Bowfront seam failure?
 

Does anyone have any experience in diagnosing a possible failed seam on a bowfront?

I have water coming out of my bottom trim. I can't see where it is coming from. I thought it might be splashing but I've readjusted the flow patterns and I'm pretty sure it's not splashing anymore. There's no salt creep along the sides, and I've checked the wires coming down the back for any kind of wicking and I don't see any.

The side seams appear fine, but obviously I cannot see the bottom seams for they are under sand.

Unfortunately it appears to be accelerating. I lived in denial for a few days but I fear that the odds of this being something benign are becoming low.

If you empty the tank Tony I will reseal the bottom edge for you ( and bring your buckets back :razz: )

I had two failures on a Oceanic 72G Bow. That is two separate tanks failed at the same spot. It was about 3 inches left of the overflow on the back seem. Water filled the trim then spilled out the front.

Jason

Thanks for the info Jason.

The spot you describe is where I seem to have the most water accumulating, a few inches offset from the overflow. It is then running forward spilling out at the front as well as in this spot.

I have run a paper towel "bandana" around the tank to confirm 100% that it is not some kind of spillage from the top. Bone dry.

Yet there is accumulation of water around the bottom trim at the order of a few ml per every few hours.

How long did yours go on like this before you replaced the tanks? I guess now that I have confirmed my diagnosis I'm a bit freaked out as to how far away a catastrophic failure might be. Even flat out I won't have a new tank to transfer into for at least a day or two, and this has been going on for several days now already.

Great .... I didn't need to sleep tonight!!!!!!!!

Seem to recall reading athread on RC that the 72 Gal was most prone to seam failures.

Delphinus,
Unfortunately for me, my failure was extreme in both cases. I actually had sand shooting out of the seem after about 2 minutes of slow leak. I'm afraid to tell you mine went from a drip to flow in minutes

J

:cry:

With many thanks to Doug and Steve for helping me move things out of the 72g this morning, I regret to report that this has turned out to be one of the worst days of my life inside of this hobby nonetheless.

My only guess now is that the ritteri is the root cause of things. It is the only variable I can't account for. The water was good, the temperature was goo.

I have essentially lost my entire tank. At this point the mandarin and the percula look like they may pull though. Please wish them luck. I have moved the mandarin into a different tank outside of the ritteri tank. I cannot catch my percula, but maybe he's immune to whatever it is that damned anemone is putting out because he actually looks fine.

The worst part is that the air in my house has become acrid. There are three people in the house and everyone is reporting that their sinuses are burning, and sneezing. Something is in the air.

I don't know what to do. I have had a few months of bad luck in this hobby but this just doesn't compare to a leaky reactor. I will probably have to take some time to reassess my feelings and decide where do I go from here. I have to admit that I am considering packing it in.

The first order of business will be that I have to find the ritteri a new home. If you have any interest in a ritteri anemone please let me know now. I will probably be putting a post in the buy/sell forum at some point, including other things that I will be paring down to scale things back.

I am really sorry to hear about your misfortunes. :sad: And to hear that your pride and joy is doing that to you hurts even more. I am wondering if the anemone was beginning to feel crowded :question: , and moved into another phase of its lifecycle. I am of course guessing.

Tony,

You are describing my worst nightmare - leaking tank and losing all livestock. Once picked up some kind of funky looking orange worm-like thing. Put it in my 180g, when we had it. A few months later, woke up one morning and half my fish were dead and the other half breathing heavily :frown: Our prized marine betta that we had from the beginning of reefkeeping was dead. That hurt the most :cry:

Threw in as much carbon as our setup could take, removed the not-yet-dead fish from the tank to buckets, and changed a huge amount of water. Couldn't figure out what caused this tremendous death, until I remembered the funky worm, which had disintegrated. Most of the not dead fish did not survive, they were so poisoned :cry: :frown: Corals were okay for the most part.

Was so bummed out for a few days that I wasn't sure what to do. But I realized I still had rock and corals, so I slowly built up the livestock over the next few months. Thank God I didn't have a leaking tank to go along with the loss of the livestock.

You at least have some fish, as well as your rock. You're a trooper, man, so I don't see you leaving the hobby, especially since you've won several battles lately. I predict, oh swammy, that you will get over your grief in time to rebuild :cool:

Best wishes to you :smile:

Hang in there Tony.

Good luck.