# HELP: My aquarium started to leak unexpectadly today



## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Hi
Something strange happened today with my aquarium
I have 10Gl established aquarium that I have been successfully running for almost 2 years.
Two months ago I moved into new house and moved it with me by removing 70% of the water from it and putting it in the bucket. It was an easy move as I did not remove anything from fish tank and in the new place I just put the water back in it and it was up and running in meter of minutes. But today while doing my weekly water changes after removing 25% of the water from it via gravel vacuum I noticed it started to drip heavily on the both left and right front corners. I went to BA and they advised me to buy new 10Gl tank and move everything, including gravel, filter, plants, fish, etc… from my old tank to new one.
This is what I’ve done. Now my new tank looks like a mess as I had a lot of plants, fish and RCS and CRS amino shrimps and assassin snails in old tank. It was a very difficult task to move everything in the new tank as I discovered that I have over 100 shrimps as well I found some fish that I thought it already dead. But most difficult was moving the plants as they had deep roots since they have been growing in the old tank for almost 2 years. Now after moving everything to new tank I’m not sure if everything going to survive. I was able to replant most of my plants but as good as they wore grooving originally. Also I was able to capture and successfully move all my fish and I think most of the shrimps including amano, CRS and RCS and assassin snails. Now the new tank looks like a mess as all the dirt from the gravel all over in the water and this is scares me. 
After removing everything from the old tank I decided to put water in old tank and see if it is leaking. I filled it up with water and it was holding water for 1 hr with no problems without any leaks. Here are my questions:
1.	Would all the dirt will settle down and water will clear again (I’m running my AC20 on it from the old tank) ?
2.	Would all plants be able to grow same as in the old tank?
3.	Would all the fish and shrimps and snails be OK in the new tank (they looked very stressed righ now, same as shrimps)?
4.	What really happened with the old tank ? Why it started to drip and not dripping anymore ? Could be because I put it on the new stand in the new house (this is stingway wooden stand for 20Gl tanks that I bought on sale in BA) ? Before it used to stand on 30gl stand that has a special support on the middle, I planning to start my new 30Gl tank and this is why I bought the 20gl stand in BA for my current fish tank (And BA people told me it should be fine for my tank). This stand does not have a support on the middle as old one and this I think maybe it not holding a fish tank properly (although it does not look that way) and could be the reason why the tank started to leak. But not leaking anymore. I’m afraid it could happen with the new tank again ?? But in this case I may need to buy new stand.
Any advices and or help are appreciated.


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## k2x5 (Mar 12, 2008)

1.	Would all the dirt will settle down and water will clear again (I'm running my AC20 on it from the old tank) ?
Yes, it will eventually settle, though you may have to clean the filter very soon, as the floating particulate will gather much more quickly than usual until it all settles.

2.	Would all plants be able to grow same as in the old tank?
Almost certainly yes. The only exception to this is if you stirred up a lot of organic waste in moving the gravel, but even then most plants are more resilient than we give them credit for. Assuming you moved everything over (Including the previous water, all your nitrogen cycle, buffering and water parameters should remain very close to the previous tank.

3.	Would all the fish and shrimps and snails be OK in the new tank (they looked very stressed right now, same as shrimps)?
Same answer as above.

4.	What really happened with the old tank ? Why it started to drip and not dripping anymore ?
My guess is flexing. When a tank that is partially filled with water, gravel, etc is moved you run the risk of flexing the silicone joints (I am assuming that this is a plate glass/acrylic tank and not a molded tank) It is very likely that the silicone was lifted slightly in one of the joints allowing dirt/water to penetrate to the outside. You could certainly attempt to fix it by re-doing all the silicone jointing/sealing, but its a lot of work even for a 10g tank.

Your new stand is likely fine, my guess is that the tank flexed while being moved, either while you walked with it or while it was being picked up/set down. It takes very little twist to open a seal in the silicone.



ppaskova said:


> Hi
> Something strange happened today with my aquarium
> I have 10Gl established aquarium that I have been successfully running for almost 2 years.
> Two months ago I moved into new house and moved it with me by removing 70% of the water from it and putting it in the bucket. It was an easy move as I did not remove anything from fish tank and in the new place I just put the water back in it and it was up and running in meter of minutes. But today while doing my weekly water changes after removing 25% of the water from it via gravel vacuum I noticed it started to drip heavily on the both left and right front corners. I went to BA and they advised me to buy new 10Gl tank and move everything, including gravel, filter, plants, fish, etc&#8230; from my old tank to new one.
> ...


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

k2x5 said:


> 1.	Would all the dirt will settle down and water will clear again (I'm running my AC20 on it from the old tank) ?
> Yes, it will eventually settle, though you may have to clean the filter very soon, as the floating particulate will gather much more quickly than usual until it all settles.
> 
> Well it looks like it settling down. I can see my fish and shrimps now. But they still look stressed. Why ?
> ...


But why it took almost two months and a few water changes to discover ?


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Hard to say, it could have been the move the did it. Regardless, you need to redo the silicon just to be sure. Re-using it like that only means it might completely bust open when you're not home or in the middle of the night.
Some things you might want to do in the future. 
Replanting tips, you can cut the root and leave about 1 - 2" of roots and replant them that way. This will help it to regrow the roots propertly. If you bunch them all together, some of the roots will suffocate and died off and rot. This can leave the plant weak and sick.
Put a leveler on top of your tank, make sure the tank is relatively leveled.

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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Hard to say, it could have been the move the did it. Regardless, you need to redo the silicon just to be sure. Re-using it like that only means it might completely bust open when you're not home or in the middle of the night.
> Some things you might want to do in the future.
> Replanting tips, you can cut the root and leave about 1 - 2" of roots and replant them that way. This will help it to regrow the roots propertly. If you bunch them all together, some of the roots will suffocate and died off and rot. This can leave the plant weak and sick.
> Put a leveler on top of your tank, make sure the tank is relatively leveled.


Unfortunately I already planted my plants without cutting their roots. And some of them coming out. Should I pull them out, cut the roots and replant them or it will be too much of stress for fish as I'll disturb a gavel bad again ?


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Fish have short memories. Go ahead and redo it.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

I would probably do them in phase if that is your concern. But definately replant them. If you have cryps and the likes, be aware that the old leaves might wilt when you replant them. This is natural, just cut the leaves and new ones will grow as long as it rootstub is intact.

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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Zebrapl3co said:


> I would probably do them in phase if that is your concern. But definately replant them. If you have cryps and the likes, be aware that the old leaves might wilt when you replant them. This is natural, just cut the leaves and new ones will grow as long as it rootstub is intact.


Well I have following plants:
1. Amazon sword -3 bushes. This one has overgrown my aquarium and its roots are two long and could not plant them all in the gravel. This one my biggest conform as it took me a lot of effort to get it going since it was dieing in the beginning. I'm planning to move this one to my new 30Gl aquarium that I'm planning to start very soon
2. Java fern and Windolov - I have quiet a few bushes of them and specially java fern. They don't have very long roots and before I was able to plant / replant them successfully without cutting any roots
3. Criptocorn - I have only one bush left. I had 3 originally and they had very long roots and I planted them without cutting the roots. This is probably explains why they died.
4. Chgrophilia deformia and chgrophilia thai - a few bushes. Usually I could plant them without any roots or cutting any roots as they don't have very long roots as well.
Any advice of how and in which order to replant them will be appreciated


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

OK. I replanted them. What's next ?


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

Zebrapl3co said:


> I would probably do them in phase if that is your concern. But definately replant them. If you have cryps and the likes, be aware that the old leaves might wilt when you replant them. This is natural, just cut the leaves and new ones will grow as long as it rootstub is intact.


When I replanted my crypt wendtii the leaves appeared to die off. I thought I lost the plant but after about 1.5months it started to come back up again. Just saying in case you think you lost that plant like I was thinking then before I learned that crypts don't like being moved too much.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/933-moving-crypt-wendtii.html

Also if you want to DIY the aquarium seal (seeing as you know where the water leak is) a small tube of aquarium silicone is ~$4 @ PetsMart IIRC and suffice for resealing a whole 10gal if need be.

I echo the comments on possible tank flexing while in transport tho I've moved my 5.5gal a few times while 1/3 full without detrimental effects yet but likely it's because it's on a smaller scale then the 10gal. Do you have a long spirit level to check the stand then check the aquarium with?


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