well i found out 2day that a tank i bought a few months ago from someone leaks, why i didn't check it then...damn it!!!! I was so furious I was about to go over there and give it to him, but I settled down and now here I am. The leak is coming from inside the overflow compartment, where there were 4 holes drilled on the bottom previously. The guy "adhesived" one big piece of acrylic over the 4 holes and siliconed the holes but one of the holes is leaking. What worries me more is that there are 2 more holes on the bottom of the tank too that are repaired the same way, which look ok for now. Are there any repair solutions to this, the pieces are adhesived to the tank, can this be taken off or is it impossible? Damn jerkoff, bet he knew about it 2!! never shoulda bought that damn thing...but then my name explains my behaviors.
acrylic tank leak repair
- Thread starter IMPULSEBUYER
- Start date
THis should be a pretty easy repair for you although I do understand your frustration.
A couple questions for you, are you using the overflow boxes or are the holes supposed to all be sealed shut?
If you are using them and they are leaking ar the hole (s) are you certain the bulk head is sealed up correctly? I have had a small piece of gravel get in between the bulk head and the tank and cause a small leak because the gasket could not seal correctly.
If they are supposed to be all seald up, dry them out real well and put a bead of "weldit" brand acrylic cement. You may have to got to and acrtlic supply shop for this product as the typical hardware shop won't carry it. If you use weldit, you will not be able to remove the piece later, it will be fuse to each other. Silicone works well in low pressure situations too on acrylic. You can but it at lowes or homedepot, I use ge's type II, works really well.
Post back if this is not the answer you need, I know it can be done pretty easily, a picture might help too if you can.
Joel
A couple questions for you, are you using the overflow boxes or are the holes supposed to all be sealed shut?
If you are using them and they are leaking ar the hole (s) are you certain the bulk head is sealed up correctly? I have had a small piece of gravel get in between the bulk head and the tank and cause a small leak because the gasket could not seal correctly.
If they are supposed to be all seald up, dry them out real well and put a bead of "weldit" brand acrylic cement. You may have to got to and acrtlic supply shop for this product as the typical hardware shop won't carry it. If you use weldit, you will not be able to remove the piece later, it will be fuse to each other. Silicone works well in low pressure situations too on acrylic. You can but it at lowes or homedepot, I use ge's type II, works really well.
Post back if this is not the answer you need, I know it can be done pretty easily, a picture might help too if you can.
Joel
IMPULSEBUYER said:
Did you read my post?
If someone just siliconed a piece of acrylic over the holes and it's leaking, re-seal it.
there is no connection just 4 holes at the bottom with a flat acrylic piece of over the holes.
The acrylic piece is glued on there with adhesive, but apparently not good enough to where it leaks. that is why that guy siliconed the holes too, ill take a pic of it and post it.
The acrylic piece is glued on there with adhesive, but apparently not good enough to where it leaks. that is why that guy siliconed the holes too, ill take a pic of it and post it.
This should really be an easy fix. Remove all silicone with a razor blade then buy Weldon #4 and run it along the seem all the way around. The stuff is liquid like water so I found it works best if you put it into a small syringe and run it along the seem. If there is any opening it will creep under and fuse the 2 pieces together . I dropped a rock into a 180gallon tank and it cracked into a star formation and I put a piece of acrylic over it that was 8 x 11 inches big in order to cover the hole cracked area and I never had a problem so far. If you live in Los Angeles I can tell you where to find Weldon. Its about 5 bucks a small container.
I have a whole gallon of that stuff. Works great! Also, there is another product by Weld-on that is also used to seal acrylic. That's what's used on acrylic tanks, that's why you don't see any silicone on acrylic tanks.