I'm going to have to start a new entry soon with all the latest. Today, I got all the live rock out of the plastic pond liner and into a barrel of tank water. I added the Cskim-1200 skimmer to work on the rock, but so far it isn't doing much. Hmmm. The pond thing was removed since the carpet under it was soaked. I also got the lighting rack suspended over the vats, and when I get up, I'll figure out where to put the ballasts so the cords can reach the pendants. Humidity in my house is 67%, but I just adjusted the A/C to get that down. We are expecting thunderstorms Tuesday and Wednesday, which will also be a factor. Plus my wet carpet - I hate to bother with it since I'm just going to mess it up further as I remove all the sand and possibly the aquarium. Because of the front seam, I have a feeling I have to take the tank out in pieces as I don't know if it could be moved out in its weakened state.
I just heard about this. Sorry to hear man. Even though it is a forced possible upgrade it's still going to be nice and anything you would have done differently now is the time. If you need anything let us know. We're here for ya
Well hopefully the hardest part is over. I always enjoy setting them up over tearing them down. Just think; on the next one you can make subtle adjustments that you maybe had in the back of your mind...
Very sad time for sure! I could hardly sleep the night it happened, just wanted fly north two hours with my blind mans cane and help. ;-p. Marc, your new tank will be awesome though! As a regular for the past few months I feel like the sites main inspiration passed away. Marc, did you get frags off the corals that was growing on the glass?
Glad you got it all emptied. +1 on how sad it is to empty your tank
This is a sad day indeed. I've seen this sort of repair at a LFS here in SoCal. It was a 300 gallon Lee-Mar tank that started leaking after some kids were hanging from the rim of the tank to get a better look. Lee-Mar came out the next day and added more euro bracing to the whole top of the tank. Fixed the leak. Just a thought.
not good!!! i see you have already drilled a hole through the wall, why not keep going and add a longger tank. Even if it is only an extra inch or 2.
glad to hear you are steaming thru this ordeal, and being in a good mood about it all. Im sure there will be lots to see in the next few days, and im sure we will be able to hear all about it in next months podast. Keep your chin up
WOW, glad you got stuff transferred over. I know that at least takes a lot of stress off, don't have to worry about the tank blowing out and being a total loss. At least you guys all got to have a little fun doing things though, it can be sad tearing something apart that you have worked so hard to make nice. Your tank was and has been "gorgeous" as my wife says. Would have loved to seen it in person before this happened. Anyway sounds like Wes has an idea of what will be happening next. . . 460 in the works?????? Hmmmmm sounds like a little challenge and change of design but really interesting at the same time. Carpet will dry eventually and I am sure you have something in your arsenal to get it clean again, the scale can be replaced though did you even get a little reading on weight? And your Uverse receiver got messed up. . . aw Man no cartoons tomorrow, LOL. Sleep well, I can bet a lot of others will as well knowing things are looking better.
So exhausted. The tank is essentially empty of all livestock. I'll pick through the substrate tomorrow to see if any more hermits or snails appear. All the livestock has been transferred to holding vessels plumbed into the sump, with the filtration (skimmer, refugium, carbon, calcium reactor, vodka dosing, ATO, heaters....). It was sad, somewhat amazing, and there were times we were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. My carpet is soaked, the scale is broken (we tried to weigh the Toadstool leather), and my AT&T Uverse's tv receiver died thanks to Drew. LOL Tomorrow I'll get the Vortechs on the SPS vat and get the lights up over those two bins. A lot of pictures were taken, and Wes used his iPhone 4 to record two hours of video. Who knows if any of that is usable. Need to sleep, then deal with the aftermath tomorrow.
four sixty! 460! four sixty! 460!
Not a silly question at all. I remember discussing it with an engineer (with some subspecialty in glass structure...) a few weeks back. He said that silicone is not good for continuous strain. It is very good at sealing but long term with non stop pressure will eventually degrade it. He was suggesting some external metal bracing for my new tank and silicon only to seal the seams that are held by metal bracing.... to add to that most of our tanks were built before those new wavemakers hit the markets and if you read the note on Vortech packaging (same for Tunze or others I would assume) it mentions not using it for tanks not made to tolerate vibrations caused by the wave.... for sure its just a disclaimer to avoid being blamed/Sued however I do believe that the excessive vibrations of a wave making system will eventually cause many tanks to loose a seam... Maybe it would be worth it to decrease flow a bit to decrease the vibrations which willl act on the silicon like a hammer. Lowering the water level if you can do it without exposing corals would be a great. Not sure I'll sleep peacefully seeing it drip and have airbubbles in the seams so I really hope it holds. My old 80 G did show air and water bubbles in the seams and when pressing on the glass I could see them move inside the silicon and it held for 4-5 weeks. is the glass only 1/2 inch on this tank? And yes we all hate to see this tank being broken down.
I wonder what would cause the failure, the silicone should last 20 years, or so I thought. Do you suspect that the heat generated by the MP40 motors had any role in the breakdown of the silicone in that corner? Never mind, that is a silly question, I scrolled down to your pictures and saw that they are not very close to that corner.
Ish... Happened to stumble upon this on your FB posts... Best of luck! Wish I was closer and I would give you a hand Marc!
Been there, done that recently (as you well know). It was a bit of an ordeal, and seemed to take forever. It sucks, but it'll end up better than you think. So sorry to hear this!
GAH!! I don't want to tear down my beautiful reef!!!! I had to get that out of my system. The water in both barrels has been checked for salinity and temperature. The plan is to drain some water from my display into two 100g troughs that will be plumbed from the kitchen back to the sump. As that water is taken, the newly mixed saltwater will replace it. It'll water down the total volume, but keep the corals in the water they are used to. The troughs will have flow courtesy EcoTech Vortech pumps and supplemented as necessary. The lights will be taken down from above the leaking tank and suspended over the troughs. Power cords will run from the fish room to supply power the lights. The rest of the equipment will be in-sump and thus won't need to be relocated nor will I have to worry about them needing power. I'll probably take a few final shots, and then document the breakdown / transfer process later.
Let me know if I can help!
glad to hear it is still holding, got my fingers crosses that it will hold until you have time to at least get everything out of the tank. Good to know that there is a chance of having it rebuilt on site.
Just woke up, sorry to hear the bad news on the tank seals. . . it doesn't surprise me that as you remove the old silicone the gap opens up. Was figuring the weight of 280 gallons of water and that would amount to about 2300 lbs. With that much pressure pushing on every pane of glass bad things can happen fast. I hope that you can get things worked out, I will do my best to make it down your way when things get started and give you a hand for a day or two. btw No official word yet but will probably be moving to OKC from Lawton some time after the 16th of this month. Though will be a much easier move than what you will be going through. I built my stand on wheels, so drain the sump down and the display half way, remove the hood and off we go. But the rest of the apartment won't go so easy, LOL. But once in OKC I am only a 4 hour train trip away and the family wants to head down that way anyway for a weekend or so. Rebuilding the whole thing would be a good option but either way it's probably going to be 3 weeks or so before you do get back to the rebuilding stage. Figure a day or two to tear down, a day getting an area cleared out to move the tank as well as some place to put it to tear down. A day or two to tear the tank apart and clean the old silicone off and prep everything. A day to rebuild the tank, and at least 2 weeks to let it cure. But if you do go the rebuild route think of maybe black silicone or any other changes you would want to make. And as Maroun says you may still end up having more problems than good but with 1/2inch thick panels I doubt you will have much to worry about that except if you drop one and then I think I would hang up the reseal ideal. . . Good luck Marc, and when it comes time to start doing stuff let everyone know. I am sure that we could get enough help ready to come down there and move the whole tank full, LOL.
Verry Sorry to hear Marc. Still its good luck that seam didn't fail in one go. I would setup whatever tanks you can get and drain each one of them independantly in your sump. Maybe just a rack of eggcrate to position your corals then all LR go to buckets with a small powerhead till you can fit them in tanks. I would lower the water level for sure to decrease pressure and definitly do not sleep tonight untill the tank is drained... As for resealing the tank you have to be very carefull in braking up the seams and cleaning the silicone. My old 80 G had one of the glass broken and I was trying to open the seams and ended up braking 1 more glass pannel. it also causes tiny cracks on teh edge of the glass that make it more prone to braking inthe future.... Good luck.
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