Could be a major problem!!!!!

[JestersCourt05]

Ok everyone, I need some major advice here - I was working on my 55 tonight, when I noticed that the floor in front of the tank was all wet. Fearing the worst that I had a leak, I got out my flashlight, and was checking the seals underneath - There was nothing. So I looked on the bottom of the cabinet that it's on, and the cabinet was wet, along with the Cyberstrip power strip that I had ( and that was starting to spark, thank goodness I caught that ) - Then I looked on the back, and right at the bottom seam of the tank, where the glass "disappears" into the "wood" ( I have an All-Glass Aquarium from Pet Supplies Plus ), there was water laying there, and dripping down.
Now I get a lot of "salt streak" from evaporation because I live on the 3rd floor of an apartment building, and it's really really hot most of the time. Could it just be from those streaks running down, and melting, or do you think that I could have a leak from the silicone?? It's just started happening with the heat, and it's not in the front at all. A little bit on the sides, but mainly on the back side.?!?!?!?? What should I do?!?!?!?!

 

[yamahaguy06]

ohh man, lets hope you dont have a leak. do you have any buble hose's that run into your tank or anything like that. I dont think it could be from evaportion.(most of the time salt streaks are just from the water splashing out and dring up. I dont imagine salt streaks could be from evaporation. maybe your skimmer leaked?? lets see what the others have to say. but at the leaste I wish you luck with it...

 

[yamahaguy06]

but if your tank has been set up for some time and never leaked before then I wouldnt think it would be a silicone leak...

 

[KahluaZzZ]

crappy silicon or butched work from AGA ?!?!
I guess you better remove some water to get rid of a lot of pressure. Anyways if there's a leak under and you can't see it you assurely know that you should remove everything if you wanna fix this..man so uncool :-(

 

[aresgod]

yea i would prepare for a long night, get as many large containers as you can, put your water in them. keep your livestock in the largest buckets possible, live rock and substrate in other buckets. DRAIN YOUR TANK. your on the 3rd floor, i wouldnt mess around. first thing in the morning go to the closest LFS and buy a new 55 gallon tank. put everything in there and see if where you bought your tank from will replace the leaky one. first thing take care of the rest of your stuff.

 

[Lotus]

I had a tank doing something similar, and it turned out that when I fill it too full, the water leaks out from the trim at the top down the side of the tank.

Definitely check all around the sides of your glass to see if water is running down anywhere (at the back, etc.), as well as all your equipment (skimmers, powerhead cords, etc.) and inside the hood, in case there is condensation dripping somewhere.

 

[JestersCourt05]

Well, I double checked everything, and it's just along that back seam - Every other seam is dry, and there is no leaking from the skimmer, or the HOB that I have. In fact the skimmer is working so well, I had to empty it twice today. However, it's just a little water sitting on the back, and when enough get's there, it drips down the back of the cabinet - I don't even have the tank all the way filled up - I'm treating for ich, so I'm doing hyposalinity, and I am about 2.5 gallons shy of the 55 max. I know for a fact that the store I bought it from, won't replace it now. It's been a few months, and they'll just say to call AGA, and see what they will do. I doubt I'll have much luck with them if that's what it comes too, considering I would probably lose all my livestock in the process ( unless my local guy holds on to them for me ). It's a really really slow leak, and maybe the water loss I've been experiencing ( over 1 gallon a week ) is more due to that then evaporation?!?!?!? I e-mailed the aquarium company, to see if they can do anything for me, so I'll have to see what they say. I really hope there is another explanation for this, as I don't want to have to take down this entire setup - I've spent a lot of time and money on this, and it would be devastating for this to happen.

I take that back - I just noticed that there is some water leaking from the right side, and just a tad bit from the left too DAMN it looks to be a long night

 

[f8fan]

oh man, it's every aquarist nightmare....I feel your pain! Keep us posted...!

 

[JestersCourt05]

Well everyone, Welcome to My Nightmare!!!! So I figured out that my 55 was leaking in not 1, oh not, not even 2, but THREE, yes you read right THREE seams!!!! Yes, ladies and gentleman, I'm living the worst nightmare of them all - a big tank with multiple places of which is leaks. So, good ol' Ralph ( btw which is my real name - I don't go by Jester too often Ha!!! ) got a little lucky - and dirty, tonight. I had 2 ten gallons laying around, a 29 gallon critter cage, and a 5 gallon. So I was able to get my shrimp and some snails in the 5 gallon, my two False Perc Clowns in one ten, and my three Firefish in the other ten - All the while able to use the same water, rock and sand, so there was no need for aclimation periods or anything of that sort, and lucky enough the fish aren't huge, so those 10's will do just fine.
I was able to use the critter cage to fill up with enough water to not bow out the glass, and have enough water to cover up the rock that I'm not using in my 10's for the fish - Got really lucky there. I haven't gotten all the water out, and I'm not sure that I need to at this point.
I think I've taken off enough pressure on the glass, that it won't leak any more water through those seams - But I have some towels down just in case, and I think I may fill up the two 5 gallon buckets I have to take more water out.
I'm currently using one of my filters that was on the 55, a Millennium 2000, on the one ten, and just a basic HOB for the other ( because that's all I had laying around ), and each of them has live rock ( rubble rock ) for filtration. I don't feel like putting in carbon right now, and I'm not sure that I need too - Any suggestions on that???. I have a protein skimmer, but it'll be WAY too big for the ten's so that's ruled out of my book. I don't think I'll need any heaters as I usually keep that room warm, because it's my work-out room, and it should stay a consistent 75-80 degrees in there - So I don't feel the need for heaters. Ahhhhhh, and more to come
As I said in my earlier post, I e-mailed All-Glass, but they don't work on the weekends, so I'll have to wait until Monday to see what they say. Has anyone ever had any experience with a leaking tank, and dealing with the manufacturer?? I hope that they can get me a replacement for this, because I don't feel that I should have to replace this myself - I had the normal if not less then what most people have in theirs - Hell, I wasn't even done with the tank yet. ( sorry to anyone who doesn't want to hear my rambling, but it's 1:30am right now, and I'm a little wired ).
So now I have my 55 with some sand, and water in one room, my 5 gallon in my bedroom, and multiple tanks on stands and the floor in my 2nd bedroom, and the place is just "trashed" with equipement everywhere, not to mention the other 55 I have in there that I'm getting ready to clean up for a friend for her new house!!!!! Holy hell, am I crazy or what!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!!? This is just insane!!!!!!!!!! Well, let's hope that I don't lose any of the fish I transfered to the emergency tanks, and I'll be happy.

Well, it's time to do some clean-up, so anyone with suggestions please feel free to hit me up here, e-mail, AIM, hell I'll even give my cell phone out, I don't mind. Thanks for the support - You guys and girls are the best

 

[wayne]

I don't to rain on your parade, but are you are sure it's leaking? If it's pretty warm in your room and the tank is chilled any evaporation (and I evaporate about a gallon and a half a week) will condense on the tank glass in the coolest spot.

 

[JestersCourt05]

Oh yeah, it's leaking - I wiped off the glass, and wiped off the seams, where I saw the water at. Then I actually gently pushed on the the trim that's on the bottom, and water came up from the bottom. I wish I could say it was condensation, because that's what I thought at first, but as far as I can tell it's leaking. There was also a good amount of water, inside the cabinet, that was already soaked up by the wood, and plenty of water on the carpet, to justify that it wasn't just condensation. It's a great thought, and trust me, when I first noticed the water and everything, I thought the same thing, but I actually watched as water came up from the bottom, and rolled down the bottom of the tank.

 

[JestersCourt05]

Well, just a little update. So far the livestock seem to be ok, everyone took to the new tanks and have survived the first night. I got ahold of the retail chain that I bought the tank from, and they agreed to replace it for me. I even told them that I would go to All-Glass if I had too, but the gentleman said that it was better for me, that he replaced it, and that he deals with the company. I thought that was awesome, so now I'm going to be in the process of cleaning up the tank, and getting another one. I really hope none of you have to ever go through this process, because it really is a bad nightmare. If anyone ever tells you that you have too many empty tanks laying around, don't even worry about it. I was lucky enough to have kept those that I did, and it really saved me last night. I'll never regret having a few around just in case. Wow, this has been an adventure!!!

 

[OCCFan023]

glad to hear that your fish are doing good, and that youll have a new tank soon.

 

[aresgod]

yea I have actually gone through a similiar process with my 40, it sprang leaks in a couple different places on the second floor of my apartment building. Luckily I keep 3 20 gallon containers lying around. and consider yourself lucky you didnt go on vacation or something while this happened....I say that because I am about to leave for vacation and I am forever the pessimist.

 

[JestersCourt05]

Funny that you mention not going on vacation - I was supposed to head to a wedding this weekend about 4.5 hours from me, and if my parent's weren't out of town, I would have gone. The only reason I stayed was to take care of things at their house for them, or I wouldn't have stayed here, and would never have even known that this was going on. I just thought it was some simple water spill from doing a water change, and it turns out to be this! Funny how things work out. I also want to let everyone know how grateful I am for their help - This has to be one of the worst, and I've had great support - Thank You!


Also, I just finally got the tank all cleaned out, and in looking at the silicone, everything looks pretty stable - but I guess you just never know, all I know is that it was leaking, and you can see all the water stains on my cabinet stand too - Well, hopefully the transistion back into the new one when I get it, goes smooth

 

[seachan]

Quick fix

Hey did you know that they sell silicon glue at Walmart for $4.00? Might be a quick fix, and cheap too! Just an idea. I learned this the hard way how difficult a leak can be when my QT tank leaked!!

 

[Fish Friend]

hey man, thats kinda bad to hear, i had one once in my 10g i thought it had a leak at the side.. but it was just water dripping down from my little black stuff at the top to hide the lid bit, it formed like a siphon suction so now i only fill it up 3/4 of the way

 

[JestersCourt05]

Well, I think I may get some silicone and put another layer on my new tank that I just got. Since I didn't have to pay for this one, it'll be a mental thing for me. I'm actually a little hesitant, but I'm not going to let it mess with me. I'll just take some precautionary measures and hope that this doesn't happen again. I'll say one thing, after what I went through, it's going to stay empty for a day or two, just so I can relax.

 

[aresgod]

I wouldnt put any silicon on your new tank. It wont make any difference unless you use a razor to scrape the present silicon off, it simply wont attach otherwise. and the chance of you getting 2 tanks with leaks if fairly minimal. If your old tanks silicon looks ok it might be the seam itself, you can scrape all the silicon off and apply aquarium silicon. and fill it up in your garage and see if it leaks. the LFS also might want teh leaky one to return to the manufacturer so I wouldnt mess with it till you figure that part out.

 

[JestersCourt05]

Yeah, the LFS already took the old one back without a problem. I showed the gentleman at the store that even though it looked ok, it was leaking from a few certain spots. They didn't have any problem with it as they were going to send it back to All-Glass. Now this week it's time to start putting the "new" 55 back in some order similar to what it once was. I really hope I don't have to go through this again - It was not fun to say the least.