LEAK

[Silvertongue700]

Found my 125g leaking earlier. Drained the tank, netted the fish out. Managed to get it outside and get all the water off the floor. All the fish are in a 10 gallon. I’m planning to get another tank tomorrow. I thought this happened because this is a old, beat up tank I bought on CL, but I’m not 100% that’s the reason. It has a lot of scratches and chips but it held water for several months. Is there anything else that could have caused this that I need to know about before I setup another tank? I had 2 stacks of three cinder blocks on each end with two six foot 4 by 6s as the stand.

 

[duanes]

Cracks like this are fairly easy to repair.
I just silicone a piece of glass on either side of the crack.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/i97/dstuer/tanks/crack%20repair/.highres/146_zps6bc5a362.jpg

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/i97/dstuer/tanks/crack%20repair/.highres/134_zps4eac4f3c.jpg

 

[twentyleagues]

Found my 125g leaking earlier. Drained the tank, netted the fish out. Managed to get it outside and get all the water off the floor. All the fish are in a 10 gallon. I’m planning to get another tank tomorrow. I thought this happened because this is a old, beat up tank I bought on CL, but I’m not 100% that’s the reason. It has a lot of scratches and chips but it held water for several months. Is there anything else that could have caused this that I need to know about before I setup another tank? I had 2 stacks of three cinder blocks on each end with two six foot 4 by 6s as the stand.

View attachment 1483224

Was the tank level?

 

[Bbuckley]

Found my 125g leaking earlier. Drained the tank, netted the fish out. Managed to get it outside and get all the water off the floor. All the fish are in a 10 gallon. I’m planning to get another tank tomorrow. I thought this happened because this is a old, beat up tank I bought on CL, but I’m not 100% that’s the reason. It has a lot of scratches and chips but it held water for several months. Is there anything else that could have caused this that I need to know about before I setup another tank? I had 2 stacks of three cinder blocks on each end with two six foot 4 by 6s as the stand.

View attachment 1483224

Oh wow that's gutting. You didn't happen to have any thing heavy sat on that corner did you, a large piece of rock or something.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Hard to say without seeing more pics of your setup and the damage. If that's the bottom pane I'm looking at, I'm gonna guess that your stand was not fully supporting the tank, and the glass eventually caved. I had a bottom panel break on a 400g build in a similar manner when my stand began to deflect because i did not build it sturdy enough.

I've never trusted those cinder block stands. I would invest in a quality stand that's gonna fully support your tank. If you're somewhat handy, a simple 2x4 stand for a 125 gallon should not cost more than $70-80 in material and a couple hours to build.

Best of luck with your situation, MFKer.

 

[Silvertongue700]

duanes twentyleagues Backfromthedead Bbuckley

I didn’t have anything heavy in the corner that cracked. I suspect the tank wasn’t level. I’m interested in repairing it but may not bring it back in the house. The next tank I’m going to build a stand for as suggested and I am being indecisive about whether to go with acrylic or glass. Sticking with a 100-150g for the next one but I plan on having a 300 gallon or more in the future and am thinking that glass may not be a good idea for these bigger tanks. The pros and cons of acrylic vs glass are making me overthink.

 

[krichardson]

Don't fret,I bought my 265 used and a year or so later it too sprang a leak....after evacuating my fish and draining the beast I enlisted a few friends to help me lower the thing onto the floor.Then I went to town on it and removed all of the silicone from inside of the tank and resealed the bad boy.That was about five years ago and it's been watertight ever since.

 

[Backfromthedead]

duanes twentyleagues Backfromthedead Bbuckley

I didn’t have anything heavy in the corner that cracked. I suspect the tank wasn’t level. I’m interested in repairing it but may not bring it back in the house. The next tank I’m going to build a stand for as suggested and I am being indecisive about whether to go with acrylic or glass. Sticking with a 100-150g for the next one but I plan on having a 300 gallon or more in the future and am thinking that glass may not be a good idea for these bigger tanks. The pros and cons of acrylic vs glass are making me overthink.

My 2 cents:

I will always advocate glass for a tank 150-300 gallons. Glass is superior in almost every way imo but thick glass required for large tanks has become very expensive lately Ime. For this reason, readily available acrylic can be more cost efficient and reliable for larger tanks. It really comes down to personal preference and intended usage. For a really nice custom use tank, I would go glass. But if you're rather looking for versatility and value I would look into custom acrylic.

 

[Silvertongue700]

My 2 cents:

I will always advocate glass for a tank 150-300 gallons. Glass is superior in almost every way imo but thick glass required for large tanks has become very expensive lately Ime. For this reason, readily available acrylic can be more cost efficient and reliable for larger tanks. It really comes down to personal preference and intended usage. For a really nice custom use tank, I would go glass. But if you're rather looking for versatility and value I would look into custom acrylic.

Glass is superior in every way? Please elaborate. I found a few threads on the site debating the two but I would love to hear more before I make a decision as it sounds like you have good info.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Glass is superior in every way? Please elaborate. I found a few threads on the site debating the two but I would love to hear more before I make a decision as it sounds like you have good info.

As I said before, this is purely my opinion. I work with glass and silicone primarily, and so I'm partial to those. I find glass more attractive and more resilient in the long run. It's also much easier to work with than acrylic imo, I'm hands on and simply rebuild my glass tanks if they fail. In theory a quality glass tank could last you a lifetime, so long as you stripped and rebuilt it with new seals every 20-30 years as needed. Quality acrylic tanks can also go the distance, but inevitably show a multitude more scratches, gouges, damage in the long run ime.

I like acrylic tanks when it comes to versatility. An acrylic tank 150-300 gallons will be much lighter than it's glass counterpart.. They are easier to modify and customize than glass tanks. Acrylic is readily available in many more shapes and thicknesses than glass, at least that's the case where I live.

But like I said before, a lot of it is personal preference.