Disaster struck!!

[hamstercaster]

Well, one of the two things aquarists fear the most, IMO at least, is to come home and find your fish all dead or a flood of biblical proportions....

Well, this morning I went to work as usual and got to work at 7H30 as usual.. then at 8H00 am came the dreaded call from my wife.... We had a flood of semi biblical proportions in the basement.  Luckily, my wife runs a daycare center from home and she caught the flood on time.  There was already about 12 gallons gone when she noticed it this morning.  The thing is that last night at 5pm when I shut the lights, there was nothing, no water on the floor or anything...... this morning it was full  .  Luckily enough, my brother didn't work till 3pm today so I was able to call him and pick me up at work to go find a new home for the fishies and try and see what the problem was.  I have some big rubbermaid containers at home so I used one and transferred the fish, filter and heater and proceeded on emptying the tank... Now, the problem was to find exactly where it was leaking..

I got a brand new AC50 this week and a used AC70 and was wondering if that could have been the problem... but the filters weren't wet on the outside and there was no water on the tank glass around the filters either... Now, a leak from a sillicone joint that failed perhaps???  No water whatsoever on the outside walls on each side of the tank either... hmmmmm... that left under the sand then... which is exactly it.  I removed all the water and sand, filled the tank with a hose and let it sit outside and then went to have lunch and when I came back my brother easily spotted the place where the leak was... just at the bottom on one corner, actually to spots where the sillicone seems to have failed.. So, Now I realise that I should have made some time and gone to the special tank sealing clinic given by OVAS    Am presently emptying the tank again and will move it on my back porch and reseal it.. now I'm wondering if I should just redo it all completly and avoid more sillicone failure which is more than likely bound to happen in the somewhat not too distant future...

That was my adventure for the day 

[darkdep]

Sorry to hear about this!  You're lucky you caught it when you did.

[babblefish1960]

A most unfortunate event to say the least.

As for repairing the tank, there are a couple of things that require determination. First and foremost, what size tank is this, and secondly, the leak in the corner, could you tell if it was coming from the upper or lower portion of the corner, and was it on the long bottom glass, or on the shorter end glass?

The second first question, how old is the tank roughly? These questions are meant to point you in a reasonable direction for repair methods.

In the worst case scenario, resealing the inner cove will not be adequate, it has already had the mechanical seal portion of the joint fail, if you reline the cove, that most important joint will still be in failure, and you will be merely putting a bandage on it.

If this is a large tank, I suggest that the pane of glass where the leak is coming from be removed and redone. However, a word of advice, silicone does not stick to silicone, if you are going to fix this, you are going to learn a lot quite quickly.

I think I understood from your post that your fish are fine, that is a good start, whatever repair you choose and complete, I will also tell you that as frustrating a wait as it is, do not put water back in the repaired tank for 4 days, otherwise you may be back where you began soon enough.

Good luck with this newest project, and yes, you would have had fun at the resealing workshop, with answers to these questions though, we may well be able to talk you through this.

[hamstercaster]

The leak is on the bottom pane of glass and on the lenght side of the glass.  The tank is a 55 gallon.  I don't know how old is the tank.  The person I bought it from says that he had for roughly a year and the guy before him roughly a year.  It seems to be "walmart" tank as the filter that came with it was a Regent.  Now, if this is going too hard a job to be worth it.. mind as well contemplate buying a bigger tank  and save the hassles... I have seen a 75 gallon for 40$ on Kijiji but the seller hasn't responded to both my e-mails so far.  How much would a 75-90 gallon bare tank cost me at Big Al's? or anywhere else actually.  I heard that on Boxing Day Big Al's usually has some specials on bare tanks that amount to around a dollar or so a gallon.... so how much is it when not on special?

[darkdep]

75Gals are usually about $150-$179 new at Big Als; on Boxing day you can get them for $89 (at least, you could in the past, who can say if they will be sale items next year).

[hamstercaster]

Thanks Darky!!  I may actually be tempted to go buy a new 75 at that price as I don't think my fish will want to live in a rubbermaid bin for 6 months lol...  And by what Babble said, it may not be worth resealing my 55.. and since other 55 are going for 250$ with equipment on the forum and classifieds, mind as well get a brand new 75 instead since I have enough filtration and all at home and wouldn't really need anything else!!.

thanks

[dan2x38]

Now, if this is going too hard a job to be worth it.. mind as well contemplate buying a bigger tank  and save the hassles...

Seen some great deals for tanks at SP... maybe call them all to see what they got? they are 50%-75% off if they have any left...

[Nerine]

Glad to hear your fish made it out ok!!

you could always sell your 55 gal...reptile people would love it lol

or reseal the entire thing (can't just do one small part!)

Good luck!!!

ps - fish don't mind living in rubbermaid bins for 6 months

[hamstercaster]

Unfortunatly it doesn't look like I could have been able to keep them in the rubbermaid bin much longer as one had already leaped out and comitted suicide  and my female lithobate was already going through some hard times as she was attacked by I don't know whom... I had 18 fish that went from a 55 to a 25.. so they weren't too happy about it and things were kinda getting out of hand in there so I had to move quick.  It ended up costing me around 400$ for a new 75, a stand and a new heater as the other one wasn't big enough for the 75...

New 75 gallon tank 150$ +tx
New Stand for 75 gallon tank 160$ +tx
New Ebo Jagger Heater 43$ +tx
Seeing things you could have bought of the Forum for cheaper.. a day or two too late... Priceless 

[Nerine]

ha I love your tag line there

I'm glad you got a new tank though!!! I hope they all settle in ok

[babblefish1960]

I do not mind being used as an excuse to purchase more tanks and equipment, one can never have too many tanks, no matter what she who must be obeyed says, however, as I mentioned earlier, if you are so inclined, you have the 55 gallon tank as well now, and it is no longer a panic to get it repaired.

In my opinion, this would be a perfect tank to use as a demonstrator for the art of resealing superficially, and in the case of your through leakage you know, the resealing of a failed seam, very different processes.

Might I suggest that you notate the area of water leakage with some sort of marker so that once you decide to bring it along to a workshop to demonstrate with, that we are repairing the correct mechanical seams.

As Nerine pointed out, the superficial interior cove of silicone must be redone entirely, and you will have fun learning how to do this as well.  But first, the offending mechanical seal must be repaired.

I would encourage you to hang on to the tank, and we will make it water tight once again at our next resealing workshop if you are interested. I hate to see good tanks go to waste.

[hamstercaster]

Don't worry Babble, the tank shall not go to waste.  My brother will take it and re-seal it himself or have it re-sealed professionally.  I unfortunatly do not have any more room for a 4 foot tank.  The only room we have for aquariums is downstairs in the basement and we had a tough time making room for the 55 in the fist place as my wife runs a daycare at home.  my brother as a 29 and would like to upgrade so that tank will serve him well unless he decides to use it for a reptile instead  ... And trust me, I would not let the tank go to waste.  I would give it up for free here on these forums rather than throw it out.

And this time around, I didn't have much choice but to act quick with the purchase of a new tank as the fishies were much more agressive than the usual in my rubbermaid bin and one of my lithobates actually got hurt a bit but seems fine for now. 

Babble, I just hope I did not misquote you, or perhaps I just misunderstood you and kinda over reacted in the sense that I took for granted that the tank just needed too much work or should I say more work than I could handle or have the expertise to do.  I guess that nothing stops me from trying to re-seal it and fill it up with water in my back yard and see what will happen with that and then perhaps my wife will let me keep it lol!!