Tank is leaking!

MichaelClark55 · Feb 24, 2019

I just went into living and there is water on the floor. I looked with a flashlight. It is water coming out from behind the black plastic trim at the bottom of the tank. If you push on the trim water oozes out the top of the trim. What would cause this, seal come loose? What can I do? 75g bowfront loaded with rock, corals, and fish. Freaking! Please help.

EmdeReef · Feb 24, 2019

#reefsquad?

Sorry for your troubles, not sure there’s much to do but drain

TheEngineer · Feb 24, 2019

Yep. Drain it ASAP. That sucks, sorry.

HotRocks · Feb 24, 2019

Rubbermaid bins. Drain it and move livestock.

It's a bummer. What do ya do.

Dr. Reef · Feb 24, 2019

Sorry to hear that. It needs to be drained and livestock transferred to a holding tank.
Main tank will probably need to be resealed if nothing is broken and seals just came loose.

hdsoftail1065 · Feb 24, 2019

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I hate hearing anyone facing this kind of problem.

Dom · Feb 24, 2019

No way you are going to be able to tell the cause of the leak and if a repair can be effected until it's empty and dry. And repairs are possible!

lobster · Feb 24, 2019

That sucks man sorry to hear, but everyone is right. Gotta drain and hold livestock else where

MichaelClark55 · Feb 24, 2019

Thanks guys for the quick reply. I knew the answer I was just grabbing for hope. My tank is awesome and thriving. I've worked so hard to get it to this point. I am getting new tank hopefully tomorrow. Time to upgrade. Is there anything I need to know to keep corals and fish sorta happy. I have a 40 gallon a friend is loaning to transfer the livestock in to. I have over 30 corals and 6 fish. Already tore down the 30 gallon refugium. Got 5 gallons buckets under the leaks for now.

Mastiffsrule · Feb 24, 2019

Definitely feel your pain.

I am going thru same thing now. Luckily mine is leaking thru a bulk head so I just need to redo the bulkhead and not replace the tank.

Glad to hear you using this opportunity to upgrade. I’am doing the same thing. I ordered a new sump today since I am going to be messing around down there anyway.

SeaDweller · Feb 25, 2019

Time to upgrade to a large tank!

Captain Quint · Feb 25, 2019

MichaelClark55 said:
Thanks guys for the quick reply. I knew the answer I was just grabbing for hope. My tank is awesome and thriving. I've worked so hard to get it to this point. I am getting new tank hopefully tomorrow. Time to upgrade. Is there anything I need to know to keep corals and fish sorta happy. I have a 40 gallon a friend is loaning to transfer the livestock in to. I have over 30 corals and 6 fish. Already tore down the 30 gallon refugium. Got 5 gallons buckets under the leaks for now.

I'm really sorry @MichaelClark55. Many of us have been in your shoes on this. Glad to see you have a plan for it our new friend.

Jon Fishman · Feb 25, 2019

Captain Quint said:
I'm really sorry @MichaelClark55. Many of us have been in your shoes on this. Glad to see you have a plan for it our new friend.

Ugh. How common is this?!?!? I don't know that I could bring myself to starting over, but then again I love an excuse to upgrade

shred5 · Feb 25, 2019

You sure it is leaking and water did not run down the side of the tank and get into the trim?
Did you do a water change or something? did the tank overflow? sometimes just sticking your arm in the tank fast enough is enough to force a little water out of the tank. A power head forcing to much water up against the side glass, leaky plumbing?

I once had some plumbing behind the tank spring a very small leak and I saw it because it was running down the back of the tank and I saw it coming up through the bottom trim in the front.

If it is a leak your going to have to drain the system..

AllSignsPointToFish · Feb 25, 2019

shred5 said:
You sure it is leaking and water did not run down the side of the tank and get into the trim?
Did you do a water change or something? did the tank overflow? sometimes just sticking your arm in the tank fast enough is enough to force a little water out of the tank. A power head forcing to much water up against the side glass, leaky plumbing?

I once had some plumbing behind the tank spring a very small leak and I saw it because it was running down the back of the tank and I saw it coming up through the bottom trim in the front.

If it is a leak your going to have to drain the system..

This is also good advice. If there's an imbalance in flow or the drain is restricted, there could be an overflow situation.

Best of luck, man! Let me know if you need any help from me!

MichaelClark55 · Feb 25, 2019

I just purchased a new 125 6' tank. Funny how things work sometimes. I was so stressed over this. I told my wife I was g

TitanCi said:
Time to upgrade to a large tank!

shred5 said:
You sure it is leaking and water did not run down the side of the tank and get into the trim?
Did you do a water change or something? did the tank overflow? sometimes just sticking your arm in the tank fast enough is enough to force a little water out of the tank. A power head forcing to much water up against the side glass, leaky plumbing?

I once had some plumbing behind the tank spring a very small leak and I saw it because it was running down the back of the tank and I saw it coming up through the bottom trim in the front.

If it is a leak your going to have to drain the system..

Checked everything for over an hour. I WISH it was some mistake but it's not. New tank on way.

MichaelClark55 · Feb 25, 2019

AllSignsPointToFish said:
This is also good advice. If there's an imbalance in flow or the drain is restricted, there could be an overflow situation.

Best of luck, man! Let me know if you need any help from me!

I just switched all my piping over from flexable PVC to hard PVC with gate valves so the first thought was it was related. I looked for a long time with a flashlight. No leaks at all on any piping or anywhere from the bottom. Just overflowing the black plastic at the front corner.

MichaelClark55 · Feb 25, 2019

AllSignsPointToFish said:
This is also good advice. If there's an imbalance in flow or the drain is restricted, there could be an overflow situation.

Best of luck, man! Let me know if you need any help from me!

Got any advice on how to put the new tank in the same place as the old tank? It seems the only way is to place everything in a temp. tank then break down old then set up new and move from temp tank to new tank. I wish I could get out of the temp tank part. Hate to stress livestock twice.

Jon Fishman · Feb 25, 2019

MichaelClark55 said:
Got any advice on how to put the new tank in the same place as the old tank? It seems the only way is to place everything in a temp. tank then break down old then set up new and move from temp tank to new tank. I wish I could get out of the temp tank part. Hate to stress livestock twice.

Not sure about the type of floor it is on, but I plan on putting my next stand/tank on 4-6 of those large furniture sliders and then leveling it etc. It would be nice to be able to slide the whole thing 6-8 inches (slowly with help) for cleaning purposes every once in awhile

AllSignsPointToFish · Feb 25, 2019

Jon Fishman said:
Not sure about the type of floor it is on, but I plan on putting my next stand/tank on 4-6 of those large furniture sliders and then leveling it etc. It would be nice to be able to slide the whole thing 6-8 inches (slowly with help) for cleaning purposes every once in awhile

I did this but would only recommend this in smaller tanks. Once the tank is full (mine is only a 125 gallon system), it's impractical to move the tank due to its weight and the chances of damaging something increase greatly in my opinion .