Urgent help needed Display tank leak

C

Criggy

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Hi All -

I have literally just finished putting all of my fish through the bucket method to remove WS.
I moved them into a Boyu TL550 lastnight as a QT for the next 4 weeks.
Yesterday I also put a larger sump on to my display tank which is still housing all of my coral, snails, shrimps, starfish etc.

I walked inside earlier to water dripping - initially thought is was the overflow so checked that out and it is fine - cannot tell where the water is leaking from but is is leaking out and will not be any left in the tank by the end of the day.

I really want to salvage everything and am considering moving all of my corals etc into the boyu but don't know if it will handle it and I still need the system fish free for the next 4 weeks.

I don't know what to do with the LR, the corals, substrate, starfish, shrimps etc - PLEASE HELP!!

Any advice would be much appreciated -
 
Stick some newspaper on sections of the glass to see where its coming from. Then try using aquamend or pratley putty which is safe to use under water to plug the place u found the leak
 
I cant find a leak anywhere - i think it may be the base - all I can see is water pissing out into the ump through the wooden base and on the sides - thats not the source of the leak though. is it not a bad idea to continue to use a tank that has been cracked or leaking?
 
Criggy said:
I cant find a leak anywhere - i think it may be the base - all I can see is water pissing out into the ump through the wooden base and on the sides - thats not the source of the leak though. is it not a bad idea to continue to use a tank that has been cracked or leaking?
Click to expand...

It is a bad idea, im suggesting a short term fix with the putty method.
 
Haha - dont want to take shortcuts. Need time to think though and wondering what options are out there in terms of housing LR, coral, etc while making a plan.
 
Hi Criggy, I had the odd leak on my 4FT tank about twice while it was running. The issue is that you would probably get a leak where one pane joins another and the water runs along the glass so you cant really tell where its coming from. Mine was between the front pane and side pane. I simply dropped my water level below the leak, and used a really thin blade to clean out silicone between the panes. Put in new silicone and pushed the front pane against the side, then used masking tape to hold them tightly together. It needs to be tight where you see the excess silicone pushing out. Just let it dry with the excess. Leave it for a full 24 hours and then you can clean out the excess silicone with a blade. I never had a leak issue after that. The tank has now changed hands and still is 100%. Also did this fix on my new sump.

Good luck:thumbup:
 
Thanks @King Triton

I would like to do as follows - Please let me know if there are any issues with the following:

1 Drain water into buckets
2 Take LR out of display and put in buckets - will use thermostat and flow pump to keep flow and temp good - is an airstone also required?
3 Remove some sand and put in LR chamber in sump
4 Remove the rest of the sand and put in bucket with thermostat and flow
5 Put starfish, shrimps and corals into LR chanber in the sump.
6 Reroute uplift pump pipe to return chamber of sump to mantain flow - maybe add airstone?

Im worried about stacking substrate too high and killing crawlies that cant climb through thicker substrate - how thick can one go?

I will take the lid off my Boyu and put above the sump for lighting for the corals until I have solved display tank issue.

Once solved fill up tank with some of the water from the buckets, put eggrate down, put substrate back in put in starfish and shrimps and snails and crabs, put corals back - use 50% water and do approx 50% water change. Dose Special blend to assist with any die off in the process.

Please let me know thoughts - will this work and if not where am i going wrong?
 
Criggy said:
Thanks @King Triton

I would like to do as follows - Please let me know if there are any issues with the following:

1 Drain water into buckets
2 Take LR out of display and put in buckets - will use thermostat and flow pump to keep flow and temp good - is an airstone also required?
3 Remove some sand and put in LR chamber in sump
4 Remove the rest of the sand and put in bucket with thermostat and flow
5 Put starfish, shrimps and corals into LR chanber in the sump.
6 Reroute uplift pump pipe to return chamber of sump to mantain flow - maybe add airstone?

Im worried about stacking substrate too high and killing crawlies that cant climb through thicker substrate - how thick can one go?

I will take the lid off my Boyu and put above the sump for lighting for the corals until I have solved display tank issue.

Once solved fill up tank with some of the water from the buckets, put eggrate down, put substrate back in put in starfish and shrimps and snails and crabs, put corals back - use 50% water and do approx 50% water change. Dose Special blend to assist with any die off in the process.

Please let me know thoughts - will this work and if not where am i going wrong?
Click to expand...

You might not have to go through all of this though bud... first be sure of where the leak is.. if it is not the base, you would not need to remove live stock.

I drained my tank just about half way and added an airstone, and moved one heater to the main display. Kept my powerhead below the surface of the water. You will not lose anything in 24 hours with the tank running without the sump.
 
Last edited:
your action list seems right. you need to find the leak and sort that out first.

If bottom of the tank, need to check why it cracked. Is it skew? Did the cabinet warped? Stand straight?

Sort the reason out first.
 
I have a feeling it is the bottom. the stand is level but maybe the wooden base has slowly warped over time - if it is the base in going to get 6-8mm glass and silicone to base - this will work?
 
Criggy said:
if it is the base in going to get 6-8mm glass and silicone to base - this will work?
Click to expand...

Yup it would. Just make sure you use enough silicone and press the new glass down properly to make sure silicone covers all areas. Also run silicone along the crack. Repired a 10mm base with 6mm glass this way
 
What thickness glass should I use for the repair if this is the case?My side panels are 6mm - im not sure what the base is - maybe 10mm. Must I use 6mm?
 
Probably is 10mm at the moment. I used 6mm for my patch up. Just as much silicon as possible to make sure is sealed properly
 
The culprit

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