HELP! my tank sprung a leak

[roxxxy]

Hey everyone, I came home from work today to a nice surprise, soaking wet carpet and a couple inches of water gone out of my 50 gal tank. After poking around a bit, I found the problem -- a leaking hose at the back, coming out of my Fluval 304, the side that the filtered water runs through and back into the tank. My question is, how long can my fish live without the filter running? I can't get a new hose till tomorrow.

Thanks

 

[abnscout82]

as long as it is not too stocked they will probably be ok. If the part of the hose is not in the water then just tape it up until you get it permenantly repaired.

 

[Sully]

If yoo can bag the bio media--an old nylon will work. then float the bio media in the tank. you can't do much to save the parts of the bacterial colony that set up house on the casing and other parts of the filter. But, you may be able to protect yourself (more importantly your fish) against the loss of nitrifying bacteria.

 

[tomm10]

You should be okay. I would do a water change now though and that includes changing the water in the fluval. That should help both to remove dirty water and to inject fresh/oxygenated water into the tank.

Tom

 

[patoloco]

My recommendation:

Dissasemble the hose and take it a hardware store. Ask the sales clerk for a hose repair fitting of an adequate diameter and you'll have things back running in a matter of minutes.

This should be easy to do. Maybe you'll need a scredriver and a knife. Surely this fix is less expensive than ordering a replacement hose.

 

[Yoemen]

hmm

well, unless it is a huge leak, I would suspect that the majority of the water running through the hose is making it back into the tank anyway. No real experience with anything like this, but a leak( unless very large) is only going to release a small amount of the water running through the hose, and the majority of the water will continue on through the filter. I say duck tape it like it was a water hose until you can fix it permanantly.

 

[patoloco]

Avoid taping the hose!!!!!!!!!!! Any kind of tape will eventually fail due to water.

Leaks in hoses appear in weakened spots (thinner walls, abusive handling, etc) and will tend to get larger. Also, there is a little-small-tiny chance some of the glue can make it to the water stream and get into the tank.

Repair it with a coupling or change it.

 

[roxxxy]

Thanks for all your help, it wasn't a very big leak in the hose, but it had been leaking all day (a work day for me means I'm gone about 15 hours). Most of the water was running back into the tank, but by the time I got home quite a bit was on the floor (carpet, and it leaked into my basement, I sucked up what I could with a shop vac, and put a fan on it, and a day later the carpet is still damp! ).

I can't avoid taping the hose, by the time I get home all the stores are closed here, but it will be a very temporary fix, no more than a day or two. So I wrapped the hose with pipe dope (the white really thin stuff, plumbers use it all the time I don't remember the real name for it) and then wrapped it really good with electrical tape, I'm going to see if that will hold until I can get a new hose, I think my LFS stocks it.

I cleaned my filter last nite since I had it shut down anyways, but I'm afraid to put more water in the tank itself until I get that new hose. Just in case my repair doesn't hold, I don't want to put tap water in there without the filter running. I ONLY lost about 25% of the water, so the level should be fine for the fish in there in the meantime.

One thing after another... my silver dollars got popeye a couple of months ago, treated and cleared up now, then I got an algae bloom, green, that I'm still fighting, and now this!!!!! Arggggggghhhhhhh

 

[Blueiz]

white tape stuff=teflon tape

 

[abnscout82]

I have taped radiator hoses with electrical tape and it worked fine until i could get it repaired. Your repair will undoubtedly be fine until you get it fixed. But there was a good point made, try and replace the whole hose and check the others. Unless something forced it to crack, it could be weak in other places as well. Go ahead and run it, and even fill it up, it should be fine. I would doubt that there is much pressure in that hose.