450 gallon disappointment lol

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Psylant

Fire Eel
MFK Member
May 24, 2011
1,079
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Canada
As some of you may know I bought a 450 gallon tank about 2 months ago. It was a fiasco buying the tank, then getting someone to move it (2 no shows, and then ended up moving it myself with the builder of the tank). Then shipment of all the parts ordered online got delayed. Then it leaked, so I resealed and waited 2 weeks for the silicone to cure. I just filled up the overflow box first to make sure it was good, and it still leaks. I regret buying this now. A lot.

I'll keep trying... but this is one of the most disappointing and frustrating things I've ever done. I'll keep updating this thread if I don't end up breaking the thing with a sledgehammer and taking it out to the dump.
 
I only tried to fill the overflow box to make sure the bulkheads weren't going to leak, and to test the overflow seal. The bulkheads didn't. I was very happy they didn't since almost everything else has gone wrong with this tank so far. The overflow box is leaking most of the way across the front-facing side of the overflow box on the interior of the tank. Pretty slowly maybe one litre per minute. I will reseal it today once it's dried out (there's a fan sitting in the tank and I've soaked up the 1/4" of water with towels). I'll try filling it again on Monday or Tuesday if all goes well.
 
Silicone can cure under water. Just throwing that out there so you don't have to wait for it to " cure" to do another test etc.


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Well... I went to re-silicone it and my caulking gun somehow was ruined between now and when I used it 2 weeks ago. The plunger part is super bent... I'll go to the store tomorrow and get a new one I guess. This is getting comical.

sevank21 said:
Silicone can cure under water. Just throwing that out there so you don't have to wait for it to " cure" to do another test etc.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I did not know that.
 
TBH with a second hand tank if it is leaking like that I'd be concerned about the structural integrity of the silicone. I know what it's like to be frustrated with a build like this (my old 1400L tank took me about 10 months from delivery to getting fish in it!), but do it once and do it right. 450g is a lot of water when it is on the floor, if it were me I'd be thinking about pulling it to bits to have it completely rebuilt.
 
David R said:
TBH with a second hand tank if it is leaking like that I'd be concerned about the structural integrity of the silicone. I know what it's like to be frustrated with a build like this (my old 1400L tank took me about 10 months from delivery to getting fish in it!), but do it once and do it right. 450g is a lot of water when it is on the floor, if it were me I'd be thinking about pulling it to bits to have it completely rebuilt.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit concerned too. However I think the overflow is leaking because it's much thinner glass than the rest of the tank (easier bond to break when moving), and I was scraping around at the bottom removing old silicone that the bulkheads from before were attached with. I think I may have poked the silicone for the box too a little bit and not just around the holes when the razor got away and jumped.
 
This is one of the reasons I had my tanks built in my house. You get the guarantee they won't leak and not to mention they came back to fix a problem with my 450 gallon when it was built a few years back. One of the side panels had a stress crack and they came back and cut out the panel and put in a new one. The panel also had the side overflow box on it and this was all covered under the original price. Too much can go wrong when moving big glass tanks! Best to be built on site.
 
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