Here's a thought, why not go to your closest aquarium (not store, I mean like your city's aquarium) and ask them what they do and for pointers? Or just try contacting them. It can't hurt.
4300 Gallon Plywood Build (3600+ Take 2)
- Thread starter Nolapete
- Start date
My suggestion is more fun. But requires the leak to be substantial enough that it would lose a cup of water in the space of 5-10 seconds. So you would need to measure how slowly the tank level drops to work out how much you are losing.
Fill the tank half way or more (higher level will put more pressure on the leak and make it easier to find because the water will push through it faster).
Wait a few hours for all water movement to cease.
Get some food coloring or some other dye in a bottle.
Put on some old ratty shorts and climb into the tank carefully without moving too much water around.
Move slowly across to the window and start squeezing out some of the food coloring along the window surounds. See if you can deteck the water 'moving' out through a gap anywhere.
Otherwise, contact a pool-leak detection company and ask their advice. After all, that is how a lot of pool companies detect where the leak is in the 'tub' of a pool here in sunny Australia.
Such a pity you can't see it gushing out anywhere. And such a pity you can't put atmospheric pressure into your room to see where the bubbles enter the water. haha.
Best of luck Pete. And congrats on your engagement. It isn't easy for us single men to find a partner who is so accepting of our slightly obsessive aquarium hobby.
Fill the tank half way or more (higher level will put more pressure on the leak and make it easier to find because the water will push through it faster).
Wait a few hours for all water movement to cease.
Get some food coloring or some other dye in a bottle.
Put on some old ratty shorts and climb into the tank carefully without moving too much water around.
Move slowly across to the window and start squeezing out some of the food coloring along the window surounds. See if you can deteck the water 'moving' out through a gap anywhere.
Otherwise, contact a pool-leak detection company and ask their advice. After all, that is how a lot of pool companies detect where the leak is in the 'tub' of a pool here in sunny Australia.
Such a pity you can't see it gushing out anywhere. And such a pity you can't put atmospheric pressure into your room to see where the bubbles enter the water. haha.
Best of luck Pete. And congrats on your engagement. It isn't easy for us single men to find a partner who is so accepting of our slightly obsessive aquarium hobby.
The seal on the window is NOT curing. It has been cured for MONTHS!!! You don't know what you're talking about.
I spoke with an engineer. Standard house slabs are designed to handle 2500 lbs. per square foot. My load is only 450 lbs. per square foot which is well UNDER the max. In addition, the slab was raised an additional 4.5" and is near double what a standard slab would be. I am sure that you are wrong in your assumption that the house wasn't designed to handle the static load of 4300 gallons of water plus all the materials. It is not based on fact.
The house was built in 1966. When I bought the house in 2002, the inspector measured the settling on the house with a liquid level (long piece of hose with water in it and a measuring stick on either end). The difference was 3/4" which he said was normal construction variance and that the house had pretty much not moved since it was built.
There is no fluctuation or movement of any kind. If there was any shift, it would be easily seen on the walkway and driveway that were poured well after the slab. There has been no movement whatsoever.
Early in the thread, I talked about my friend who has built 135,000 gallon and 107,000 gallon shark tanks who also has two plywood and glass tanks in his home 2600 gallons and 2000+ gallons. My build is based on his, JohnPTC's, TheFishGuy's, VLDesign's, and several other large tank builders. Aquariums/Zoos do not build plywood tanks, so they wouldn't have a clue about what I'm doing.
The leak exits from under the tank and is at such a slow rate that your idea, which has been suggested before, won't work. Neither will thermal imaging or any other means to magically see where the leak is coming from.My suggestion is more fun. But requires the leak to be substantial enough that it would lose a cup of water in the space of 5-10 seconds. So you would need to measure how slowly the tank level drops to work out how much you are losing.
Fill the tank half way or more (higher level will put more pressure on the leak and make it easier to find because the water will push through it faster).
Wait a few hours for all water movement to cease.
Get some food coloring or some other dye in a bottle.
Put on some old ratty shorts and climb into the tank carefully without moving too much water around.
Move slowly across to the window and start squeezing out some of the food coloring along the window surounds. See if you can deteck the water 'moving' out through a gap anywhere.
Otherwise, contact a pool-leak detection company and ask their advice. After all, that is how a lot of pool companies detect where the leak is in the 'tub' of a pool here in sunny Australia.
Such a pity you can't see it gushing out anywhere. And such a pity you can't put atmospheric pressure into your room to see where the bubbles enter the water. haha.
Best of luck Pete. And congrats on your engagement. It isn't easy for us single men to find a partner who is so accepting of our slightly obsessive aquarium hobby.
I've applied a significant additional amount of coating, so I don't think that's where the problem is. Partitioning off the window with visquene and 1x2s then refilling will give me a clear picture if it's the window. One thing that I didn't do that I had planned to was to put a frame on the inside of the tank over the edge of the window. I may do that if the test is successful.
My only concern was that you don't have a catastrophic tank failure and someone gets hurt.
That aside I diden't know you were recently engaged, congratulations, I truly hope the relationship last.:thm:
It's really hard to keep track of this incredibly long thread... So what if I made an obvious mistake somewhere along it's lengthy life?
Maybe people should just stop replying with any suggestions or anything at all if you're going to continue to bite their heads off. I'm taking this off watch. There's too much to do in life than continue to concern myself with you.
Maybe people should just stop replying with any suggestions or anything at all if you're going to continue to bite their heads off. I'm taking this off watch. There's too much to do in life than continue to concern myself with you.
There's not going to be a catastrophic tank failure. It's a minor leak, but a leak nonetheless. The tank is solid and doesn't creak at all, exhibit any settling, twisting, or other movement when filling. With the exception of the cutouts and the window, it's a solid 6+" thick walled wooden box.
