My 75 sprung a leak

[Juck]

Well,, it finally happened,,, after years of dodging the bullet I finally had an aquarium leak,, there was about 15 gallons on the floor this morning. This tank has only been running for 6 months and it was starting to look nice. I think the phrase I'm looking for rhymes with 'clucking bell'.

Anyway. I've emptied the water out of the tank down to the DSB and placed the rocks with SPS' in rubbermaids,,,, I can put the zoos in another tank.

I think one of the seams has failed as the leak is fairly slow only couple of drips every second. It's still leaking so I guess it's a seam at the bottom and I'll have to pull the sandbed out and reseal the whole tank.

A couple of questions:


How long can my SPS' survive in rubbermaids without their halides? I have a powerhead circulating each.

Anyone got a neat trick to finding the source of the leak? I realy don;t want to reseal the whole tank. The problem is the base and all corners have an oak trim so I can't see exactly where the water is coming out.

My neighbour came round to help and took a couple of pics (thanks Stuart).

Well,, off to remove the sand bed.

 

[Len]

Very sorry to hear that! The tank was definitely looking good.

SPS can survive probably about a week without the halides, but I recommend you put on some fluorsecent lights over the container (or sunlight if heat doesn't become an issue). They'll lose a lot of coloration, but it'll come back once they're back under optimal conditions.

I don't have any good tricks to finding leaks. I've only had a 20 gallon spring a leak on me (bottom as well) and I found where the leak was first drying the bottom then laying down a long sheet of paper towel and looked to see where the water first appeared. Not very accurate, but it got me in the right general area.

 

[Juck]

Thanks Len,

When I got all the sand and water out it's pretty obvious where the leak was,,, I've just sealed it up,, will test it in 36 hours or so.

The Skunk clowns would not leave their carpet anemone even as I was pulling it out of the tank,, one just lay on top of it while I carried it to another tank. The anemone looks very unhappy,, luckily it was stuck to the glass rather than rock so was relatively easy to peel the foot off gently.

I smashed a monti cap on the way out of the tank but no other casualties so far.

The DSB was really warm,, must have been 90 degrees. Is that normal?

 

[Len]

Yup, that's normal for DSBs.

 

[Juck]

My dsb is in a rubbermaid on its own,,, it's pretty crappy looking right now. Should I rinse it? Dump it? Just skim it for a couple of days?

 

[Anonymous]

Don't count on new silicone sticking to old, Juck. You very well may have to (and really should at this point) simply reseal the entire tank.

Skim the DSB, but how well it fares really depends on how it was removed. If you managed to retain the layering, it should only need a bit of time to recover, but if everything was mixed together you may need to just start over.

I second Len's advice regarding the photosynthetics - they can easily go a week sans halide light (think of what they went through to get here).

I'm going to reiterate - reseal the whole tank, do it right the first time or you're going to be doing it a second and a third and a... you get the idea.

 

[Juck]

Well Seamaiden,, I'm going to give you the opportunity to say 'I told you so' on the sealant thing

I spent an hour rinsing the DSB as it was all mixed up,, I can seed it with sand from other tanks. I managed to rescue maybe 50 spaghetti worms but probably ended up killing over 100.

 

[Johnsteph10]

reseal the whole thing like our lady seamaiden stated -- silicone sealant will NOT stick to silicone sealant (esp. if it's cruddy) well at all...

i speak from old experience.

john

 

[GotDesl]

Juck, not to beat a dead horse, but I am going to toss in my towel too. After a catastrophic event involving replacing a side panel on a 75, don't put silicone on silicone. It will not work. Mine cured for a week, was tested for a week in the garage with a full load of water, came indoors and worked great for a couple of weeks. I was watching tv one evening and noticed a water pistol squirt that had started. By the time I could get up, the panel gave and 75 gallons came rushing out. I believe I may have caught a glimpse of Noah and his ark as it flooded the house. 8O Did you know that 75 gallons of water, when released suddenly at an angle equal to the floor, will shoot straight out for almost 3 feet before gravity has any effect?!?

 

[Anonymous]

My jaw just hit the floor. I had something similar happen with a 35gallon hex once, but fortunately it was freshwater and all I had in it were some feeder gups.

Juck, I don't really like to say "I told you so", especially if it's true.

Just have LOTS of fresh straight edges on hand. :|

Having repaired literally hundreds of tanks, I do not envy you.

 

[Anonymous]

How old was this tank? If it was only six months old, I would speak to the manufacturer and have it replaced.

Personally, after the catastrophe of having my 58 gallon tank leak from a seam, I just went out and bought a new tank. I was not willing to trust any repair I could have done and risk another leak in my home.

mitch

 

[cdeakle]

I have never had a seal fail and I dread the day, we feel your pain!

What are the chances of this actually happening? Just a few unlucky people out of hundreds of thousands or is this more than likely to happen once in my life while in the hobby? Any main reason(s) on why?

-puff

 

[Juck]

The tank is about 10 years old but it's a DAS custom tank with a great pickled oak stand and trim,, it's not like I can just replace the glass tank with a cheap 75aga,,, I wish I could,, but it's not the same dimensions.

I trimmed away about 12 inches of silicone on either side of the pinhole leak,, cleaned the glass with a razor blade and acetone and used a full 6oz of new silicone to cover the 24" gap plus an extra 6" on each side.

I really love this tank,,, who else makes a 75g out of 1/2" glass with two 1/2" glass braces? No other company I know. A new DAS 75 reef-ready with the same stand/canopy is $2000+ ,, so I'll try to fix this one first.

 

[Ixthys]

I really love this tank,,, who else makes a 75g out of 1/2" glass with two 1/2" glass braces? No other company I know.

...to answer your question, the same guys who made a tank out of 1/2" glass that sprung a leak... :wink:

Actually, the fact that it lasted 10yrs is something respectful!

I've been in the hobby for quite a while myself (new to this group) and to add my 2 cents, I've never had luck fixing a leak. It usually holds up for a few hours to a few weeks and then splits.

Good luck!

 

[Anonymous]

I really hate to tell you this, Juck, but you really are going to have to remove ALL interior silicone, with the blade, then use alcohol to clean/degrease. THEN, and only then, can you reseal and have a hope that it will stick. If it had been, say, a side or bottom panel that had sprung instead of a seam, you could just get away with the "down and dirty" silicone + glass sandwich method.

If done right, a reseal will last many, many years. I've got tanks that have been dry for as long as they were full, and still held up just fine. I am also confident in my abilities (having a warehouse-full of tanks on which to practice went a long way in that regard).

In any event, good luck.