Leaking/overflowing? Not sure.

[Sheehantastic]

So I'm kinda of stumped. I have 140 gallon ish aquarium that I've had up for about a year. I've recently started adding corals to it and everything is going fine on that end. I have randomly come down into my office to find puddles of sea water on the floor. Never more than a couple gallons on water proof floor so not a huge deal but still annoying. I have an ESHOPPS 1500 or 1800 overflow I think, and reef octopus return pump (I forget which size 1200gph naybe?) Going into a standard 20 gallon for a sump. When I stop my pump the sump doesn't overflow, if I close of my overflow the DT doesn't overflow. I thought maybe my ato (reef breeders) was the culprit maybe a bad sensor and dumping too much fresh water into my sump. So I turned that off for a few days to rule that out. No puddles for about a week, so I thought I nailed it, but then this morning with the ATO still off. Puddles! No noticeable leaks anywhere and it's super intermittent maybe once or twice a month at most. Any ideas on where to look next would be appreciated.

 

[Troylee]

Do you see any salt creep on your plumbing? I’d start there.. it sounds like a lot of water in a short time thou.. weird.

 

[Marquarium]

What type of lid are you using on the tank? Glass, acrylic, net, nothing, other?

I've had the same problem with 1 of my rimless no lid tanks in my office. There were no leaks but occasionally in the summer I'd find smalls pools of water on the floor. Another weird spot would be by a fan if I left that on. I would also keep my door shut most of the time.

I'm not 100% certain but my guess is it was from evaporation and my office being too hot in the summer (it's upstairs and hottest room + many pcs running).

After a few parts started rusting in 1 of my pcs, I put a lid of the tank and pretty sure I never had the issue again. All my tanks in rest of the house have never had this issue.

 

[Rjukan]

"A couple gallons" is much more than a puddle or two. It's shocking how much only 1 gallon looks like when it's on the floor lol

You can't follow the wark marks from the puddles back to the tank to narrow down the source? Are the puddles up against the stand? How about a few pics of your tank, the overflow, plumbing and sump.. something might jump out to one of us as being the culprit. Can you verify if the puddle water is fresh or salt, taste test maybe (eww but effective lol).

 

[Sheehantastic]

Do you see any salt creep on your plumbing? I’d start there.. it sounds like a lot of water in a short time thou.. weird.

No salt creep anywhere that I've noticed. I thought for sure I'd see some somewhere.

 

[Sheehantastic]

What type of lid are you using on the tank? Glass, acrylic, net, nothing, other?

I've had the same problem with 1 of my rimless no lid tanks in my office. There were no leaks but occasionally in the summer I'd find smalls pools of water on the floor. Another weird spot would be by a fan if I left that on. I would also keep my door shut most of the time.

I'm not 100% certain but my guess is it was from evaporation and my office being too hot in the summer (it's upstairs and hottest room + many pcs running).

After a few parts started rusting in 1 of my pcs, I put a lid of the tank and pretty sure I never had the issue again. All my tanks in rest of the house have never had this issue.

I'm using a 3 piece acrylic lid.

 

[Sheehantastic]

"A couple gallons" is much more than a puddle or two. It's shocking how much only 1 gallon looks like when it's on the floor lol

You can't follow the wark marks from the puddles back to the tank to narrow down the source? Are the puddles up against the stand? How about a few pics of your tank, the overflow, plumbing and sump.. something might jump out to one of us as being the culprit. Can you verify if the puddle water is fresh or salt, taste test maybe (eww but effective lol).

So there is water under and up against the stand but only in the front. I did taste the water this morning, it tasted fresh (which extra weird since my ato is currently off) I did do a manual topp off last night of about 2 gallons. I don't have any good pics right now. I'll try to post a couple tonight.

 

[Troylee]

The only thing that makes sense is if the sump has a leak above the water line and when it fills or gets to a higher point it leaks. I’d have to see pics.

 

[Troylee]

So there is water under and up against the stand but only in the front. I did taste the water this morning, it tasted fresh (which extra weird since my ato is currently off) I did do a manual topp off last night of about 2 gallons. I don't have any good pics right now. I'll try to post a couple tonight.

Top off resi leaking?

 

[JTP424]

Another possibility, if it's in a basement/first floor.... is it a house leak and NOT tank related?

If tank related.
Is there any way to maybe put some tape on the exterior of all the areas that hold water to mark height and then if it happens again you can see which is down the most?

 

[Devisissy]

Have a wife? Did you forget your anniversary?

 

[Rjukan]

So there is water under and up against the stand but only in the front. I did taste the water this morning, it tasted fresh (which extra weird since my ato is currently off) I did do a manual topp off last night of about 2 gallons. I don't have any good pics right now. I'll try to post a couple tonight.

Ooo a helpful clue!

Ok so that narrows down that it's not coming from your tank or plumbing, which is great! Now that your ato is off, can you mark the water level and see if it changes next time you find water there? How do you refill the ato reservoir? I'm guessing manually right, there is no RODI lines going directly to it?

 

[Sheehantastic]

Have a wife? Did you forget your anniversary?

I do, I didn't, but if she sees very many more puddles I may not ever have to worry about missing an anniversary

 

[Sheehantastic]

Ooo a helpful clue!

Ok so that narrows down that it's not coming from your tank or plumbing, which is great! Now that your ato is off, can you mark the water level and see if it changes next time you find water there? How do you refill the ato reservoir? I'm guessing manually right, there is no RODI lines going directly to it?

Right, I carry a Homer bucket over to my rodi fill it and dump it into ATO res. I have a few graduation marked in sharpie on the return section of my sump. (My sump baffles collapsed a couple of months ago and I just haven't gotten around to fixing them) so the water level is equal throughout the sump right now. But I do notice a big drop when I'm seeing the puddles.

 

[Sheehantastic]

Top off resi leaking?

No not as far as I can tell anyways. I just use a Homer bucket and I fill it with a different Homer bucket.

 

[JTP424]

Right, I carry a Homer bucket over to my rodi fill it and dump it into ATO res. I have a few graduation marked in sharpie on the return section of my sump. (My sump baffles collapsed a couple of months ago and I just haven't gotten around to fixing them) so the water level is equal throughout the sump right now. But I do notice a big drop when I'm seeing the puddles.

That sounds key.... Sounds like something directly connected there. check the ato line, I ended up forgetting to put mine BACK in my tank and it just emptied my ATO onto my floor one day while I was at work ha....

 

[Sheehantastic]

So I'm kinda of stumped. I have 140 gallon ish aquarium that I've had up for about a year. I've recently started adding corals to it and everything is going fine on that end. I have randomly come down into my office to find puddles of sea water on the floor. Never more than a couple gallons on water proof floor so not a huge deal but still annoying. I have an ESHOPPS 1500 or 1800 overflow I think, and reef octopus return pump (I forget which size 1200gph naybe?) Going into a standard 20 gallon for a sump. When I stop my pump the sump doesn't overflow, if I close of my overflow the DT doesn't overflow. I thought maybe my ato (reef breeders) was the culprit maybe a bad sensor and dumping too much fresh water into my sump. So I turned that off for a few days to rule that out. No puddles for about a week, so I thought I nailed it, but then this morning with the ATO still off. Puddles! No noticeable leaks anywhere and it's super intermittent maybe once or twice a month at most. Any ideas on where to look next would be appreciated.

 

[Ziggy17]

It looks as though your stand doesn’t have feet, but a solid base, is that correct?

 

[Sheehantastic]

It looks as though your stand doesn’t have feet, but a solid base, is that correct?

Correct it's made of 4X4

 

[Ziggy17]

And the stand floor is completely dry when there is water on the floor…. Maybe put tinfoil or Mylar paper around the sump and see if it collects any water. If you had access to underneath, you can put tinfoil with a slight v bend in every sheet under the tank, that way you would see exactly where the leak was coming from as the water would just pool on the sheet under the spot.
A couple gallons of water is quite a bit, enough to cover most floors and damage baseboards. Are you sure it’s that much? A couple gallons of water is four 2L pop bottles.

Off topic, but if your tank is 140g ish, you may want to run a larger sump. For example, my 65g has a 15g sump. A 40g breeder would likely fit nicely and give you tons of room to have lots of mechanical and a fuge.