wet test completely filled for about 8hrs and no leaks yeah saved me alot of money and know that i did it layed base rock down last night redid all plumbing fixed everything i wanted to improve layed my sand down last night then slowely added 12" of water about 30 gallons put a power head in am making 20 more gallons now to add to my 55g and take that water out and put it into my 125 i have a question i know my tank is recycling smells like ocean in my room i plan to keep filling the tank slowely imwas wondering how long would ya wait for levels to stabilize considering i reused my old sand and i know it should be letting out gasses i have alot of corals and expendive fish anyone that has seen my tank knows its beautiful i dont wanna loose any coral how long should i wait

 

[Geraud]

Sorry about that bro. You should get rid of the sand bed. I had to move my tank one inch, what I did was remove all the sand, cleaned everything nicely, then used new sand. (pre-rinsed...). I only reused "a scoop" of the old one to reseed for worms.

In general it is better to just redo the whole tank. Aka keep the glass, cut/clean the silicone, reseal. That's actually how some people move heavy tanks around... especially since they might not fit through the doors.

 

[arnaldolex]

well tanks back up and doing great i put a video up on you tube under luis 125 saltwater build 2/4/13 used the same sand and tank lol just waited a week after setting up tested my waters then wala lol

 

[BaaMNYC]

Saw the video last night. Looked great!

 

[arnaldolex]

thanks but nothing compared to what you got like i said am coming back lol
quick question i wanna buy the legs for the light do you know the namebrand for me to order it

 

[BaaMNYC]

Sorry dude. I'm not sure. I got it second hand.