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melev

The 280g reef is leaking

Rating: 7 votes, 4.57 average.
69 Comments
by
melev
, 07-03-2010 at 03:53 PM (29426 Views)
The top left corner of my tank is leaking. Ugh. I'm going to have to figure out what I can do about it today. The carpet is wet in the entry way.

Update 7:57 pm 7/03/10:

Here are the pictures I took this afternoon. I didn't take a picture of wet carpet because you know what that looks and smells like. I removed the wooden column on the left side of my tank as soon as I saw how it was soaked with saltwater. I also checked tank salinity, and it has dropped to 1.024sg. I'm making RO/DI water now, and will probably keep it going all night.

Here's the leak. Doesn't look like much until you realize it drips non-stop.


Note the hollow spot pointed out where the silicone is no longer making contact, below the water line.




At Home Depot, I found these huge 48" clamps for $40 each. I bought two, but only have one in place at the moment.


A wooden block front and back helped disperse the pressure a bit. I had to improvise because of the plastic trim. For the back piece, I used a piece of acrylic behind the block to help even out the pressure.


For the front, I ran a block through my table saw to create a small offset.






As soon as it was clamped, I slowed the leak down. A couple of ml have drained so far.

While that was holding, I grabbed some 3/8" acrylic and created a internal overflow, so to speak. Using common Plumber's Putty, I rolled it out 1/4" thick and created strips to affix to the edges that would press against the glass. Not may favorite choice, but I had to do something. My skimmer hasn't gone nuts yet.

The water pressure holds the box in place, once I scooped & siphoned out the water in the box to create that dry void.




Had to rescue this lost snail.


I had some acrylic mirror material to see what is going on in the corner now that the water was out of my way.






For now, I'm planning to cut out the current silicone in that corner and reapply new silicone to the area. It's a patch, and essentially hold things together and keep the water in my tank for the time being. I hope the putty doesn't hurt the livestock (it isn't melting), and the box doesn't drop away all of a sudden.


UPDATE 12:39 am 7/04/10:

The mending job is not going to help save the tank. The seam continues to fail, which was visibly altering as I worked the silicone in the dry box above. It was frightening, actually. I drilled a hole through the wall for a second clamp to be implemented.


The towels did a good job sopping up the water from the leak earlier today, but I'm not doing anything else with the chance that it is going to blow out soon.


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Updated 07-04-2010 at 12:41 AM by melev

Categories
‎ NEED HELP STAT!

Comments

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  1. melev's Avatar
    It's official. That seam isn't going to hold much longer. My mending job is not going to be able to save this tank.
  2. Hat39406's Avatar
    Bummer Marc, sorry to hear that! What are you going to do now? Do you think you'll be able to get some sleep tonight? You may want to try because you probably will have a busy day tomorrow.
  3. melev's Avatar
    As I was working down the seam to remove the old, I watched a gap appear beneath it heading south with my every touch. Pressing on the front of the glass, I can make the bubbles in the old silicone rise up to the top, and when I let go they go down south quickly. My heart actually skipped a beat. The second clamp has been installed - I drilled a hole through the wall to pass the bar through it. This is really bad news because I was kind of banking on a couple of weeks to figure out what to do. Now the deadline is approaching quickly. I have a 100g trough, and Wes told me he'd lend me his as well. So that's 200g of the 280g. I'll have to figure out how to plumb those now. If I could run them to the current sump, that would be ideal. The angled tank may come into the equation as well. This is a mess of epic proportions.
  4. Snakebyt's Avatar
    wow man, hate to hear that, love the creative temp solution though. ill defenatly be checking back in to see how this plays out
  5. Vanmo92's Avatar
    Aww man, huge bummer. I really hope that once you get a new tank your tank will be just as successful, and just as beautiful. Good luck bud.
  6. Snakebyt's Avatar
    just read last post, really sorry to hear about the troubles, you still have the huge tubs in the backyard? those might come in handy. Best of luck, ill be watching
  7. melev's Avatar
    More images added to the original entry.
  8. Wes's Avatar
    sorry to hear buddy, i was hoping the patch job would hold for a bit so we could figure out how to fit that 500 gallon in Went and picked up my truck marc so im ready to head your way with the containers, just let me know.
  9. melev's Avatar
    Thanks Wes. Get a little sleep. I'm about to pass out myself, and will be up at 8am to check on my second barrel of RO/DI water. I don't want it to overflow. The two combined gives me 110g of saltwater. Do you want to head over around 10 or 11am, or closer to lunch? I hate to cut into your holiday time.
  10. Midnight's Avatar
    Marc, how fast could you build a 280 g acrylic tank? Maybe that would be the better solution.
  11. melev's Avatar
    I've never built a display tank and don't plan to start now. The angled tank, a nano with a false back, and a very pretty 90g propagation tank are the only ones that I would consider were displays. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that much water volume, and the ease of scratching it is just not worth it longterm.

    I'm happy to state that my tank didn't rupture its seam last night while I slept for a few hours. I've got 110g of new saltwater mixed, and have a couple of friends coming over today to start moving the livestock out.

    I talked with a DFWMAS member who has made a number of beautiful aquariums about the possibility of completely disassembling this tank, and reglueing it with all new silicone. He would do it on site, provided I clean all the glass panels so he just has to build it. So that is another option, to use what I have and simply pay his labor. Once it is built, it would have to cure for 14 days before I could fill it up again.
  12. johnbanks's Avatar
    Good luck Marc, if i wasn't a continent away then i'd be offering my help.


    fingers and fins crossed

    John
  13. maroun.c's Avatar
    Verry Sorry to hear Marc.
    Still its good luck that seam didn't fail in one go.
    I would setup whatever tanks you can get and drain each one of them independantly in your sump. Maybe just a rack of eggcrate to position your corals then all LR go to buckets with a small powerhead till you can fit them in tanks. I would lower the water level for sure to decrease pressure and definitly do not sleep tonight untill the tank is drained...
    As for resealing the tank you have to be very carefull in braking up the seams and cleaning the silicone. My old 80 G had one of the glass broken and I was trying to open the seams and ended up braking 1 more glass pannel. it also causes tiny cracks on teh edge of the glass that make it more prone to braking inthe future....
    Good luck.
  14. NightShade's Avatar
    Just woke up, sorry to hear the bad news on the tank seals. . . it doesn't surprise me that as you remove the old silicone the gap opens up. Was figuring the weight of 280 gallons of water and that would amount to about 2300 lbs. With that much pressure pushing on every pane of glass bad things can happen fast.

    I hope that you can get things worked out, I will do my best to make it down your way when things get started and give you a hand for a day or two.

    btw No official word yet but will probably be moving to OKC from Lawton some time after the 16th of this month. Though will be a much easier move than what you will be going through. I built my stand on wheels, so drain the sump down and the display half way, remove the hood and off we go. But the rest of the apartment won't go so easy, LOL. But once in OKC I am only a 4 hour train trip away and the family wants to head down that way anyway for a weekend or so.

    Rebuilding the whole thing would be a good option but either way it's probably going to be 3 weeks or so before you do get back to the rebuilding stage. Figure a day or two to tear down, a day getting an area cleared out to move the tank as well as some place to put it to tear down. A day or two to tear the tank apart and clean the old silicone off and prep everything. A day to rebuild the tank, and at least 2 weeks to let it cure. But if you do go the rebuild route think of maybe black silicone or any other changes you would want to make. And as Maroun says you may still end up having more problems than good but with 1/2inch thick panels I doubt you will have much to worry about that except if you drop one and then I think I would hang up the reseal ideal. . .

    Good luck Marc, and when it comes time to start doing stuff let everyone know. I am sure that we could get enough help ready to come down there and move the whole tank full, LOL.
  15. Snakebyt's Avatar
    glad to hear it is still holding, got my fingers crosses that it will hold until you have time to at least get everything out of the tank. Good to know that there is a chance of having it rebuilt on site.
  16. MarcG's Avatar
    Let me know if I can help!
  17. melev's Avatar
    GAH!! I don't want to tear down my beautiful reef!!!!


    I had to get that out of my system. The water in both barrels has been checked for salinity and temperature. The plan is to drain some water from my display into two 100g troughs that will be plumbed from the kitchen back to the sump. As that water is taken, the newly mixed saltwater will replace it. It'll water down the total volume, but keep the corals in the water they are used to.

    The troughs will have flow courtesy EcoTech Vortech pumps and supplemented as necessary. The lights will be taken down from above the leaking tank and suspended over the troughs. Power cords will run from the fish room to supply power the lights. The rest of the equipment will be in-sump and thus won't need to be relocated nor will I have to worry about them needing power.

    I'll probably take a few final shots, and then document the breakdown / transfer process later.
  18. kileysmama's Avatar
    Been there, done that recently (as you well know). It was a bit of an ordeal, and seemed to take forever. It sucks, but it'll end up better than you think. So sorry to hear this!
  19. Hop's Avatar
    Ish... Happened to stumble upon this on your FB posts... Best of luck! Wish I was closer and I would give you a hand Marc!
  20. Sheldon's Avatar
    I wonder what would cause the failure, the silicone should last 20 years, or so I thought. Do you suspect that the heat generated by the MP40 motors had any role in the breakdown of the silicone in that corner?

    Never mind, that is a silly question, I scrolled down to your pictures and saw that they are not very close to that corner.
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