Bleeeeeh!!!!!!!!

E

eshook

New member
It seems I am not supposed to own a saltwater aquarium...

My wife purchased a 29G and 20L for me two years ago for my birthday (with the intent of turning it into a reef). I have been buying things slowly and had it drilled last fall (thank you Jason!).

After I invested all the money I have ran into nothing but problems. I wanted to turn the 20L into a sump so I added baffles and when I filled it with water the epoxy/silicone didn't hold and the baffles broke. So I had to drain both tanks and remove all the epoxy/silicone and buy new (thicker) acrylic and epoxy/silicone it to the tank again. Once this was finished I added a horizontal overflow with external boxes to the drilled tank.

I filled the tanks last week and ran the pumps a few times, I was planning on adding salt/sand this weekend and start my saltwater experience, however ...

I was very busy and did not get time to add sand/salt, but I ran the pumps today and the bottom of the right box gave out. Lots of water sprayed on the wall and carpet!

Now I'm very happy that I didn't add salt/sand, but am very upset because I need to drain the tanks, again, and reattach the boxes.

Grrr!!!!!....

(Sorry I just had to vent my frustrations, because I'm driving my wife nuts ;o)
 
You need to make it to a LFS or my house and get some AQUARIUM SEALANT there is a difference. People say silicone will hold but I have NEVER had any luck finding one that will hold I've tried 5 different types. It's alittle more expensive but it's worth it when you can sleep knowing your tank isn't going to collapse. I have a tube of the german aquarium silcone (mike paletta's tank making silcone) if you need it let me know, also I know that emporium has all glass aquarium silcone which is what I used for my sump and overflow for like 10 bucks a tube. HTH Jason
 
I bought aquarium silicone (something like $3-4/tube) is this the same thing or different? It says it will only work for aquariums up to ~15 gallons so I am assuming not.

At this point I'm willing to pay money to get this tank up and going ...

I just want some friggin fish!
 
Does anyone in Iowa City know where I can get this aquarium sealant? (i.e. Petland/Sea of Marvels/Coralville Bay?)
 
I would get the all glass stuff or something to that effect. I know my sump wall is 17 inches tall and 15 inches wide and my silicone hasn't moved. After using that silcone I won't use anything else
 
Will do. I'll try to do some searching for it.

Would you recommend pulling everything out and redoing it?

I know it sucks, but if the silicone/epoxy is going to fail eventually I would rather redo it all now when there is nothing in it instead of later when its full of fish/coral.

What do you guys think?
 
I would say pull it and start over, I made my sump out of regular silcone and my overflow box. Filled my tank so I could start cycling, overflow box started comming loose. Drained half the tank pulled it, resealed it. I pulled the whole sump apart and started over. I can't say that I regret it, my last sump I used a different regular silcone and it started melting, VERY large water changes and some ugly looking corals for about 4 weeks because of it. I guess you get what you pay for. Jason
 
Coralville Bay has All-Glass Sealant. Your going to have a hard time getting an acrylic overflow to hang on the side of a glass tank, unless I read your post wrong, I would either just have a bulkhead with a strainer or make a box overflow that is supported by the bottom of the tank.
 
I was wondering about that too.

I have seen one person that had it work successfully. He using a large amount of epoxy/silicone. In my case the hold on the tank didn't give (because I used the same technique) the bottom of the box (3 acrylic corners meeting) gave out. I never welded the acrylic together instead I tried using epoxy to hold it together, but perhaps I was wrong...

Anyone else have any good ideas for the external box? Or perhaps I could just mount the bulkheads and make an external durso and not mess with the box. I presume this is what most other people do?

My only concern with this is the pressure put on the tank walls that might make them crack.

Opinions?
 
i have weld-on if you need to weld the acrylic, my over flow is acrylic and its attached to glass but, it's also on the inside of the tank so if it did leak it wouldn't matter much. HTH Jason
 
Would you guys suggestion dropping the external boxes and directly plumbing the bulkheads to the tank?

I thought the external boxes would allow for more flow, but even with a Quiet One 4000 it seems that I I am not yet maxing out the draining capacity so I might be ok directly attaching the bulkheads.

Thanks for the offer with the weld-on Jason, I might take you up on it if I decide to go with external boxes (which is my preference) and can't find any.
 
You can do whatever method you want, it just might take different materials, I think it would be the best if you used a glass overflow if it is on the outside of the tank. Glass-Glass will be stronger than Glass-Acrylic. If you have it on the outside are you still going to use a strainer of some sort to keep things out?

The one advantage to having it on the outside would be that it wouldn't take up valuable space in your tank. But I would hate to be you if it gives when your not around because it wasn't on nice and secure!!!
 
rc
I agree that Glass-Glass will be much stronger, but I have limited resources in cutting glass or getting glass pieces in the size that I would need... although that would probably be preferred.

I don't have pictures of my setup posted on the web, but my situation is similar to those overflows except I use a single glass pane across the entire back of my 29 (no teeth)

By the sounds of it I might just directly attach the bulkheads to my tank and skip the external boxes. I think in the long run it will be a "safer" approach.

I assume other people have did this before, but how can you limit the pressure placed on the wall of the aquarium? Or can it just handle the weight of the pipes/water hanging off the back?
 
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