Discus Tank Leak!!!!

Hi Guys

Well i have somewhat sad news, my Discus tank has sprung a leak! Its not a big leak, its like some sort of trickle. My once beautiful over planted Discus home, is now a mess :/ though I did find moss growing just above the water line.

The tank is about 4 years old, has sat in the same spot , never really moved. So i havnt a clue as to how the leak could have sprung. Could it be temp changes? it has gotten abit chilly here and my tanks always been at a constant 29 degrees.

Iv removed the Fish , thay are now housed in my supposedly decommissioned tank. Iv filled that tank with water from the Discus tank, Attached the Canister filter to it and the heater from the Juwel Filter, tried my best to carry as much over as possible. Including some of the plants.
I did however leave out the gravel. The remaining water has been saved as well and are stored in buckets.

My problem now, How do i find this leak? it seems to be coming from the bottom somewhere. but im not sure, and when found what should I do?

And when reassembling everything, do i wash the gravel? Or should i just lay it all back as is? This gravel has never been out of the tank in 4 years, its filled with dirt, plant roots. and various other things. Its Black, fine volcanic kinda gravel, but now looks spottish with bits of normal sand in their from the plant fertilizer. Id like it black again.

Also , how does one advice i wash the tank? i figured, it is out, its empty. i might as well give it a good scrub.

And is there any way i could remove the scratches from the front glass? Anyone in Durban know of a place that could possible polish these scratches out?


My discus seem to be doing fine, I see the Female has started laying eggs on the filter tube again,She does this quite often in their tank.
Is there any way i could check if thay are fine? anything i should look for? I have them in the temp tank with their house mates,The cory cats and cardinal/neon tetras, thay never seem to be botherd by them. Some of the cats and the cardinals have been in with them since they were small.

Also, is there anything i should look out for? Iv never really been in this situation before with my discus, The tank was really well settled and apart from an occasional clean with the siphon , and a water change, iv never had a problem before.

Any advice will be really appreciated, I thank you all well in advance

regards

 

Hi there.

Have a look and see if the bottom has not cracked, for that you will have to take out all your gravel, if not have a look around the edges of the tank to see if any of the joint has not come loose and does the tank have a single or double bottom???? silicone does get old depending on what kind of silicone the tank is build from and loses its gluing ability and your tank leaks, depending on how bad the leak you can just remove the old silicone and reseal the joint.

There is no way you can remove scratches from glass, you must ma either live with it or replace the panel. SORRY.........

But let me know how your hunting goes.......

Regards and all the best......

 

Hi pofkuiken

thanks so much for the reply,
I have seen the bottom, Iv removed all the gravel , the tank now sits empty and bare apart from the decor plates and internal filter thats stuck to the glass, ill be removing and cleaning that up tomorrow.
Im going to remove the plastic bracket that it sits on tomorrow and have a look as well, the tank is a single bottom. There are no cracks.
Think i should glue a 2nd glass bottom to it?
Its a Factory made, Juwel Rekord 160 , im not sure what glue was used, its black silicone .
Iv seen a few vids of people removing scratches from glass panes on youtube, so was hoping there was someone in Dbn who could do that without damaging the glass. I dont really want to strip the tank of its silicone, It seems to be very well made. Maybe silicone over the point of the leak? Or inject some silicone into the leaky areas?

Ill try a water test tomorrow as well.

 

Are you sure it is a leak, and not just a bit of condensation dripping from the lid? My tank sometimes has a bit of water around it coming from droplets dripping off the side of the lid. Just my 500000 zim $

Cheers
Adam

 

Take the tank outside and spend a few hours with it. Counselling may the only option. Jokes aside... this is an aquarists worst job... finding a leak. It could be anywhere on the tank. Take your time.

I would. You have disturbed so much of the bacteria in the gravel already, and now that it's just sitting it's probably all gonna fowl up. Fill a bucket 1/3rd of gravel, and then put the hose pipe on, with the nozzle buried in the gravel. Let th water (and junk) overflow.

5 litres was with about 50ml spirit vinegar. (The normal vinegar you put on your slap chips) Avoid all soaps

If it's glass, it could be polished out at a glass factory, depending on how deep the scratches are, but is very costly. It'll probably be cheaper for you to replace the panel. If it's acrylic, then I haven't seen any scratch removal methods.

I'm assuming they are in a small tank? Only suggestion is to slow down feeding slightly and increase wc maintenance.

 

Removing deep scratches are almost impossible and if they do polish it out it gives some distorted look or effect in that area.

 

Hi guys!
Well heres an update.
Iv taken the tank apart, Cleaned it, Filled it with water to the top and let it sit for a while.

no leaks! checked all the seals check the floor, looked all over for wetness, nothing. As a precautionary measure, i thought id add a layer of silicone on top of the original silicone seals at the bottom, refill the tank and let it sit for a while.
i cant seem to find a leak in the tank, And as the Captain mentioned, it could be condensation? but how could so much drip at one time and damage the stand a little?

Also with regards to the scratches, Thay are extra extra fine thin scratches, Something like swirl marks, Not deep at all. It looks terrible under sunlight :/ and im sure now that the tanks clean will look just as bad under tank light .

The discus are doing ok thus far, thay are eating well, Laying eggs, Sitting under plants. Fins look fine, colour seems fine, Canister filter seems to be doing a good job, the waters crystal clear.

 

Hi Guys

Heres an Update for today.

Cleaned the tank, Double sealed the bottom (just in case) Let it dry, Washed out the Original Gravel and layered it back in the tank, Washed out the plants, cleaned them, Preped them for replanting into the tank.
Fish are doing fine,Swimming around, eating .

Filter media from the tank is in its own bucket with Original tank water.
Original tank water is in the tank that the fish are in , as well as in a large bucket.
Canister filter, Now attached to the tank the fish are in and will be used in the tank again once set up.

Hopefully tomorrow, ill replant the plants into the Original tank . Add back original filter media into the jewel filter and start that up,
Should i use the original water? or should i use new clean water?
Add fertilizer for the plants to the gravel now?

Will my tank need to be cycled again? I hope not! If yes how should i proceed? If not, will i need to increase water changes for a few months?

Please tell me if im doing anything wrong , or are there things that i should be doing?

My tank was pritty well settled before this happened, I for some reason feel as though im in some uncharted territory :/

 

Snap !

Hey bud, I can truly sympathise having just gone through the same drama and chaos this week when my two month old 720lt fully planted Boyu also sprang a leak at the bottom, fortunately I was home!
To my surprise the tank, 12mm glass, is not constructed with one bottom piece and all the sides resting on it, but rather the bottom glass is cut to fit inside the four sides, which seems crazy or is it just Chinese !
The tank importers were here yesterday to reseal it, that have added extra 10mm glass struts/ bracings inside along all the bottom edges so double sealing it with silicon, but I will only be testing it out over the week end.
As for the scratches, so dam easy to do even with the cleanest and most expensive of cleaners. One important tip I discovered through my own mishap, never leave your magnetic cleaner in the tank too long between cleans, as depending on the power of your flow rate/tank circulation it can pick up sandy particles and then unwittingly you produce sand paper, lol ! I am tolled that providing they are not deep scratches, they can be polished with Cerium oxide, which is often used by jewelers to polish gems and stones. I have not tried this myself ,but please let me know if you do?
As for maintaining the gravel bacteria, Altum has given me some suggestions so you could contact him, but try and keep it moist, maintain some form of aeration and don’t alter the temperature too drastically. I would suggest give it quite a good clean, but not with chlorinated tap water of course...

 

Hi Trevor,

Its a sad sad feeling indeed!! I dont want to imagine what a headache it must have been having to empty a tank of that size! My Jewel Rio 300 goldfish tank is a headache in itself. Thankfully though I made myself a pump that pumps water out and pumps it back in used 2 old pumps so its helped alot. I can do a complete a water change in less then 40 mins

Well back to the Discus tank, i just set up the tank, Planted the plants, Set the Co2 system, Started up the Jewel internal filter, It was spotless, I filled it with original water only to realize. Its a Complete mess!
So i had to drain most of the water and Clean up the tank once more. Iv since added Clean water, And now i watch it run without fish , just plants , wood and 2 sad rocks.
Tested the water Ph and its around the same Ph as what the fish are used to, maybe a little bit higher, im hoping things stabilize, Plants are all clean, Iv removed dead leaves,Trimmed them and cleaned them up. Every things green.
Tank has basically been reshaped as well.
Ill let it run overnight and see from there. Thus far, no leaks at all, Im starting to believe that its either condensation that caused this dripping of water somewhere or its the cory cats and there splashing. If thats the case , i have to figour out a way to seal the top canopy, You know , the point where the Plastic meets the glass. If that is sealed, the drop problem . "leak" should stop. Any hints clues?

I did try the Cerium Oxide, but no luck, Im probably not doing it properly. As these scratches are really fine and should be removed. Gravel bacteria im hoping survived, But dont think thay did. Bacteria in the filter, Most probably did survive, I had them in a Bucket of Original tank water.Alot of which i still have.

Will the wood help to keep my Ph stable? or lower it? I have about 4 good sized pieces in there, Thay have been in the tank for around 3 years now.