Oh lordy lord, worst nightmare possibly?

[Krabby2k]

I've been very happy the last few days at I started to notice the growth in my new tank is taking off, tree coral is growing strong, couple of zoas frags are definitely happy, starting to notice little creatures that crawl around when the light goes out. Then it happens :tears: I lost one the outer piece of the magnet for one of my power heads, so I replaced it by this huge overweight piece of magnet, it does a fine job holding up the powerhead as long as nothing touches it. So I was scrubbing the front glass today when I accidentally and barely touched the power head, it moved a bit and as the result the magnet on the outside fell off, bounced against the cupboard that the tank is right next to and crack the tank:tears: :tears: :tears:. It is not horribly bad, but it is leaking, a few droplets would accumulate around the cracks after couple of hour. I've emailed just about anybody that I found on Craigslist in the radius of 2hrs drive in effort to find a tank, mean while there is about an inch thick of silicone over the crack. Wish me luck gents

 

[Nervoustime]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Where are you located, and how big is your tank?

 

[Eric]

That sucks!!! I hope you can find a new tank asap, if the tank is over 30 gallons I would be worried about it bursting. I know not helping good luck on you tank search.

Eric

 

[jkburton1s]

yeah id probably start evacuation procedures immediately. i had a similar situation except the whole back pane of my 46 bowfront blow out and everything went on the floor with no notice, i was sleeping in the front room (doghouse) that night. i lost everything and had a nifty insurence claim with my landlord over that. lesson learned. dont mess with crack, it hurts. put your stuff in some rubber maid tubs and get a new pane of glass put in or a new tank.

 

[Krabby2k]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Where are you located, and how big is your tank?

My tank is a 55gl, at least the damaged area isn't in the center of a pane where there's more pressure. The crack is actually right on the edge where the side pane meets the back pane. After checking this post i'm so paranoid now!

 

[BigJay]

cracks can/will travel. Something funny about glass and cracks ...if you scratch/crack glass then wet the scratch the wetness weakness the glass by 20% + over a dry crack/scratch. Not a good thing for us fishkeepers.
Any temperature variations around the glass can cause that crack to travel sometimes a crack will travel and be so fine you can't see it and it can hold water until it travels far enough that it bursts.
Good luck.

 

[BigJay]

oh if the crack travels in and makes a u turn and travels back out then your pretty safe.

 

[Krabby2k]

Whatever the case might be, I'm doing an evacuation today afterwork, so much for thr hockey game I planned on attending. Everything is going into a 55g barrel till I get a new tank. The whole recyling process all over again is going to suck a big one!

 

[molsen187]

if you save the water and live rocks you may not have that much die off and not even need to recycle the tank. i would get new sand when you get the new tank and add that and then just slowly add the water and everything from your old tank imo. there nothing wrong with your tank besides the crack so thats what i would do.

 

[Krabby2k]

Is there a reason why I can't use my old sand? I know I would have to wait for it to settle and go through a mini cycle but beside that is there any other reason?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Lots of gunk and dirt can get trapped in the sand. If you mess up the sand in an established system it can release all kindsa nasty into the water.

 

[Eric]

Just rinse the 90% of the sand and keep a little untouched to spread over top top to start it up again . No need to trash the old sand such a waste but if you have $$$ to throw away have at.

Eric

 

[Eric]

Actually I wouldn't even rinse the sand put it in tank dry and cap it with some new sand. I transferred a 65 gallon 4 year system into 90 gallon for a lady and that is exactly what I did not to mention I put the corals and 6 fish in 12 hours later it's been a month and everything is fine.

We lost 2 fish in the holding tank over night but the other six in the tank are good to go. Tossing the sand would be a waste, if you feel the need rinse it with cold water thoroughly and put it back in the tank.

My .02
Eric

 

[Krabby2k]

Actually I wouldn't even rinse the sand put it in tank dry and cap it with some new sand. I transferred a 65 gallon 4 year system into 90 gallon for a lady and that is exactly what I did not to mention I put the corals and 6 fish in 12 hours later it's been a month and everything is fine.

We lost 2 fish in the holding tank over night but the other six in the tank are good to go. Tossing the sand would be a waste, if you feel the need rinse it with cold water thoroughly and put it back in the tank.

My .02
Eric

That's good to hear, I will wait a couple of day and if the tests were good I'll load them back in. I found a 55g but the guy wants $100 for it, it's pretty steep as I've seen a lot of better deal before, but considering the current situation doesn't look like I have a choice. Look on the bright side, I've always wanted a drilled tank, so once I pick this up it's gonna go straight into a shop glass for drilling. What are you guys recommending for hole size? and how many holes?

 

[Eric]

This is just my opinion but I would have it drilled twice 2x 1 3/4" holes to accommodate 1" bulkheads for the overflow, get the bulk heads first they do vary in size from different manufactures.

Then just run your returns over the top of the tank or drill returns and I would go with 3/4" bulk heads that would need a hole of 1 1/2" I believe, but do yourself a favour and find the bulkheads you plan to buy and get the outer diameter measurement so you don't wind up with holes to small or to large.

Eric

 

[Krabby2k]

This is just my opinion but I would have it drilled twice 2x 1 3/4" holes to accommodate 1" bulkheads for the overflow, get the bulk heads first they do vary in size from different manufactures.

Then just run your returns over the top of the tank or drill returns and I would go with 3/4" bulk heads that would need a hole of 1 1/2" I believe, but do yourself a favour and find the bulkheads you plan to buy and get the outer diameter measurement so you don't wind up with holes to small or to large.

Eric

instead of doing 2x 1" holes, can i just do 1x2" hole?

 

[Eric]

There are a few factors to consider as well with drilling a tank. How much flow you plan to have? That will determine the proper size bulkhead. What type of over flow box you will use if any and so on. The 2x1" bulkheads should handle atleast 900gph each. There are flow calculators on line but I have found them to be very inaccurate so basically a rule of thumb or reference. I am sure others will chime in with more info.

Eric

 

[squidy]

Hi. I was reading your post regarding the cracked 55g and your plan to drill the replacement tank. I build custom Overflow Boxes using acrylic. I have a couple of pictures posted on Ebay under the user name Midwest_Reefs if you are interested. The pictures are of a box made from clear acrylic, however I will have black and maybe blue acrylic in stock by next week. They are very affordable and easy to install. I have a 110g tank with the 1800 gph overflow and a Mag18 return. My tank was drilled with 2x 1 3/4" bulkheads for two 1" drains. The benefits of two 1" drains allows for an overflow box with a smaller profile. Anyways, just let me know if I can help. Best of luck.

 

[sambrinar]

IMHO I would not reuse the sand at all.. I would use all new and just add a cup of your old sand on the top.. there is all kinds of gases and nastiness in the sand that can nuke a tank if it is stirred too much... and moving the sand from one tank to another.. is stirring too much... It's just not worth it

 

[Krabby2k]

The evacuation is completed, it must have been an early 2012 for the tank. As much as I would love to have the tank drilled, that option isn't looking too good right now so I"m just gonna stick to my hob overflown. The new tank will be at home in about 2 hours. Here are some pics of how things look right now, it's always depressing to see a barrel next to the tank.

The culprit.

What everything looks like now.

I've decided to reuse the sand for two reason. One, the sand is not that old, it's only been 4 months old and its not entirely established as it's been stirred by a dropped powerhead on couple of occasion, secondly, it's not really a deep sand bed as most of the sand is actually in my refugium, i''m thinking it's not much higher than an 1 1/2". On top of that I'm not going to move everything back in right away. I've saved ALL of the water, so I will fill the new tank with the old sand to 1/4 of the tank, let it sit for one day, remove the water and slowly put things back in. I'll keep you guys updated.