EMERGENCY LEAK FIX!

Mr_Knightley · Sep 6, 2020

Hey!
So over the last three or so days, the bottom front seam of my Aqueon 210g aquarium has started dribbling, and the pace of the leak has escalated. I have no pictures, I slathered silicon over the seam as a last minute thing but the water is still leaking through, slowly but surely. I need help! It's looking bad, and I have no chance for another tank after this one is through. Please, if anybody has any ideas I would love to hear. If you see this thread and don't know anything about leaks, please I ask that you give this a friendly bump!
Thank you all for your help. I fear my days of giant tanks my be over soon though...
Stay safe and God bless.

GlassMunky · Sep 6, 2020

There is no fix other than tearing it down and fully resealing that Panel
Sorry, that sucks.

ReefLab · Sep 6, 2020

sorry to hear. I would drain it completely and put your fish and coral in a large rubbermaid or similar tote with a powerhead, heater, and live rock until you can fix it properly

Mr_Knightley · Sep 6, 2020

Luckily I have a secondary tank set up next to the big one that I can put them in temporarily until I can visit my LFS...

ReefLab · Sep 6, 2020

Mr_Knightley said:
Luckily I have a secondary tank set up next to the big one that I can put them in temporarily until I can visit my LFS...

perfect. add some extra live rock to that tank to handle the increased biomass. good luck, sorry you have to deal with this.

KrisReef · Sep 6, 2020

Please move the fish and livestock and drain the leaker before it fails catastrophically. 210 gallons is a lot of water damage potential.

GL!

Mr_Knightley · Sep 6, 2020

UPDATE:

The tank has been drained now, all that is left is sand and an inch or so of water, all livestock moved to my 24g for the time being. It feels so strange without life, I have worked for nearly three years to get to this point... And now I have to restart yet again. I'll keep you updated in my build thread for the tank... For now, I want to say thank you all for the advice. If I hadn't have posted this thread I probably would have left the tank to split in the middle of the night. I feel so empty after this leak, the tank had only just begun it's development, I had finally after a year beaten hair algae and cyano for good, and I was preparing to get my anemone back from my LFS tomorrow.
I guess good things must come to an end, but this was one of the worst ends it could have come to because I had to end it.

Thanks again for all of you're support, I am grateful for this community and I hope I can still contribute towards it's growth.
Thank you all and God bless.

Karen00 · Sep 6, 2020

I abolutely agree that the tank had to be drained so it can be fixed properly before a catastrophic fail happened but I wonder if something like that Flex Seal tape, paste, etc. could be used in a situation like this especially if the leak is substantial even while you're trying to drain the tank or you had to run out to get a temporary tank or buckets, etc. Might help contain the damage to the tank as well. I'm not sure if a leaking tank is the same as a dam that develops a small hole in it. That small hole can get large really fast as the water flowing through it degrades the structure even further.

I was thinking of getting some of this stuff for this very scenario. I would appreciate other people's thoughts on this.

LRT · Sep 6, 2020

I almost said flex seal earlier because its something we joke about at work. No matter whats broken flex seal will fix it lol.

On a serious note our plumbers use it all the time in emergency fixes. Im sure it would have worked here.
Just don't know about the toxicity that may have come along with it.

Karen00 · Sep 6, 2020

LRT said:
I almost said flex seal earlier because its something we joke about at work. No matter whats broken flex seal will fix it lol.

On a serious note our plumbers use it all the time in emergency fixes. Im sure it would have worked here.
Just don't know about the toxicity that may have come along with it.

LOL!

I was thinking to use it on the outside of the tank unless the only access to the problem was from the inside of the tank. They show using it in a pool (tape and paste) where people swim so I would think it has to be safe. Having said that I realize the volume of water in a pool is so huge that if the stuff is toxic it would be highly diluted. Still, I would think if there was the possibility of people being poisoned they wouldn't feature this as a use of their product. I was thinking of contacting them about safety.

I really want to get something because reading stories like the OP's sends shivers down my spine. I knocked over a 1/2 gallon of topoff water once and that was bad enough. A leak in my tank is a terrifying thought!

LRT · Sep 6, 2020

Karen00 said:
LOL!

I was thinking to use it on the outside of the tank unless the only access to the problem was from the inside of the tank. They show using it in a pool (tape and paste) where people swim so I would think it has to be safe. Having said that I realize the volume of water in a pool is so huge that if the stuff is toxic it would be highly diluted. Still, I would think if there was the possibility of people being poisoned they wouldn't feature this as a use of their product. I was thinking of contacting them about safety.

I really want to get something because reading stories like the OP's sends shivers down my spine. I knocked over a 1/2 gallon of topoff water once and that was bad enough. A leak in my tank is a terrifying thought!

True and yeah I would have only used it on outside seam. It does work. Probably not a bad idea to keep a little for emergencies like this. It can hold pressure too. They use it on leaking pex lines all the time until they can get proper couplings to fix.

Tired · Sep 6, 2020

Well, pools are full of chlorine, at concentrations that would be very quickly lethal to marine life. Remember, they breathe the water in, they don't just swim in it.

Any sort of addition to the outside of the seam can't do much. The whole force of the water is pressing it outward. Anything applied INSIDE the seam has the water pressing it further into the seam, which can help it hold.

R.Weller · Sep 6, 2020

Sorry to read of the failed seam. We lost our 220 gal the day after Christmas last year & it took almost 1 month of temp storage before our 300 gallon was ready. No doubt your next tank will be remarkable.

jeffrey750750 · Sep 6, 2020

just curious as to how old the tank was and was the silicone black or clear?

Karen00 · Sep 6, 2020

Tired said:
Well, pools are full of chlorine, at concentrations that would be very quickly lethal to marine life. Remember, they breathe the water in, they don't just swim in it.

Any sort of addition to the outside of the seam can't do much. The whole force of the water is pressing it outward. Anything applied INSIDE the seam has the water pressing it further into the seam, which can help it hold.

Re: Marine Life breathing it...Yes that's a good point but I've often swallowed pool water accidentally or have at least gotten it in my mouth and up my nose and in my eyes (all possible absorption points for poison) so I would hope Flex Seal isn't toxic. LOL Well even if Flex Seal (or similar products) is somewhat toxic but using it meant averting a catastrophic fail I think I would have to risk it if it gave me just enough time to get the water out and inhabitants moved.

That's also a good point about the inside of the tank being optimal. Thanks for pointing that out!

I'm going to contact them out of curiosity.

Karen00 · Sep 6, 2020

I also forgot to add to the OP.... I'm so glad to read you were able to get your tank drained and inhabitants moved safely. I hope you can fix the tank and get everything re-established. It's such a shame this happened right when things were just taking off in your tank (probably a very critical time). I will check out your build thread if you will be updating the situation there. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that everything will pull through!

Mr_Knightley · Sep 6, 2020

jeffrey750750 said:
just curious as to how old the tank was and was the silicone black or clear?

the tank was about a year and a half old and the silicone was black. I got it at wholesale price from an LFS that crappily installed my last 220 and gave me the discount because they didn't want to get sued. When the tank arrived I noticed instantly that several cuts in the class were uneven and the silicone in the area of questing was barely peeking out on the inside.

DSEKULA · Sep 6, 2020

Sry to hear this

I think tank failure is one of all reefers big fears. If you can run the temp tank on the existing sump you can auctually get through with little to no loss ime. Good luck!! Feel free to ask if you need resealing help

DSEKULA · Sep 7, 2020

Just remembering your build thread and had to look back. Looks like youve had 2 large tanks like this fail. It sounds like youve just had really bad luck but id absolutely check out the stand and floor for support or level issues its too much of a headache imo to not do a quick check at least.

Mr_Knightley · Sep 7, 2020

TJDSEKULA said:
Just remembering your build thread and had to look back. Looks like youve had 2 large tanks like this fail. It sounds like youve just had really bad luck but id absolutely check out the stand and floor for support or level issues its too much of a headache imo to not do a quick check at least.

The first tank [cracked] was caused by the stand not being level, when the new one was installed they shimmed the stand back up (the tank is resting on concrete) but they used basswood shims... So it very well could have been caused by a loss of level, I will have to check that out!