is this a leak or what???????

zachhay11

i have a twenty gallon salt water aquarium and i have been having a big problem. i loose water rapidly i don't think its a leak because i never saw one and when i check the water with the hydrometer it says the salt content is way high so i add fresh water (condition of course) and its back to normal. for a little while. then it goes down again and i have to do it over again. it thought it might done something with the floor being unlevel i don't know. but also i get heavey salt build up on the top so that might have something to do with it.
also i have a question about setting up a new 50 gallon tank in the substrate section. help is apreciated.
-Thank You.

dallops_of_polyps

how rapid is it? if its like half an inch a day it's probably evaporation.

zachhay11

about that maybe a little less. it never evaporated that fast before i dont think did something change?

onefish2fish

hydrometers are very in-accurate, i recommend a refractometer ( you can find them cheap on eBay )
i would not use the glass top on the tank
i would not use tap water but rather R/O water (reverse osmosis)
the extra evaporation is prob. due to the winter months

SKAustin

Correct. The lower humidity environment, coupled with the drying effects of forced air heat will cause about a 50% increase in the evaporation rate of the system. The good news there is, If you are using lighting that heats your water, the evaporation also causes cooling of the water.

Kellsindell

Have you resolved this?

Check your wires. I have had a wire siphon water out of the tank before. I thought it was evap, but my SG wasn't dropping. I hope you have driplines installed on all your wireing and anyone else who reads this should do the same, better to not trip the GFI or start a fire.

onefish2fish

you know i had a similiar problem awhile back. i was running carbon in a sock and part of the sock was hanging over the side of my sump, thought nothing of it. hours if not a day or two later i came in to a wet floor, but it wasnt soo bad on my water loss. i thought i had a small leak until i saw the sock, which was actually siphoning water out ever so slowly

aunt kymmie

I don't have a S/W tank but I had a similar thing happen with my planted tank. I opened up the cabinet underneath to get some ferts and it was completely soaked all along the bottom. I checked everything and couldn't figure where the water was coming from. The boyfriend walked by and was certain it was the tank leaking and said, "That's it, were breaking it down". It turned out that the cause of this water was from a string attached to a floating pond thermometer that I had put in the tank a week prior. A flippin little string...

Kellsindell

it happens to the best of us.

it's just a gradual siphon. That's why i think it may be that rather then a leak... unless you found a hole/crack somewhere of course. Nothing like visual confirmation.

In my tank issue, i noticed there was water on the floor and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. i put a towel around the tank to catch the water, but it never got wet. I even called the neighbors and told them they had a leak somewhere... oops ...