My 55 gallon tank is leaking. I definitely don't think it's cracked, but probably the silicon is pulling away from the seams in a few spots. the leak is slow, so part of me feels like i do have some time to deal with it. however, i am concerned that: 1)the water that is leaking might weaken the wooden stand that it is on and 2)it could potentially turn into a crack and causes a lot of damage, both to my fish and my apartment! It may be a dumb question, as none of you are here to actually see the tank and its condition, but should i be really worried? i mean, i know that long term i have to do something, but money is definitely an issue at the moment (otherwise i would obviously just buy a new tank) as i said, the tank is a 55 gallon and the leak is basically just a slow drip, i maybe lose a quarter inch of water a day. any help would be greatly appreciated
Help! Tank leaking
- Thread starter JeffLeMay
- Start date
If the leak is high, drain down below the leak and get some aquarium silicone, it's cheap. Put some absorbent material at the base of the tank, and that will stop the wood from rotting.
Do you know where the leak is? Often full tanks will siphon though the top trim. If so you can reseal the trim.Otherwise you can often stop leaks by redoing the silicone bead that runs on all inside joints
originally it was leaking just from the top corner where the glass meets the trim. but now on the bottom corner of the same side i am seeing some drips, and as i go down the length of the bottom of the tank i can see some water just underneath the bottom trip to about halfway down the length of the tank. it may be that the leak is somewhere in the bottom middle and just drifting toward the left side of the tank, as the floor is uneven and moves down that way
Some leaks are hard to pinpoint.The leak from the top corner sounds like a trim siphon.But to fix the ongoing bottom leak you may need to empty the tank and reseal the inside.
yeah, that's what i was afraid of. I'd love to just move the fish in that tank into my other 55, but my red devil would be seriously pissed, and probably kill a few of them. Does it sound as though I could end up with a disaster, or do i have some time to try to scrounge up a few bucks and just get a new tank?
Its rare for a slow leak to quickly progress to somthing major.HoweverI would worry about the wood stand.If its made pressboard I'd really worry.Sooner or later you will have to find them a temperary tank or put them in with your red devil.Maybe a tank divider would be a quick fix for his aditude while you seal the other one.
I'd buy a rubbermaid from wallmart, like a 110qrt. Take your filter out of your tank with your red devil and set up the tub with some substrate from the devils 55. I would move the devil into this. Then I would move the filter from your leaking 55 to the non leaking 55. Then put all the fish from your leaking tank in to the good tank. Either seal or replace the leaking tank and then just swap everything back to normal. It will be a pain in the @$$ but it will prevent an even bigger problem (blowout or stand collapse). This might be overkill, but thats what I'm good at.