Weir not sealed. Problem?

[jamesucla]

I am setting up my new tank which has 2 weirs (back corners) and is bottom drilled for herbie style drains. I don't have bulkheads installed yet, but the weirs/overflow boxes were installed from the manufacturer. I poured some water in the main tank & it leaks into the weir through the bottom of the box, and through the holes where bulkheads will go & into the floor.

Is this normal or should the weirs be totally sealed except at the top? Seems this is a flaw in construction because if there is ever a leak in any one bulkhead the entire tank will be emptied onto the floor, by draining through the bottom of the weir box, rather than just emptying the contents of the weir.

Really could use some feedback here cause I was about to install plumbing & fill her up now I'm dead in the water.

 

[celebrist]

Mine are sealed that would have really sucked if they weren't when I had an issue a while back. Is it glass or acrylic

Also get good check valves!

 

[jamesucla]

Yeah the more I think about it in a power outage water will drain down to the lowest siphon which will for sure flood my house. Need the tank builder to fix this. No bueno. Super disappointing.

 

[TheWolfman]

Is the tank new? Acrylic? Glass ?there are some diy options.

 

[jamesucla]

Is the tank new? Acrylic? Glass ?there are some diy options.

Brand new 300g acrylic. I'm thinking make a clay dam inside the bottom of the weir & pour some Weldon 40 epoxy in there...the other Weldon 4 or 16 stuff won't work cause it forms a skin then shrinks as it dries sucking in a bunch of air. Silicone won't work I don't think cause doesn't adhere to acrylic. Open to ideas.

 

[suckerfish]

You paid money for a working tank, make them fix it.

 

[celebrist]

seems like it should be an easy fix if it's just the bottom of the weir that's not fully sealed they can put an acrylic rod down there and then put some of the weld on on it and it should be fine I would think

 

[jamesucla]

You paid money for a working tank, make them fix it.

Totally, just such a hassle to move & always a risk that something happens to it in transit.

 

[TheWolfman]

You could use #16, I repaired a leak on my external overflow with #16 with it on the stand. It does run so depending on where the leak is you might need to tip the tank.

 

[DN328]

Have you contacted the builder to let them know the issue? I would first let them take the first past at correcting for you. Hopefully they are local? If not then you can consider doing it yourself, but yes it's annoying for a new tank.

I had a similar issue with a previous glass tank. They just ran another beed of black silicone. I would have thought applying the appropriate weldon would work here as well without additonal need for rods. I suppose it depends on the size?

Keep us posted?