Leaky tank disaster!!!

[returnofsid]

Well, it would seem I'm putting off the 75 gallon freshwater planted tank for awhile. Today, I noticed that the carpet under my 75 reef was wet. In inspecting to find out where, I noticed a small waterfall running down the back of my stand!!! I panicked and called a friend who suggested maybe it was my plumbing....I wish!! I ended up turning off my sump return and waiting until the water from the tank drained into the sump. Then I marked my water line on the tank with a dry erase marker... and waited some more. It kept slowly dropping. I actually removed my HOB overflow and waited some more. Water kept dropping. At this point, I removed all hoses coming from the tank...water kept dropping. I finally came to the conclusion that, yes indeed, my tank was leaking. So I rounded up my two 32 gallon trash cans and drained the tank. Removed all the corals into a Rubbermaide container, live rock in another and put all the fish in another. Brought the other 75 (the one that was supposed to be my next project of a 75 freshwater planted tank) inside and swapped tanks. What a job...!!! On top of it all, as I was working on switching tanks, my HOB overflow snapped in half...grrr. The part that connects the 2 halves broke. So now, I have everything set up in the new tank, no overflow...so no sump in action at the moment. I added a couple extra powerheads to make up some more flow. Corals are sure stressed and they put off TONS of slime that was floating around in the tank for awhile. I hooked up both my Magnum 350 and my HOT Magnum 250, both with micron filters and charcoal and have them running. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, doing a lot of praying and hoping everything makes it. Some of the corals sure look bad!!
One a side note, I do like the way I arranged the rockwork better than I had it before...lol.

 

[dragoneggs]

Boy! (and that's not the right expression)... good luck to you. I hope you can get the tank fixed quick enough to avoid bad things to your animals!

 

[DaBrowns]

Holy Hell
If there is anything I can do...let me know!! Our 150 is still pretty understocked so I could foster some if not all of it for you until you have the new one mixed and cycled.

As for lighting...I have 2 150W HQI halides, 2 130W Sunpaq dual actinics.
Sump is a 55g tank w/ 30g running through.

Hope it all works out. Also I could help you haul them somewhere if you just need extra lifting or hauling power.

 

[Scooterman]

Keep your water moving, do water changes until you get it cleared up, match your levels carefully as not to stress. Don't panic about not having a sump, focus on the tank mates, keep them in good stable waters.
I'm guessing the leaky 75 is a glass tank, you should be able to clean it thoroughly, remove the old silicone & reseal it with Silicone I!! Don't use the GE Silicone II, it has mildew / mold inhibitors in it.

 

[spongebob lover]

wwouu dood !! soorry to hear about your tank .

 

[jsmkmavity]

i have some scrap acryllic and glue if you want to repair the hob

 

[theJ]

Ahh mike that sucks man! you did the right thing and took action though, good job on identifying the problem and hooking up a temp solution. Hope everything works out dude!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

You can re-fuse the broken HOB with some acrylic solvent. Should be able to get it at Home Depot. After you reseal the 75, use the opportunity to drill it.
Silver lining somewhere?

 

[kendog261]

That sucks sorry about the big mess.

 

[lavenderfish]

So sorry to hear about your mess. I hope everything makes it.

 

[jezzeaepi]

Hope everything makes it through bro =\ Good job on getting everything moved. Im going to spend weeks planning out my tank move, but you did it with no planning in just a few hours.

 

[rocket]

Whoa Mike, I just found this thread! Sorry to hear about your problems, If there is anything I can do to help, let me know! I have alot of room in my 75G if you need to store anything, I also have a few buckets and large trash cans to help mix/store water.

 

[returnofsid]

Thanks for all your thoughts and offers for help. So far so good. I just got home from work and the tank has totally cleared up. Hopefully I won't have much of a cycle from the swap. Live rock was always in circulating water and live sand, although stirred up in the move, was only about 2 months old, so hopefully no bad gasses had a chance to build up and be released in the stirring...lol. Corals all look extremely well and are showing full polyp expansion. Live rock, live sand, corals and fish were out of tank for about 2 hours and always in good circulating water. The only bad thing happening, besides the broken HOB overflow, was that I had a frag of Montipora Digitata break on me when some rock tumbled in the transfer. Now I have 2 frags...lol. The break in the overflow was a nice clean and straight break right at the bend. Hopefully it'll be pretty easy to fuse back together. I'm going to work on it over the next 2 days (My days off.)

jsmkmavity, I may need some advice on doing the acrylic repair. I've never really done anything like that. I do have another HOB overflow but it's a totally different size and the U tubes from the old one don't work in this one...lol. I think I'm also going to take the next couple days to finish building the sump/refugium that I'm making out of an extra 29 gallon tank. That way I can replace the existing wet/dry with bioballs removed, and get it all fixed up at once.

The only thing I'm a little worried about is that with the new and clean tank, I have no algae and I'm a lil' worried about my Lawnmower Blenny. If I'd have been thinking, I'd have thrown it in my 10 gallon Pod tank that's got a lot of algae growth in it. As it is, I can still move some rocks from it to the 75 if needed.

Again, thanks for all the concern and great offers for help. We've got a great bunch on RF and especially here in Spokane!!! I really appreciate it!!

I'll keep everyone posted and be taking some new pics over the next couple days.

 

[Krish]

Sorry to hear that Sid:doubt: Glad you had a spare tank and atleast love the rockwork Hope everything works out well for you man

 

[Holygral]

Repairing overflow

I have been working on a acrylic sump for a couple of months, you want to get some Weld-On 16. It fuses acrylic together. It can be found online or at plastic outlets and manufactures in larger cities. It works like regular glue but like I said it melts it together. Good Luck

 

[Haole]

Holy crap!!:shock:
Never a dull moment in your house eh Sid... Wishing you the best of luck with your situation and livestock!

 

[CarlaW]

Sorry to hear about your tank. Are you sure you got this one level, it sounds like your old one wasn't level. I had a seam pop on my old 75 one time because of that.

 

[returnofsid]

Charlie, that's exactly what I thought when we were putting the spare tank on the stand. Sooo, I checked and sure enough, it was out of level. So we shimmed the stand to get it level...or at least very close to level.

 

[returnofsid]

jsmkmavity (Jason), thank you so much for coming over to help me fix my HOB overflow. It was much easier than I'd expected it to be...although you did all the work...lol. Also, keep me updated on your skimmer mods and on how that tiny piece of frag does!! It was great meeting you!!