On vacation and my tank is leaking bad

[Rawsreef]

So I got a call from the person who has been passing by the house to check on my tanks. They told me the tanks leaking, and the house is flooded.

I’ve lost at least 20 gallons of water. Apparently there is a leak mid way up the silicone joint on the left side of my tank.

I am currently asking them to move all my livestock to a brute trash can along with all the rock, the heater and a wave maker.

is there anything else I should have them do in order to help all my corals and fish survive?

 

[blaxsun]

That sucks. Probably one of the lights for the corals if it's going to be more than a few days. When are you returning?

 

[CookieRdReef]

Make sure they know to point the wavemaker at the surface.

 

[Rawsreef]

Good point about the wave maker.

lights would be hard since it’s a 48” t5 fixture. But I get back Thursday so they should be okay

 

[Reefing102]

Dang. Sorry to hear. While it should be obvious, I would make sure they know to do this carefully so they don’t accidentally crush a coral or fish or something.

 

[CookieRdReef]

Carefully handle zoas or paly rocks if you have them.

 

[Rawsreef]

On second thought I told them not to move everything but to just drain the water, down to below the spot where it’s leaking from.

That way there’s less chance of them hurting the livestock, or themselves.

the person doing this for me has never handled anything like this before so i figured it’s best to not even have them take on that task.

 

[CookieRdReef]

On second thought I told them not to move everything but to just drain the water, down to below the spot where it’s leaking from.

That way there’s less chance of them hurting the livestock, or themselves.

the person doing this for me has never handled anything like this before so i figured it’s best to not even have them take on that task.

2 days evaporation is prob just fine. could have them add a little freshwater or just let it be.

 

[blaxsun]

On second thought I told them not to move everything but to just drain the water, down to below the spot where it’s leaking from.

That way there’s less chance of them hurting the livestock, or themselves.

the person doing this for me has never handled anything like this before so i figured it’s best to not even have them take on that task.

Just make sure to turn off the return pump and move the wavemakers down.

 

[ZoWhat]

Time to take your Helper to confession ... and listen in

 

[Rawsreef]

Just make sure to turn off the return pump and move the wavemakers down.

Done

Time to take your Helper to confession ... and listen in

My initial thoughts were to blame them as well. But with the issue being the silicone leaking (at least that’s what it’s looking like). I don’t see how it could be his fault unless he was doing something incredibly stupid. I think it’s just bad luck that it gave out with me not home.

story of my life, bad things happen when I’m not there to take care of it.

 

[Gtinnel]

2 days evaporation is prob just fine. could have them add a little freshwater or just let it be.

If they have an ATO on the tank their salinity is probably too low anyway. As the water was leaking their ATO was probably adding in freshwater to replace it

 

[jmichaelh7]

Wow this is absolutely the WORST CASE SCENARIO

 

[JPM San Diego]

I wrote this two years ago. Sorry if you're reading this twice, but I thought I'd share my story:

Worst day ever....
My wife and I were all packed for our trip to Fiji. We were doing a few chores while waiting for our shuttle to the airport. That's when I noticed the leak about midway down one seam of our 40 gallon reef tank. Panic!
I quickly siphoned a little over half the tank into a clean trash can. I smeared silicone over the leaking seam and hung a hair dryer, dangling over the water, blowing on the silicone. NOT recommended for the faint of heart. I put a pump in the trash can with a hose leading back into the tank.
The sump was connected with an overflow box that required resetting the siphon after it was stopped.
Being a doctor with access to IV equipment I had attached a saline lock to the siphon tubes. I could use a syringe to suck out the air and start the siphon.
I ran to our 70 year old neighbor, who didn't have a clue about aquariums, and gave him my key, a crash course on checking when silicone was dry, advice to remove the hair dryer, and how to pump the water back into the tank.
Finally, I explained how to restart the siphon.
The shuttle bus arrived and with a prayer we headed out.
About 17 hours later I was able to call back to Long Beach from a remote Fijian island.
(This occurred long before cell phones)
My neighbor had manage to refill the tank, but break the saline locks off both siphon tubes.
With duct tape and instructions on how to fish air tubing up into a siphon tube to suck out the air, he managed to restart the system.
Fiji was great and the best day ever was returning home to find no casualties.

 

[polyppal]

If you have any local hobbiest friends, I’d recommend you send one over with the house sitter to assess the situation and take any immediate steps that might be needed

 

[CookieRdReef]

If you have any local hobbiest friends, I’d recommend you send one over with the house sitter to assess the situation and take any immediate steps that might be needed

If not, maybe an lfs. 2 of my local do house calls, vacation care.

 

[Rawsreef]

So luckily not the worst case scenario, since the compromise on the silicone seal seems to be halfway down the tank. About half the water will stay in the DT, glad it’s not leaking from lower than that.

also another good thing is that my tank has no ATO. I was actually looking to buy one before I left on this trip but I didn’t. extremely glad that I didn’t.

just spoke to a local dude, that services tanks and he told me resealing won’t work permanently, but I told him I plan on upgrading to a larger tank in the future so if resealing can get me by for at least a couple of weeks, that would be better than leaving it as is.



things are BAD but could always be worse I guess…

 

[SlugSnorter]

So luckily not the worst case scenario, since the compromise on the silicone seal seems to be halfway down the tank. About half the water will stay in the DT, glad it’s not leaking from lower than that.

also another good thing is that my tank has no ATO. I was actually looking to buy one before I left on this trip but I didn’t. extremely glad that I didn’t.

just spoke to a local dude, that services tanks and he told me resealing won’t work permanently, but I told him I plan on upgrading to a larger tank in the future so if resealing can get me by for at least a couple of weeks, that would be better than leaving it as is.



things are BAD but could always be worse I guess…

that should be good yeah, while not permanent it should give you enough time to sort things out. Sorry to hear about what happened... that really sucks.

 

[ScubaFish802]

If heaters are exposed they could lay them down below the water line

 

[DeepintheReef]

I know this goes against most general practice, but if your corals can be placed below the leaking point, I would just run the tank with powerheads for a couple of weeks and not bother resealing the entire thing. Alternatively you could just get a cheap aquarium from Petco like a 40 breeder or 60 breeder until you decide on a new permanent set up. I’ve run several frag tanks with nothing but a Powerhead and minor water changes for a couple of years. I don’t mean an all in one system, but a low boy tank with a T5 light, power heads, and a screen top. Nothing else.

Keep us updated and let us know how it goes. Good luck