I have a Major Problem!!!

[LSheldon]

Okay, went to feed the fish this morning and discovered I'm having a tank crisis! My 20 gallon is leaking - fast! It's coming from the bottom. There was no sign of water last night and now there is a puddle and the level in the 15 gallon sump has gone down at least 2 inches! Obviously, I need to switch the tank out, but what is the best way to do this with a tank fully stocked with fish and coral??? My biggest concern is the bluespot jawfish. I just got him less than two weeks ago and they are really not good with stress. I don't trust the seals in smaller tanks, so I did reseal this one before using and let it cure for a week before the wet test. I can't wait a week for new silicone to cure in a new tank - I need a new tank today, but the seals are pretty bad on smaller tanks. The last one I did not seal leaked under the high flow I have in the tank... Tank has been running over six months with no sign of a leak. The leak is not visible, I just see water seeping out of the bottom edges of the tank on two sides... I don't want to put them in a bigger tank cause I don't want to have to buy new lights! HELP! Any 24" long tanks that anyone is aware of that they would trust the seals on?

[Jason25]

It's not hard to transfer your livestock. Get yourself some buckets or something similar, take water from your tank and fill them, then place your liverock in one bucket, corals in another and fish in another, you can do the corals and fish together if you want. Using water from your leakin tank fill the new tank with what water you have and then make the rest up with new saltwater. Then make sure your temp is ok in the new tank. I would acclimate the corals and fish before placing them in the new tank. I t is not as bad as you think I have done it a few times due to moving. Just becareful and you will be fine. Thank god you were home and noticed it and lucky for you it's the weekend and you have time to do it all.

[michael_cb_125]

Oh man that sucks. Dont panic. At the moment I dont think it matters if you like the smaller tanks or not. You need to swap out your tank. Go get one!!!!!fast.
I have never had a tank leak, even the small ones you get at petco. I would just get them in a new tank. When you are swapping everything over keep the lights dim. And if you can use a cup to catch you BSJF. They HATE nets. When using a cup you can keep the little guys under water at all times.

Good Luck To You
~Michael

[LSheldon]

Thanks guys. That's the plan. I have to admit, I'm panicking a little. Will be transferring them all to a 38 gallon I have sittin in the basement. For that I'll need more sand, more rock, bigger lights, but I KNOW it doesn't leak. LFS doesn't open till 11. ARG!!!

[Witfull]

stop, breathe and get some )2 to the brain...it needs to function. plan it out as said above. a 38Gtank is 30" i believe. so a 24" light isnt that bad. go to HD and get 2 acryllic rods that fit from front to back of the tank and tyhe lights can sit on it. that leaves 3" on each side that are dimmer, but light will spead into the the zone. good spot for lower light corals, or new arrivals that need light acclimation.

its not that bad, once you get past the OH, #@#%$@ !!!!! factor of a wet floor.

[LSheldon]

thanks for the advice. Tank is actually 36" long, so I think I need a new light. Headed out to LFS now. Luckily our guy was there prepping for the day and agreed to open early. Might take some pics of the process and make it like a tank thread (trying to look on the brightside)
I'm off to LFS! Wish me luck and a discount... Hopefully they'll take pitty on me...

[lcstorc]

Don't worry about the light short term or even the sand etc. Just move everybody and everything and worry about the rest later when you are not in panic mode.

[LSheldon]

Well it's been a long day! After out trip to the LFS, we discovered a couple problems with using the 38 gallon we originally intended to use. We could not fit the sump (or any sump) in the stand and had no room and no inclination to have it on the floor next to the tank stand. Also, our light only has one HQI, in the center of the fixture, and the 38 gallon has a nice fat center brace which would mess with the look of the lighting. Sooooo, we got a new tank, stand, hood, whole bunch of sand and rock, and ordered a bigger light with 2 HQIs and 4 T-5s. The nano fishies are movin' on up! They are now in a 65 gallon tank because we got an amazing deal!
Hubby and I took pics of the process, but I'm too exhausted to even think. We still are not completely finished and there's a gigantic mess in the living room that needs to be cleaned up.
I also want to tell everyone here that if you're ever in Westport, CT to check out Westport Aquarium. They seriously hooked us up today, and we love them! The guy we deal with, Noah is really awesome and totally tries to save us money and give us good advice. Thanks Noah!
Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions and support. Tomorrow when the water clears and I can arrange everything I'll post some nice pics of how it looks. I'm off to mix some salt water! Again!

[Witfull]

congrats~~~

[lcstorc]

Great job.
Looking forward to the pics.

[Intranick]

You should have seen me when my nanocube sprung a leak.

You think yours was fast? I had closed my eyes to go to bed one night, and i heard a loud "pop" -- my first thought was to check the furnace room, iduno why.. then as i walked past my office door, i heard rushing water.. looked into the bathroom, which was right across the hall, nope.. nothing.. looked at the aquarium.. in that short time, it dropped 4-5 gallons on the floor.. ive never moved so fast to get the water out of the tank.. i was drenched in sweat after that..

I put everything in a rubbermaid container, but i didn't really have anything.. just some rock that I to this day wish I woulda found a way to keep "live", but i was broken spirited for like.. 6 months..

[LSheldon]

Intranick, that's quite a leak? How'd that happen so fast? There were a couple times today when I seriously considered just giving up. My husband too i think. As it is, our friends and family think we're crazy to do this much for a tank. The bottom line is that we love it. For us all the expense and work is worth it because in the end it's something we really enjoy.

We have the living room cleaned up. The tank is full, sump is going. The water is still really cloudy, but is clearing up quickly thanks to my new powerheads. Hopefully tomorrow it will be clear enough to put everything where it needs to be. We will be needing more rock though, and more sand so it will cloud back up again by tomorrow evening... So far so good. Now we sleep.

[dianezoo]

When my tank sprung a leak and I had to replace it fast I went from a 29 gal that leaked to a 37 gal becuse it had the exact same foot print, so the canopy and stand and my lights all worked out the lfs only had ne and gave me a deal. I completly resealed the 29 gal cut out all the silacone and rebuilt itl. and then I had to go order another light and stand oh well. I like your plan getting a bigger tank!!!

[Intranick]

Originally Posted by LSheldon

Intranick, that's quite a leak? How'd that happen so fast? There were a couple times today when I seriously considered just giving up. My husband too i think. As it is, our friends and family think we're crazy to do this much for a tank. The bottom line is that we love it. For us all the expense and work is worth it because in the end it's something we really enjoy.

We have the living room cleaned up. The tank is full, sump is going. The water is still really cloudy, but is clearing up quickly thanks to my new powerheads. Hopefully tomorrow it will be clear enough to put everything where it needs to be. We will be needing more rock though, and more sand so it will cloud back up again by tomorrow evening... So far so good. Now we sleep.

after arguing with them for hours on the phone (JBJ) they refused to warrent it because it had to be my fault, but they never said why..

I still dont know..

[LSheldon]

Hi everybody! After a major computer overhaul (I had over 20G of photos and 25G of music on my laptop so a lot of it had to go), I'm back with pics of the great tank switch! Here's a pic of the nano before we broke it down:

Here's the reason why we broke it down:

The new 65 gallon. I really don't like the stand, but what can I do? We got what was available that moment...

Filling the tank and placing the rock:

Here's what it looked like this morning:

Starting to clear up. I've since added 40 more pounds of sand and aquascaped. It's pretty couldy again, but not too bad. Hopefully the lights will be in this week. We seem to be losing our xenia (which is kinda funny since we have way more sensitive corals that are fine). Other than that, everyone made it through the whole process. It's been a long weekend, and I'm really happy to have it done.