# Leaking exo terra, HELP!



## d-prime (Sep 29, 2008)

I have had this tank set up for 2 months now and all of a sudden i see water underneath the tank on the wood stand. I looked with a strong flashlight and there are drops of water under the glass at the seam where the plastic joins the glass. I am very pissed off as these tanks are meant to be watertight and now i have no clue what to do. I spent so much time and money on this.

anyone ?


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## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

unless someone knows a fume-free (or toxin free) way to seal it from the outside, sounds like tear it down and re-silicone is the only way to go -


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

First thing, take a breath. Second, grab a towel, hand pump or tubing to suction out the remaining water, and some aquarium silicone. Once you can get it relatively dry (doesnt have to be perfect) smear the silicone on in layers over the area in question - maybe 3 light coats giving some time for each to dry. I've done this with a few exos and it works fine. G'luck.

RE: above, I don't think you have to worry about using silicone on the outside of the tank so long as you are careful (and don't overdo it). But this has been my experience. I'm sure others will chime in.


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## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

You're not going to want to hear this but you would have to rip the whole thing apart and re seal it. I think the zoo meds have a better seal as I've heard of the exo's leaking before. This has me scared as I have an 18" cube exo that I have an awesome background in that needs about 3" of water to make the water feature work. If it ever starts to leak I'll have a mess!


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## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

stemcellular said:


> First thing, take a breath. Second, grab a towel, hand pump or tubing to suction out the remaining water, and some aquarium silicon. Once you can get it relatively dry (doesnt have to be perfect) smear the silicon on in layers over the area in question - maybe 3 light coats giving some time for each to dry. I've done this with a few exos and it works fine. G'luck.


So smearing it on the outside works for you? I've done this with an aquarium before and it leaked so I never tried it again.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

I think it comes down to how bad the leak is. When it has happened to me in the past (twice, both with exos, and both times at the bottom right side joint where the glass meets the bottom plastic) it has only been a very slow leak, a few drips, and a little more water when pressure was applied to the plastic. In both cases, I drained the water pool, dried the affected area, and then applied a healthy dose of silicone in the seam. I then repeated it to seal the initial silicone seal. Never had a problem with either one again. But again, I stress, these were by no means cracks or heavy duty leaks, which I think would warrant a total tank overhaul.


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## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

Yeah, the tank I tried to seal that way a long time ago was leaking pretty badly so that probably had everything to do with why it wouldn't seal that way.


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## d-prime (Sep 29, 2008)

I am really mad, this is helpful but obviously i dont want to redo my tank i JUST finished. I cant suck out water as the drainage is simply aquatic soil so there isnt room for a syphon... I am going to call up hagen and give them shit as my floor was soaked today all day and i have wooden parquetry popping up and wooden stand bubbling. I cant silicone it unless the leak stops or id be siliconing water.


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## jubjub47 (Sep 9, 2008)

d-prime said:


> I am really mad, this is helpful but obviously i dont want to redo my tank i JUST finished. I cant suck out water as the drainage is simply aquatic soil so there isnt room for a syphon... I am going to call up hagen and give them shit as my floor was soaked today all day and i have wooden parquetry popping up and wooden stand bubbling. I cant silicone it unless the leak stops or id be siliconing water.


I think the best your gonna get from hagen is a new tank. It really sucks, but your probably going to have to build the new tank and swap everything over to the new one. Either that or your going to have to put your frogs in a quarantine tank and try to take things apart to do a repair without damaging your viv too much. Either way are going to suck, but you'll end up with another tank and they usually don't ask for the other tank back.


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## GSXR_MURRHEE (Sep 16, 2006)

Try using the silicone on the outside. If it won't work at first, squeeze some out and let it sit and get a little tacky and try again. If you have to, push it into the opening a little and put some tape on the outside. I accidently cracked up the front glass on one of my 29 gal tanks with a maglight, using silicone on the outside fixed it right up.


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## jubjub47 (Sep 9, 2008)

GSXR_MURRHEE said:


> Try using the silicone on the outside. If it won't work at first, squeeze some out and let it sit and get a little tacky and try again. If you have to, push it into the opening a little and put some tape on the outside. I accidently cracked up the front glass on one of my 29 gal tanks with a maglight, using silicone on the outside fixed it right up.


That's probably not going to work. This leak sounds like a seal leak which means that the only way to seal it up from the outside is to take off the trim. Applying silicone to the trim area where the water is coming out is just going to cause the water to come out at a different area of the trim.


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## Faceless (Sep 11, 2008)

I don't know how much water you have
in your tank, but have you thought of maybe
tilting it to the opposite side, drying it and
siliconing it up really good like stemcell was
saying ? I've had a little leak before on
another tank and this actually worked...
just make sure its really dry and make sure it
doesn't topple over... make sure the silicon 
you apply is well dried as well.... 

What did you say your substrate is ?
You could drain it with one of Tom's
Aquatic Lifter it uses a airline tube to 
pump water so you only need a little gap 
to stick it under... just make sure theres
nothing under that will clog the pump like
dirt and debrye..

Just putting out some ideas,
i would still complain to Hagen cause
that is not supposed to happen AT ALL

Justin


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## d-prime (Sep 29, 2008)

good news.
pet shop is swapping it for a new one.


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## boogsawaste (Jun 28, 2008)

It sucks that you'll have to rip the old one apart but it's good that you will have a fresh one instead of trying to fix yours. I would test it first with water this time though.


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