Bad Night...

[Hitch08]

Hello all. New to R2R, but not all that new to the hobby. Not too proud of this post, but need some thoughts.

A message popped up on my phone last night that there was water detected in the stand under my tank. It is...was... a 120 Marineland. I have not figured where the water was leaking from, but I think it was probably coming from a seam along the bottom. It was not pouring out, more of a constant drip, most of it was ending up in the 40g sump. Some water was coming out of the back.

What a heart breaker.

Started this journey in late 2014. Built my own stand (I'm wondering if that played a role), canopy, made a sump from a 40g breeder, bought rock from TBS, etc. I was moving quite slowly with the tank. Last year, things didn't move forward all that much because my wife had some medical issues. I ended up with some cyano. Over the winter and into this year, I got it humming along. Was dosing vinegar and the nitrates and phosphates were basically zero. The relatively few corals that I have looked great. Trumpet coral was growing new heads. My green Stylophora was growing in every direction. My leathers and soft corals looked great. My clown pair were protecting their eggs. On Sunday, I bought some more corals from my LFS. So much for all of that.

The fish are now in the sump. I put the rock with the eggs on it in there as well, the clowns are still protecting them. I moved the various corals into my QT. It's small. All of the rock is now in what was previously my mixing container - a 32 g Brute trash can. Both tanks and the Brute have heaters and power heads running in them. Temps are good, but that's probably the only thing that's good.

Anyway, it seems that the best path forward is for me to give as much of my livestock to my LFS as possible. He's a good guy and I think he'll take the stuff and maybe even hold some of it for me.

However, I don't know where to go from here. As noted above, I don't know if my stand played a role. I was as meticulous as I could be in building it. Near the end, I had a friend who does finish carpentry come over and check it out with me. One end was a little low, which we fixed. As a result, I'm a bit skeptical that's the cause. But, who knows?

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

Bummed.

 

[jsker]

Welcome to R2R, that is truly a bummer.

Do you have a couple of picture to help out?

 

[Sailingeric]

See if they can hold of the fish and coral, drain the tank and if not cracked re-seal it.

 

[Hitch08]

Many thanks for the quick responses and comments.

I only took one photo last night. Don’t think it’ll be very helpful. I can take more tonight. It drains in the left rear. Although most of the bottom of the tank cannot be seen due to the wood in the stand, I cut out an opening where that drain is. That's where the water was coming through into the sump area.

I added that strip of molding to the front and sides of the tank. It kind of looks like the tank sits down into the stand a bit. There is no strip of molding in the back, so the water was also dripping off back behind the tank. Fortunately, it was a fairly slow leak.

 

[Aquavaj]

A diy stand shouldn't be a problem as long as it's level. Almost every diy stand I've seen is way overbuilt. The ones that come with many tanks are just plywood held together with those locking screws.

A total bummer for sure but luckily it didn't crack and dump over 100g onto the floor. If it's not possible to get an emergency tank going then the LFS is your next best step. If you're a good customer they may even hold some of your livestock for you.

 

[Rockit]

Clean and silicone every joint. Wait a day and fill it with water outside. Let it sit overnight to make sure it's not still leaking.
Get a 2nd brute can to mix water.
Reassemble everything and go on your merry way. Maybe dump in some bottled bacteria to stave off any possible cycling issues.

 

[Sailingeric]

Also you could use some of the those bigger Rubbermaid totes for the fish and corals. until you get the tank sorted.

 

[Dj City]

Check your bulkheads!
Look for salt creep to possibly locate the leak.

If it's the bulkhead, tighten it. If it's the tank itself, drain it, take everything out. ALL the sand. Every last grain of sand. Clean the tank, pull the existing silicone out and reseal with reef safe silicone.

I had this happen with 2 tanks.
My 110gal reef had a leak and it turned out to be the bulkhead. I tightened it and have been good for the past 3 years.
My 125gal freshwater had a leak about 4 years ago at the seam.
I removed EVERYTHING, cut out the old silicone and resealed with fresh silicone. From then to now, that tank has been good.

 

[Hitch08]

I found some old photos from when I built the stand. Should I post a few?

Unfortunately, it was not leaking at the bulkheads. There was a little salt creep around them, but it was dry.

 

[BZOFIQ]

2 questions, was the stand level and did you have a layer of styrofoam below the tank?

 

[Hitch08]

1. Yes, I believe so.
2. No.

 

[BZOFIQ]

2. No.

There should have been a layer; but I'm not entirely sure if that contributed to problem or not. Could have been manufacturing defect or many other causes that contributed to the tank unsealing somewhere.

Whether you decide to reseal or buy, put a layer of Styrofoam under the tank. I personally wouldn't trust a resealed tank, especially if you need to adjust the stand.

In addition, when you remove the tank, check your stand for any high points or bowing of the wood. If the tank was not properly supported in all corners it might have cause its failure, especially without Styrofoam that provides extra layer of protection.

 

[shub]

oh that sucks! I wish you the best going forward, at least you'll be able to upgrade and start from new

 

[Geebs19]

There should have been a layer; but I'm not entirely sure if that contributed to problem or not. Could have been manufacturing defect or many other causes that contributed to the tank unsealing somewhere.
.

I thought this was only required for acrylic tanks and not glass?

 

[Instigate]

There should have been a layer; but I'm not entirely sure if that contributed to problem or not. Could have been manufacturing defect or many other causes that contributed to the tank unsealing somewhere.

Whether you decide to reseal or buy, put a layer of Styrofoam under the tank. I personally wouldn't trust a resealed tank, especially if you need to adjust the stand.

In addition, when you remove the tank, check your stand for any high points or bowing of the wood. If the tank was not properly supported in all corners it might have cause its failure, especially without Styrofoam that provides extra layer of protection.

I thought this was only required for acrylic tanks and not glass?

That is not correct. You would only use foam if it was an acrylic or rimless. In fact, I was told by a tank manufacturer that it would be detrimental to use foam on a rimmed tank.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I thought this was only required for acrylic tanks and not glass?

It is. If the tank has plastic trim around the top and bottom, no need for foam board. Acrylic tanks yes. Rimless yes.

 

[ZoWhat]

 

[count krunk]

Doubtful the stand made it leak. Very doubtful.

Sometimes seals leak. A stand doesn't have to be perfectly precisely absolutely level.

I can promise you the stand I built when I was 13 for a 29g tank was not level. Many years later the tank did not leak.

 

[wangspeed]

Doubtful the stand made it leak. Very doubtful.

Sometimes seals leak. A stand doesn't have to be perfectly precisely absolutely level.

I can promise you the stand I built when I was 13 for a 29g tank was not level. Many years later the tank did not leak.

I disagree quite a bit with this. If your stand top is not level, then the aquarium will be under a tremendous amount of pressure. The problem gets worse as the tank gets bigger. All this stress will need to be held back by the silicone.

In fact, I would bet that non-level stands are likely the largest contributors to silicone seal failures.

 

[Hitch08]

I suppose the high dollar question is what is not level "enough". We all know that tons of these DIY stands aren't perfectly level in the strictest sense of the word. I could put a level across my stand from every direction and the bubble was in the middle. However, if I pressed on one end or the other, maybe I could slide a credit card under one side of the level. Is that not "level" for our purposes?

Note that I'm just making this up right now. I still need to get the old tank off of my stand in order to confirm nothing moved. I feel like it was overbuilt, at least from what I've read it was overbuilt. I'm certainly no expert on this stuff.