UPDATE1 with pictures
I purchased a used 40G cube this weekend and had it delivered to the house. In my wife's haste to have the house cleaned up she wanted me to start moving fish over to the new tank ASAP which meant starting at 7pm on Saturday. The old tank had to be removed for the new tank to be setup, so I have a few 18G tubs that I could transfer the livestock to.
After testing to make sure the bulkhead was not leaking by putting a cup of water into the overflow we started transferring water and livestock from our old tank into the tubs and, after the old tank was moved out of the way, from the tubs to the new tank. Two things happened that I would have noticed if I placed 2 gallons of water into the overflow instead of just a cup. First the bulkhead was leaking and second the overflow was leaking from the bottom in 3 places. Needless to say these leaks would have caused the tank to drain overnight. Because of this we had to move all the livestock a third time back into the tubs, at 2am in the morning (which is where they have been since Saturday night).
With sand and some residual water in the tank, I removed the bulkhead and dried the overflow area, so I could re-silicon the area. I decided to not remove the old silicon and just use a very liberal amount of silicon to cover all the way over the old silicon and the glass area. I also used silicon on the bulkhead because of the issue with the hole that was drilled being too large. Basically I put silicon on both sides of both rubbers and some more to fill up the extra space in the oversized hole. Early this morning (20 hours after applying the silicon) I put 2 gallons of water into the overflow. The bulkhead isn't leaking, but the overflow still has two small leaks from the corner bottom of the glass, but the major leak in the middle was fixed.
This is where everything stands right now on this project. I guess my questions now are, will a leak at the bottom of the overflow wall under the sand get clogged up and stop leaking over time? If not, since the pressure is going to be low (maybe 2") can I glob more silicon into that spot? If not, is someone available tonight to come by my house (south denver) and help me clean and patch the overflow? I can get the area dry, but there is still sand and water in the tank.
FYI. My wife would like me to run to the store and pickup a 75G tank w/ overflow, stand, sump, and all the fixings and trash everything else. I'm trying to keep from doing this because of size and apartment issues, but I might not have an option if it isn't fixed tonight.
Sorry, I'm at work, I have no pictures, and I didn't take any pictures, but I'm sure most of you can visualize the issue. I will have pictures once we I get the livestock back into the tank. Please no comments about just getting the bigger tank, because the truth is if this isn't fixed I might have livestock for people to pickup and make my 5G mantis tank the display in my house.
David
I purchased a used 40G cube this weekend and had it delivered to the house. In my wife's haste to have the house cleaned up she wanted me to start moving fish over to the new tank ASAP which meant starting at 7pm on Saturday. The old tank had to be removed for the new tank to be setup, so I have a few 18G tubs that I could transfer the livestock to.
After testing to make sure the bulkhead was not leaking by putting a cup of water into the overflow we started transferring water and livestock from our old tank into the tubs and, after the old tank was moved out of the way, from the tubs to the new tank. Two things happened that I would have noticed if I placed 2 gallons of water into the overflow instead of just a cup. First the bulkhead was leaking and second the overflow was leaking from the bottom in 3 places. Needless to say these leaks would have caused the tank to drain overnight. Because of this we had to move all the livestock a third time back into the tubs, at 2am in the morning (which is where they have been since Saturday night).
With sand and some residual water in the tank, I removed the bulkhead and dried the overflow area, so I could re-silicon the area. I decided to not remove the old silicon and just use a very liberal amount of silicon to cover all the way over the old silicon and the glass area. I also used silicon on the bulkhead because of the issue with the hole that was drilled being too large. Basically I put silicon on both sides of both rubbers and some more to fill up the extra space in the oversized hole. Early this morning (20 hours after applying the silicon) I put 2 gallons of water into the overflow. The bulkhead isn't leaking, but the overflow still has two small leaks from the corner bottom of the glass, but the major leak in the middle was fixed.
This is where everything stands right now on this project. I guess my questions now are, will a leak at the bottom of the overflow wall under the sand get clogged up and stop leaking over time? If not, since the pressure is going to be low (maybe 2") can I glob more silicon into that spot? If not, is someone available tonight to come by my house (south denver) and help me clean and patch the overflow? I can get the area dry, but there is still sand and water in the tank.
FYI. My wife would like me to run to the store and pickup a 75G tank w/ overflow, stand, sump, and all the fixings and trash everything else. I'm trying to keep from doing this because of size and apartment issues, but I might not have an option if it isn't fixed tonight.
Sorry, I'm at work, I have no pictures, and I didn't take any pictures, but I'm sure most of you can visualize the issue. I will have pictures once we I get the livestock back into the tank. Please no comments about just getting the bigger tank, because the truth is if this isn't fixed I might have livestock for people to pickup and make my 5G mantis tank the display in my house.
David
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