Help, my aquarium is leaking

[Jimmyneptune]

Help, my aquarium is leaking

I have a 12 year-old 93-gallon cube aquarium that started leaking on the bottom. It’s dripping once every two second. That system has been running for all 12 years and is doing really well right now. It’s loaded with LPS corals and I’m even having some success with SPS. I recently switched over to all for reef about eight months ago.

I have a second system Water box 270 XL, that system has been running for 15 months. I switched over all for reef a 2 months ago and most corals had been struggling or die in that aquarium. Currently I am getting Coraline algae growth in the Water box 270 XL.The corals are not growing much but not dying, I know that my phosphates and nitrates are fairly high in that system causing issues.

Looking for direction what to do about the tank and should I move everything over to the other system? water proof tape on the cube?

 

[mook1178]

I would personally get everything out of that tank ASAP and break it down before it just gives way and you have 90 gallons of saltwater to clean up

 

[Jimmyneptune]

Should I move everything over to the other system?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would not use the tank that is leaking for the time being. Are you able to provide photos of the tank itself and where it is leaking from?

 

[Jimmyneptune]

 

[Jimmyneptune]

the drip is about 1 time every 2 seconds

 

[NanoSteam]

You're on borrowed time, that drip can turn into a waterfall any second... get buckets underneath it and a holding tank you can use to transfer everything and drain the tank.

This is an emergency situation to me and not something I would wait a minute on

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Drain that tank ASAP. You can see the penetration through the silicone causing the leak. That is a ticking bomb.

 

[mook1178]

Yes. ,use the other tank. What ever happens, in the move happens. It does not sound like the other tank is particularly is bad shape husbandry wise, just still new and maturing, The rock from the leaking tank will help that real quick.

Either way, I doubt you will crash the new tank. It may take some tweaking on fixing your parameters. However, I would rather fight uglies and numbers over cleaning 90 gallons of seawater.

 

[Jimmyneptune]

I have high po4 in both systems. .12 in the 93 cube and .39 in the waterbox I was planning on moving the rock and coral from the cube into the waterbox. Will this be an issue and if so how to deal with the issues?

 

[UncommonSense]

Is there any chance this leak is coming from a drain bulkhead, as opposed to a silicone seam?

Water from a bulkhead leak tends to hit the stand and spread across the top of it, under the tank!

 

[exnisstech]

If you plan on replacing the tank maybe run to a tractor supply and get a stock tank and move everything into that. It would allow you to keep the same rocks ans such so parameters should stay close to what they are currently. Im in a similar situation only my tank isn't leaking yet. I have a large tank to move everything into but I'm worried about the coral because the nutrients levels are a lot higher in the large tank.


EDIT: I just saw your PO4 levels and they don't look too far apart so coral would probably be fine. I would be going from PO4 0.04 to 0.50 lol

 

[Jimmyneptune]

the outside/ underside of the bulk heads are dry.

 

[mook1178]

I have high po4 in both systems. .12 in the 93 cube and .39 in the waterbox I was planning on moving the rock and coral from the cube into the waterbox. Will this be an issue and if so how to deal with the issues?

You get everything out of the leaking tank. Give it a week or so and see where our phosphates are at. Then I would recommend GFO if they need to come down.

But your most important action right now is to transfer into the new tank.

 

[UncommonSense]

the outside/ underside of the bulk heads are dry.

Oof… this is probably a seam issue, then..

As @exnisstech said, a stock tank is your best bet here! You can run that indefinitely while you make plans for replacement…

A Rubbermaid 100G should hold everything in your tank, and can be drilled for bulkhead(s) to continue to run your sump! (Just use large drain(s), you don’t get much height difference in this arrangement!)

 

[hatfielj]

To buy yourself time…if you or a friend has a large pipe/bar clamp, you can put a clamp across the bottom of the tank (using pieces of wood on the part that touches the glass) then gently clamp it just until the leak stops. This will buy you as much time as you need to transfer everything to another system.

 

[JTP424]

Unless you can get a stock tank, just move everything over and worry about your parameters after the cube is dry.

Get things settled in the WB and THEN investigate how to keep parameters in line/stable :)

 

[exnisstech]

Just for information purposes. I asked about moving my SPS into my high nutrient tank and the general consensus was they should be fine since going from low to high doesn't seem to cause problems like going from high to low. I received oppinions from some seasoned SPS folks so.......