# Leaking Exo-Terra



## Mavpa (Jan 5, 2015)

So I've had this tank up and running for a few months. It's planted with some mourning geckos in there, but no frogs of any kind.

Today I noticed a little pool of water under one side and realized it was dripping slowly from the plastic frame. I played about 2 hours of whack-a-mole with the silicone before looking around a little bit, and it appears that this has been known to happen with them for whatever reason. I contacted the manufacturer already, but at this point I'm considered salvage options.

Right now it has a pretty nice little water feature (figured I'd get that working leak proof and the tank would fail) but I'll obviously have to take the loss on that. It wouldn't look terrible dried out, since I always knew that was a possibility.

I've got baby rubber tree ficus that's doing really well, a polka dot plant that grew pretty tall and a lot of wandering Jew that I'm sure will survive anything. I'm just wondering what adjustments I should make if I have to let this water feature dry up. A lot of these plants have roots that are reaching into my drainage layer.

My other option appears to be continuing to try to plug all this up.

Any advice?


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## SwampMan (Jun 26, 2015)

"Today I noticed a little pool of water under one side and realized it was dripping slowly from the plastic frame."

So, it sounds like the silicone has failed. Are you able to see if it's coming from the bottom or up the side joint's.


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## Mavpa (Jan 5, 2015)

My assumption is the bottom somewhere. There's no visible leaking from any glass, but when it started it was in the middle of the back, dripping from the inside of the frame.


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## SwampMan (Jun 26, 2015)

Unfortunately, it sounds like you're at the point where you'll need to re silicone the inside. The good news is it's probably not a cracked pane.


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

Although exo terra are great tanks, and I own many, yes, they can spring leaks. I have found that the siliconing that they do is minimal, and not equal to how an aqaurium would be sealed. I aquired about 25 used exo terras a few months ago, and at least several leaked. So, I've cut out all the old silicone and resealed them all using aqaurium grade silicone. From now on, I would do the same with new ones off the shelf. Remember, silicone will not stick well to already cured silicone, the old must be cut away. Also, if you have a present leak with small amounts of water exiting the tank, the chances you will be able to seal the leak from the outside is minimal. I hate to be the bearer of bad new, but I would break the tank down and reseal the base from inside after cleaning and drying it to make sure its done right


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

I thought I was the only one to complain about this. I have 11 Exos 12x12x18 and 9 of these leaks. I do not undestand where they leaks. (No problem with Exos larger).
I mentioned this in another thread a while ago.
I use Aquarium Munster Orca for repairs. It is a special silicone gluing underwater, but I do not know if it is for sale in America.
I use a bead of silicone also for the external plastic frame.


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## ace151_07 (Mar 30, 2015)

I have a 18x36x36 and it leaked right out of the box. I wasn't going to check it for leaks before I was setting it up. But I was washing off some of coco fiber from the bottom because I wanted to run a qump that I had installed to make sure it was pumping right so I flood it and that's when I found out they leaked. Who knew a new tank would leak right out of the box.

Sent from my C6916 using Tapatalk


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## Mavpa (Jan 5, 2015)

That I've heard of, so I made sure to check this one and let it sit for a week with no drips. I'm just amazed it got so bad so fast.


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

To me they have begun to leak - or at least I realized they leaking - after a few months.
I just emptied an Exo 12-inch (because of nemerteans and water leakage): silicone looks good in the bottom, but there are signes of leakage.
If you want I can try to put some pictures.


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## Mavpa (Jan 5, 2015)

rigel10 said:


> To me they have begun to leak - or at least I realized they leaking - after a few months.
> I just emptied an Exo 12-inch (because of nemerteans and water leakage): silicone looks good in the bottom, but there are signes of leakage.
> If you want I can try to put some pictures.


It looks like with mine, it was leaking for awhile and had filled up inside the plastic frame. I actually was able to rotate it all along the edge of the desk and silicone the whole bottom, and now I had a long bead along the top edge that's gonna crest and spill over.

I'm draining it. $1 a gallon sale here I come!


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

There is an old aquarists trick from the days of metal framed slate bottom tanks..... Empty the enclosure, place in a spot it can leak, mix some clay like bentonite into the water and add to tank. Keep the clay suspended in the tank until the leak stops. Small leaks can be plugged up in this manner avoiding the need to strip and reseal the tank. 
Attempting to silicon it from the outside is generally a failure as the leak can be anywhere along the seam and traveling to where you see it dripping. 

Some comments 


Ed


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

It happened to me, I think, as said Ed. In this pic you can see how the dirt mixture of water and expanded clay have "sealed" the leak.
I do not know if I have to silicone the inside, but outside and along the plastic frame I will run anyway a bead of silicone.


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## Pubfiction (Feb 3, 2013)

Another thing you can do is completely cover the old silicone and overlap onto the glass. Basically exo terras have small thin silicone seals. You can place silicone so it completely covers the existing seals. This isn't much of a problem in dart frog tanks because most of the bottom will not be visible and the seals don't have to go all the way up the tank. The seal size will look somewhat similar to one on an aquarium after this.


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## Mavpa (Jan 5, 2015)

Pubfiction said:


> Another thing you can do is completely cover the old silicone and overlap onto the glass. Basically exo terras have small thin silicone seals. You can place silicone so it completely covers the existing seals. This isn't much of a problem in dart frog tanks because most of the bottom will not be visible and the seals don't have to go all the way up the tank. The seal size will look somewhat similar to one on an aquarium after this.


This is probably what I'll end up doing, but I'm not gonna put any animals back in it just in case the problem come up again. I got one of those entertainment center things at Lowe's with the weird fake fireplace in it on the cheap because there was no fake fireplace. It'll actually fit this terrarium perfectly... so probably just be plants.

I'm actually in the process of doing the re-sealing to a different exo-terra that I'll be moving these geckos too. I just happened to have this one laying around.

I was kind of taken back a bit by the terse response I got from Hagen about them leaking. They pretty much told me to go by some silicone and fix it, and I didn't even really approach them aggressively at all; I just asked if they were aware there were some issues with their silicone failing.


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## Brick_frog (Nov 14, 2020)

I have a 24x18x18 Exo-terra that developed a similar leak. I appreciate all of your posts. Any favorite methods/tips or dendroboard threads for reducing mess of a tear down?


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## Mavpa (Jan 5, 2015)

Brick_frog said:


> I have a 24x18x18 Exo-terra that developed a similar leak. I appreciate all of your posts. Any favorite methods/tips or dendroboard threads for reducing mess of a tear down?


I basically just identified the key pieces I wanted to move and took them out.

To buy time I moved their tank into a big plastic tub I had so the leak was kind of negated.

From there I just built up the new tank and moved them over. Mind you these were very durable mourning geckos and not frogs.

I eventually put the tank on a wire rack that has a big tray under it... but it's plants only now.


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