Worst case scenario - tank leaking!

[Electric Warrior]

Hello everyone. Last night, one of my biggest nightmares began and my 350L Juwel Rio tank started leaking!. I noticed that it started dripping water out of the corners somewhere at the very bottom of the tank, although I couldn't see the point of origin anywhere. I started to get worse, so I immediately started taking water out, and got all of my fish out (after ripping out all the plants and wood). I checked all four corners of the tank, including all of the seams from top to bottom, and didn't see any water or condensation coming from anywhere above the bottom trim, so I think it's safe to say that it's coming from somewhere near the bottom. Once I got the water level about 70 % down, it slowly stopped, and I am assuming that's due to the less pressure on the tank from the volume of water once it was emptied a bit.

Now comes the dilemma... This has never happened to me, and I have never had to reseal a tank. From what I gather, once I have the tank empty and cleaned out, I will have to scrape all of the existing sealant out with a razor, and reseal the whole tank again? I also assume that it's likely I won't visibly be able to see where the leak is coming from with my eyes, if it's leaking from a seal somewhere. I have now almost finished removing all of the substrate and I'm am going to have to finish getting out the last few cm's of water, and then I will probably have to remove the 3D background from the back glass.

Who has this happened to before, and how did you get on with resealing your tank. I am obviously a little scared that I might make a mistake and find that it leaks again, which is the main concern. I haven't been able to inspect the tank yet since it's not fully cleaned out, but I assume that it it was something like a crack somewhere, it's much more likely that the tank would have burst, or that much more water would have been gushing out. I am obviously keen to try and fix it, since a new 350 Rio is about £520 new. The other issue being that it looks like the cabinet where the base of the tank sits is slight warped in the front corner where the water was dripping out of the base of the tank. I can see the front-right corner of the top shelf of the cabinet flexing very slightly, so it looks like there is a tiny gap of a couple of millimetres at the very corner of the tank. At the very least, it looks like I'm going to need a new cabinet, but £230 sounds much more bearable than £700+ for a new tank and stand set. How likely is it that resealing the whole thing will work okay, and how difficult is it going to be, realistically? Obviously I want to try and get this done asap because the fish are in a few temporary tanks now, so that is not ideal, plus getting a new tank/stand this size seems like it could take up to a week from anywhere due to shipping, etc. Thanks.

 

[Slaphppy7]

There's lots of how-to vids out there on seal leaks, if that's indeed what happened to your tank

how to reseal a leaking fish tank at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[kevinpleong]

This is just my thoughts looking at your post for a minute or two. take everything out of the tank, keep some of the water from that tank and if you can have it in a bucket with your substrate that would be even better. You would want this because you don't really want to start a brand new tank and this way you would still have some seasoned water hopefully. Make sure your tank is dry, take off the silicone with a razor blade or something else and try and be careful while doing so. I would then reseal the tank probably scrape off the silicone from one side and then do another side. I've never done this but if I were the one doing it this is how I would do it. After you have resealed the whole tank I would add water all the way up to where you would normally and make sure there are no leaks. Leave it there for several days and if you can confirm it hasn't leaded you should be golden

 

[Natabettas]

Personally I had a 20gallon long start leaking after I bought it on a used site. I couldn’t see any problems but when feeling the corners I found out on of the walls was loose and it leaked over an inch overnight. Emptied it and bought some aquarium sealing silicon then I just went around the old seam with a lot of sealant and let it dry a week and it’s holding up fine. I don’t know if people would recommend it but it worked well for me

 

[Slaphppy7]

This is just my thoughts looking at your post for a minute or two. take everything out of the tank, keep some of the water from that tank and if you can have it in a bucket with your substrate that would be even better. You would want this because you don't really want to start a brand new tank and this way you would still have some seasoned water hopefully. Make sure your tank is dry, take off the silicone with a razor blade or something else and try and be careful while doing so. I would then reseal the tank probably scrape off the silicone from one side and then do another side. I've never done this but if I were the one doing it this is how I would do it. After you have resealed the whole tank I would add water all the way up to where you would normally and make sure there are no leaks. Leave it there for several days and if you can confirm it hasn't leaded you should be golden

There's really no point in saving the water, other than to temporarily put the fish in to...the filter media is the main thing that needs to be kept submerged, since that is where the majority of the OP's BB colony resides

 

[fish48]

once you remove /clean the inside of the tank slowly fill up with water until you see it leaking it's probably leaking from a seal , its possible to reseal over top defending how bat it is

 

[Electric Warrior]

HI, thanks for the replies. Yeah, the substrate is already gone and in a bin bag. I had a JBL soil-type substrate in there with sand on top, but it's come out now and just a big brown/black mess. I still have my canister filter running on the temp tank all of my cichlids are in, so I'm not worried about that. Like I mentioned, once I got the water volume down to about 30-40% down, it stopped, so I assume it's likely somewhere along the bottom seal, especially since I never saw any water dripping or leaking anywhere on the outside of the tank, other than underneath it. It's going to be highly unlikely I'll be able to spot any point of origin in the sealant, since it stopped once I got most of the water out of the tank, and the fact that the Juwel Rio has a big plastic strip of trim around the outside-bottom of the tank.

 

[Slaphppy7]

It is possible the leak is higher up, as well, since the leakage stopped after a certain water level was reached, but you'd think you would see the moisture along one of the upper seals when it was occurring...

 

[AbbeysDad]

Resealing an Aquarium - step by step

 

[Colin_T]

Not sure if you can remove the plastic strip around the base, but if you could, then you can refill the tank and see where the water comes out.

If you find a hole in the silicon, use a single single sided razorblade and remove the silicon from the glass around the hole. Then get some glass silicon and cover it up.

If the current silicon feels good, you can sometimes silicon over the old stuff and that will work too. Good silicon should be firm but slightly squishy. Old or bad silicon will be hard and brittle.

If there are any cream or white areas in the silicon, then it is breaking down. Same if you see any bubbles in the old silicon.

 

[Electric Warrior]

Not sure if you can remove the plastic strip around the base, but if you could, then you can refill the tank and see where the water comes out.

If you find a hole in the silicon, use a single single sided razorblade and remove the silicon from the glass around the hole. Then get some glass silicon and cover it up.

If the current silicon feels good, you can sometimes silicon over the old stuff and that will work too. Good silicon should be firm but slightly squishy. Old or bad silicon will be hard and brittle.

If there are any cream or white areas in the silicon, then it is breaking down. Same if you see any bubbles in the old silicon.

I'm not sure either tbh. I think that the strip is just decorative, but maybe someone that is familiar with Juwel tanks can answer that for sure. The silicon inside is black, so I don't know if it changes colour when it's breaking down, and I imagine it's hard to see small bubbles in it. First I'm going to have figure out how to get this 1/2 cm. of water/muck out of the bottom, as it's such a big tank (4ft long), it's not that easy to get it on it's side/tip it, that sort of thing. The tank is second-hand, so I am not sure if it's been resealed or not already - the appearance of the sealant inside leads me to think it has, as from what I can see, it's not exactly a clean looking job, and I don't know if Juwel seals their tanks with black silicon? I was hoping to get it outside this week to hose it down/clean it all out, but unfortunately our wonderful weather looks like rain/sleet/snow all week, so it should be interesting.

 

[Colin_T]

Black silicon turns white when it is coming away from the glass or breaking down. You can also see air bubbles in it.

Use a sponge and small bucket to get the remaining water out of the tank. If you can lift one end of the tank a little bit (1/2 - 1 inch) and put a block under that end, the dirty water will flow down to the other end and make it easier to remove.

 

[itiwhetu]

Juwel tanks have such a small bead of silicone, you can just put a new bead straight over the top, when you run it with your finger just make sure the new bead is larger than the original. Make sure the tank is empty and dry. Wait the full 10 days to cure the silicone. Only use a silicone suitable for Aquariums.

 

[Retired Viking]

I feel you pain, I know what it is like to have a tank leak. Last year my old 55 gallon tank sprung a leak, I was able to repair it but about 2 month or so it sprung another leak in the middle of the night and this time emptied over 20 gallons on my living couch and carpet. What a mess. I ended up buying a new 55 gallon to replace it. Good luck with your dilemma .

 

[itiwhetu]

I feel you pain, I know what it is like to have a tank leak. Last year my old 55 gallon tank sprung a leak, I was able to repair it but about 2 month or so it sprung another leak in the middle of the night and this time emptied over 20 gallons on my living couch and carpet. What a mess. I ended up buying a new 55 gallon to replace it. Good luck with your dilemma .

I thought you would have fixed it the second time, just to show who was boss.