280 gallon Leak!!! Help!!!

[N3wbl3tz]

Good morning all,

I have taken the day off from work due to an unfortunate turn of events discovered this morning. It would appear that my 280 gallon reef tank has sprung a serious leak. I have begin tearing the tank down and have determined that there is a leak along one of the seams. It has been up for about a year and a half. The tank is about 5 or so years old. I am considering tearing down the tank and rebuilding it. Should I plan to do an entire rebuild or simply a reseal of the inside of the tank? Any advice is welcome and appreciated Thank you.

[wvreef]

I would resael the entire tank.....if you are tearing it all the way down you are better off to re-seal everything than to go thru this again

[Jonviviano]

Just an idea but after the tank is ready to be refilled, make sure everthing is perfectly level to avoid stress on seams

[tyler91913]

I went through something like this with my first 55 gallon tank--I tried only resealing the inside twice, but ended up having to take the whole thing apart, clean it really well, and put it all back together. I wouldn't recommend the second option unless you've got the plastic bracing to keep everything perfectly square when you put it back together. You also need something like a dremel tool to clean every last trace of old silicone off. It's probably worth trying the inside-seams-only option first. Just a word of advice: when you go to scrape out the old inside seams, be careful not to cut into the silicone in the flush connections.

Whichever route you go, you'll need lots of razors, one of those plastic widgits to hold the razors as you scrape, acetone, silicone without the anti-mold chemical, time, and patience... Good luck!

[kcress]

The problem is usually that the silicone that is holding the tank together has started to fail, so just 'resealing' is not going to do it. You should be able to look into the joint from outside and see the actual delamination occurring.

[N3wbl3tz]

Thank you for all of your replies. Unfortunately I do not have another aquarium I simply can transfer everything into, and as the tank will most likely be down for more than a week I will most likely be forced to sell all of the contents and start all over. What more can be done. :sad2:. Thank you all for posting in such a timely fashion and I do appreciate the advice.

[yellowRubi]

get couple of them big rubbermaid's for your stock for now

[billdogg]

+1 on the rubbermaids - you can keep livestock in them pretty much as long as you need to.

As far as just redoing the inside - it is a waste of time - the silicone thqt actually seals the tank is BETWEEN the pieces of glass - the stuff on the inside is cosmetic only. Tear it down completely, scrape it with razor blades to remove as much as possible, then use (i think) mineral spirits or denatured alchohol to clean ALL remaining traces from the glass.

And +1000 on making sure all is flat and level before trying again!

Sorry for your troubles!!!!!

[coralnut99]

If you have room in a basement, etc. You can most likely house everything in a large rubbermaid stock tank. You can sell the stock tank when you're done. You'll most likely lose a lot less money than you will with a fire sale of your livestock.

As others have suggested, a complete teardown is the only way to go. Silicone has some funny properties, if an inner bead is compromised close to an edge it will simply pick up steam as it tears apart.

If you have access to some carpenter's bar clamps you can buy yourself some time with tearing it down. Sandwich the tank between two sections of simple pine board and apply a pair of clamps.

A 280 is surely worth the time involved with a complete teardown and rebuild, but that's just my opininion. One advantage of a tank that size is the edges of glass that thick are much easier to scrape the silicone off of, but on the flip-side, you'll need some help moving those panels around and re-assembling.

Lots of tank building/rebuilding threads in this forum.

Good Luck!

[nauticac4]

Sucks to hear about this...But pick up a rubbermaid stock tank like the others have mentioned and rig it up into a suitable home for your livestock while you figure things out. Most tractor supply stores have the stock tanks on hand. Good Luck!

[kcress]

Yes, find some 32 gallon garbage cans and use them. They're not expensive. Wash them out with a garden hose and use them. If you need to keep them all the same temperature just put siphons between each of them and use a powerhead to move water from the last can to the first can in the string. This keeps all the water homogenized and heated and lets the live rock keep doing its thang.