I have had at least 3 leaking tanks over the years. All have been leakes at the sikicone seams, I do not reseal leakers, I replace them,
The first tank I got was an All Glass (now Aqueon) 45 gal. I leaks from the upper part of the front right where the side and from glass meet. It lost a couple of inches of water onto the parquet tiled floor and some of the water got sucked up by the bottom of the adjacent dresser. This was made of particle board covered in melamine. I did not get another 45. It was so long ago that I do not remember the exact tanks I got, but it was smaller than the 45. Today I have a 20 gal. Q tank on the stand set up recently for incoming fish
The second tank was a newish 20L. It was also an All Glass. Back then they were doing the $1gallon tank sales at PetCo and I replaced it. When I had set up the new tank space by carving out 2/3 of the storeroom fo that purpose. I have an L shaped rack I built to hold 2x20Ls on each of two levels. They have long since been replaced by 33Ls and a little more surface space.
The third tank was my in-wall 75 in my bedroom (where the 45 was as well). Ir developed a slow link from the lower front right corner of the tank. This housed my Clown Loaches. Fortunately, I had bought a used 150 and a 125 that I had not yet been put into use. The 150 was to be for Altum angels and the 125, using a 30L as a sump, was for the clowns. Both tanks were pretty dirty. The leak forced me to change the plan.
I started at about 10 in the morning Sunday to clean the 150 in place. It took me a couple of hours. Then all the fish and decor in the 75 (including a ton of live plants) had to betaken out and put into holding containers. All the contents of the 75 went into the 150 and them more substrate and decor were added. The tank was filled and the canister on the 75 was moved to the 150. I also put the AquaCLear 500 (now 110) onto the tank with new media plus all the media from the AquaClear 300 (now 70). Finally, I added a spare H.O.T. Magnum on the 150 set up only for mechanical filtration.
Once the tank was completely set up I moved the fish into it. By then I was 3 a.m. Monday. I replaced the leaky in-wall 75 which I had purchased used in early 2003. It had lasted for over 10 years. The new tank was an Aqueon.
None of the above leaks did enough damage to anything to merit flooringetc, to be replaced. However, y worst disaster which did cause serious damage was caused by my first Eheim Pro 2 2026 leaking. When this model like first came out there was a defect in the piece which attached to the hoses and then to the filter body. Eheim replaced them at no charge.
I woke up one morning and looked at the 50 gal. which sat in front of my desk. I had done routine maint. the prior day including a 60% water change. What I saw was that the water level was down about 3-4 inches and I knew I had refilled the tank to the top about 18 hours earlier. It turned out the Eheim had been leaking. I had a large area rug in the room at the time and as I approacjed the tank I began to hear and feel squishing unter my feet. The rug and pad under it had sucked up a lot of the water from the tank.
I had been send a replacement part by Eheim, but since my filter had not leaked, I never did the relacing. I did that morning. I also decided the only way to deal with the old area rug that was very soacked and had a lot of furniture on it was to throw it out. To do that and to get it out, I decide to cut it up in place and remove pieces. Since then my parquet wood floor have remained exposed. I was forced to leave a piece of carpet under the credenza at the foot of my bed as it had a 20L on it, A few years later I upgraded it to 29 which made it possible to remove that last bit of the rug.
I still have that Eheim running today.
One last observation. The 150 which is still running today and the 125 which was for a number of years but is now empty, were ought used as I noted. They came from a gent about 45 minutes from me who had an exrtensive fish room on his basement and was a big breeder of cichlids. Back surgery ended than and it all had to go. I also got a 33L and a 20L from him, He sold the 220 I wanted but had no place to put.
Those two tanks are pretty old. The both had and 3rd plaque on a lower corner. 150 and 125 below:
