Leak!

[WillyRBeek]

I woke up 20mins ago to discover my 25 gallon tank in the hallway had sprung a leak. About half the water has leaked out so far, and it seems to be leaking out quite fast. Thankfully I have another 25 gallon tank, and i'm in the process of rehoming the fish from the leaking tank, but I need to get the ole tank fixed and refilled as quickly as possible, as my other 25 gallon tank is going to be now vastly overstocked(They were both roughly at thier capacity as it is).

How should I go about finding and repairing the leak?

 

[Piltdownpaul]

Dry the tank thoroughly and put some water in it- a little dye added might help. Find the leak and if it isnt a crack , dry it thoroughly and reseal with aquarium silicone sealant. It must be absolutely dry though. If you have a crack then thats another matter.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Dry the tank thoroughly and put some water in it- a little dye added might help. Find the leak and if it isnt a crack , dry it thoroughly and reseal with aquarium silicone sealant. It must be absolutely dry though. If you have a crack then thats another matter.

What do I do if it is a crack?

 

[Piltdownpaul]

If you have a crack which doesnt reach the edge of the tank, you can overlay the crack with a larger piece of glass and silicone that down over it-obviously if its in an viewing area then thats not going to look good.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Now currently in my non-leaking 25 gallon tank I have:

5 Female Gourami's(roughly about 3 inchs long)
1 angel fish(About an inch and a half long
7 Bronze cory's
5 peppered cory's
1 bristlenose pleco
1 clown pleco
2 red eye tetras
3 neon tetras
3 platys
1 rocket red dandio



Obviously, this is now a vastly overstocked tank. Roughly how long do I have to get this problem fixed and the leaking tank back up and running before this starts to really stress the fish out?

 

[Piltdownpaul]

Dont worry about your overstocking too much-do a small water change daily and this will help until you can get yourself sorted out.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Dont worry about your overstocking too much-do a small water change daily and this will help until you can get yourself sorted out.

Excellant, thanks a lot man. Good thing there's a large number of UK posters on this board, as this problem began at like 5:30am in the morning here, lol.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

oh, you're lucky i'm answering as i'm munching my way through a sausage sandwich for breakfast!!!!

 

[WillyRBeek]

oh, you're lucky i'm answering as i'm munching my way through a sausage sandwich for breakfast!!!!

Haha, i'm also lucky that this happened to happen on the 1 sunday in the past 2 months where I hadn't gone out drinking saturday night, lol. Normally I wouldn't even be getting home for another 5 hours or so.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Also, for these daily water changes, roughly what percentage of the water should I be changing every day? I routinely do 25% water changes in each of the tanks every 5 or 6 days, not out of nessessity, but simply cause I want the fish to be as healthy as possible, so they're all very used to having very fresh water.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Also: What should I do about my filter media? I currently have it all soaking in a container filled with tank water, but I believe the benifical bacteria can only live like that for about 10-12 hours. I do have some ammonia though. If I don't have my tank fixed and back up and running by tonight, should I put in a little bit of ammonia to keep the bacteria alive?