advice needed, very urgent!

[adamrf1126]

My fish tank has a spillover filter, which is leaking into my basement

I shut off the filter to stop the leak, but how long can my fish survive in there? It is a good thing that my tank is underpopulated, i have 2 clown loaches, 2 striatas, 6 australian rainbows and a giant danio.

It is a 94 gallon tank.

I can't determine yet the cause of the leak, in terms of is it a pipe or the actual box that holds the water to be sent back into the tank?

What should i do?

I was thinking i would go out and buy 2 submersible filters, but i don;t have any filter material that is compatible with those, so i am worried.

I do have another tank in the house, but it is only 12 gallons. That one has 2 zebra danios, so i could potentially move a few fish into it, but it is only about 1 month old and i am not sure if it is finished cycling.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Martin Thoene]

What make filter? An Aquaclear HOB of mine cracked in the area of the weir and water was leaking. I siliconed over the crack.
The seal around the motor housing where it goes into the body of the filter box might have gone. They screw in by a 1/4 turn bayonet fixing.

Alternately, your filter media can back up and they'll overflow. Is the internal water level high in the filter?

Martin.

[adamrf1126]

I took most of the water out of the filter box, because i didnt want to leak more into my basement.

The brand is Amiracle. I am going to take a picture of the filter and post it.

[adamrf1126]

The cabinet is only wet on the left side, on the right it is completely dry.

In the past i have had a very small drip with the UV canister, but not enough to cause big problems. That means that it must be either the box itself or one of the pipe connections on the left side of cabinet.

[MTS]

We had a UV Sterilizer that started leaking for no reason but ours was a Pentair and the company sent us a replacement since it was still under warrenty. Most leaks can be fixed with sealent or a part replaced once you find them. It sounds like your main problem is not being able to tell where its leaking.

It would be good to have a backup filter for your tank anyway so I'd go ahead and purchase something to use while you figure out where your problem is. A HOB filter would be best unless your tank doesn't allow you to hang something on it. I would take out some of the bio-media from your filter and just stuff it in. The Aqua-clear filters hold a fair amount of media for an HOB but any brand of filter should tide you over while you sort out your problem.

If your filter goes for too long without running, you might kill off your bacteria and you may need to cycle it again. Also the dead bacteria can be toxic. Not sure how long you can stop flow before this happens so hopefully others might be able to comment on this.

[Diana]

Nitrifying bacteria need a lot of oxygen, so a high water flow is important to them. If your sump is enclosed, and has little air movement and no water movement the bacteria can begin to die as soon as a few hours, and certainly by 24 hours you will have significant loss.

I would get an Aquaclear 110. This has the largest volume for the media, and plenty of waterflow (almost 500 gph) to help the tank. Add as much media as you can from your sump, but still keep it loose. The blue and white 'Rite Size' media that I see in your picture is good, unless it is getting old and has packed down.

If you have ANY sort of pump to keep the water in the tank moving this is very important for oxygen for the fish, and there is a pretty good population of nitrifying bacteria on all the surfaces of the tank that also need oxygen.
Powerhead, air bubbler, fountain pump... Get that water moving.
If you have a fountain pump (pumps water upwards) then sit it in the middle of the tank, on the bottom, so the water it pumps creates a mound of water in the middle of the tank.

[adamrf1126]

tomorrow i will try to get a submersible filter, because i could not use a HOB the way my tank is set up. I am also in a bad situation because my air pump is broken.

Could i move any or all of these fish into my 12 gallon? it only has 2 small zebra danios in it right now. The striatas are maybe 2 inches long, clowns 2 inches, and danios and rainbows 3 or four inches.

I just don't know what i am going to do, because i can't drive and tomorrow my parents work from 9- at least 4:30 and i work from 5-10 so i dont know what is going to happen.

[shari2]

Yes, you can move fish. It will definitely overload the biofilter of that tank, however, and you will still lose the bioload (or alot of it) in the dead filter.

Can you take some of the biomedia from the broken filter and put it in the smaller tank? It looks like bioballs to me?
Use a pantyhose foot or something permeable and put it near the flow of water or an air stone. It will buy you time and keep your 12 from crashing.

[Diana]

You could probably finish cycling the smaller tank with the bioballs from the sump, even if you just let them drift!

[Tinman]

The black iron fitting on your pump is a no-no. There are no clamps on your UV

[Tinman]

This is an excellent example of a reason for two filters. Can you add a Rena 3 or 4 or similar? Wish you were close we would fix ya in a heartbeat....

[adamrf1126]

the way my tank is set up i cannot add a hob filter only a submersible one. I am setting up an air pump tomorrow morning, and i have someone coming to fix or possibly replace the filter on monday afternoon.

[Tinman]

Do not feed until this is operational and then wait a day.....yer fish will be better for it than if you feed. Good Luck. Drop a power head in or something to aggitate the water surface in the mean time

[adamrf1126]

i havent fed since the filter broke and i dont intend to.
I just finished setting up the air pump. Now there is one line of very strong bubbles, the surface is very agitated. The fish immediately seemed to perk up a bit. Later today i will feed another line of air tubing under the gravel for more air flow.