# Help! I had a leak!!



## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

My filter leaked from the base. I didn't notice until this morn when saw the water level had dropped- I had to add at least 2gal of water to get it to correct level. I think I've saved the carpet- lifted it up from floor, blotted all the water I could, got fan running to air it out- but I'm going to have to strip down and move the tank to make sure the supporting furniture is ok and really air out carpet & padding properly.

The cords for heater & light got wet, too, but I had the drip loops so no water reached outlet. Will my appliances be ok to use again once the cords are dried out thoroughly? I plan to let them sit at least 24 hr to dry, or more. 

Luckily I have another filter can use, but in the meantime I thought to put my plants and snail in a bucket of tank water w/airstone running for some circulation- will they be ok like that for a day or two? I don't want to loose any plants if I can help it. Will they survive w/out a heater? Temps in my house go down to 68 at night.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Cords are fine, just wipe them off and plug them in. The key is keeping the water off the prongs and out of the outlets. Cords only get to be a hazard if the insulation get cut or worn off or chewed through. Some heaters and filters have a fuse-like thing that will take a day or two off to come back on if it trips or a real fuse that kills them dead if they get grounded, but not all do and if the drip loop worked, nothing should've tripped. 

Plants are tough, they may lose some leaves or whatever, and crypts may melt, but most should recover from this treatment.

What sort of filter was it? Was it cracked?. I have had aquaclears that got cracks in them and more than one brand of HOB leak water out over its back when it wasn't quite level and the media had clogged.


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## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

Ok. Thanks for relieving my mind! Actually, the water didn't reach the outlet, but it got into the power strip I had (stupidly, I didn't have a drip loop on that as well) so some of the prongs _did_ get wet. Will have to arrange a better setup before I run it all again.

It was an AquaClear mini power filter- for up to 20gal. I was actually going to switch it out w/my larger Penguin bio-wheel power filter, because felt like this one doesn't give enough flow- there's areas of dead water in the tank, and I'm starting to have a problem w/cyanobacteria. But that's an issue for another thread maybe... It was a used filter that my mom shipped to me across the country, hadn't been in service for over 10yrs, I'm not surprised if it had a crack somewhere. 

Funny thing is, I _thought_ it was the filter leaking because saw a bead of water underside of it, dripping. But now that I've taken everything apart I set the little filter up again on a bucket of water, ran it for a few min to check if that was really the problem. Don't see any drips now. Maybe because it was just not perfectly level, like you suggest?

Regardless, I'm waiting for a replacement part for my penguin filter, which should arrive in a day or two, and if it doesn't I can run it anyways, it's just too noisy (old impeller). 

I'm glad the plants will survive (and my snail, too, I hope) but now concerned that too much of my good bacteria will die, and I'll have to cycle again... ?


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

If you lost two gallons of water, and the tank isn't the cause it has to be the filter. I would just change it to make sure, especially because you have another filter ready. As for the bb (beneficial bacteria) you won't need to cycle your tank again IF you can get some of that old media (or bits and pieces of it) into the new filter. I know you said it's an old HOB, so the cartridge is not gonna fit, but you can cut it appart and stuff some bits into the biowheel, therefore keeping the bb. To keep the bacteria alive for now, just put the material in with the plants in the bucket. The bb just needs to stay in water, food for it isn't that important


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## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

Ok, thanks. The media is still in old filter, with water in that compartment. Does it need to stay warm, too? If so, I'll move it in w/the plants.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Some will die, but enough bacteria will survive to set you back up with only a "mini-cycle". Just go super light on feeding for a week and be sure to pull out any shed, dead plant pieces.

Aquaclears, IME, have a design flaw in the "levelling foot". A little piece of plastic that sits on the bottom of the filter and adjust the tilt of the filter. Not only does the piece move and change the tilt if you bump the filter at all, but it often falls off completely (friction fit on the bottom) and gets lost.. Penguins all have a sort of cutout around the intake tube, so if water is backing up and not getting through the media, it just runs back in to the tank from the from of the filter, noisily enough for you to notice and fix it. Aquaclears, don't work that way, the media can float and lift the lid and water can escape from the sides or the back of the filter and drip down. Really, this is the only thing I don't like about the aquaclears. 

Take the filter box into a strong like and look at it with sunglasses on. Cracks can be be nearly invisible. But these things also do manage to leak without cracks.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

Nah it doesn't need to stay warm, the 68 you talked about before should be fine


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## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

Ok. Glad to know all my bacteria won't die. I'd hate to start completely over!

The filter does have that little foot on the back- I remember using it to try and level the thing. Regardless of why it leaked, I'm pretty sure its the culprit. It was the first thing I took off the tank this morning, dried off the support surface and no more leaks all day- I've been working around there a lot so I'm sure I would have noticed if the tank itself had a leak... so I'm just going to scrap that filter and use the other one. Or maybe I could patch it w/duct tape and save to use on a small quarantine tank, ha ha.


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## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

What does a mini-cycle look like? I have put my tank back together, and started testing daily again. Ammo was 1.0 yesterday, 0.5 today. Nitrites have been consistently 0, Nitrates 20ppm. Should I expect the Nitrite to spike again? will it take a few days, or up to a week?


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

the bacteria that ended up dieing just needs a bit of time to regrow fully. It shouldn't take long at all (of course depending on how much bacteria was alive, and how many fish you have). I wouldn't worry too much, just keep up the waterchanges for a bit.


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## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

So... do you think I can add a few fish now, or should I wait for the Ammonia to go down to zero? Right now it's just plants and one snail, but I was really hoping to put a few zebra danios or cherry barb in there to start with...


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

Start with a few danois first, wait a week then add cherry barbs. Barbs can be aggressive but cherry barbs are more the peaceful variety. I would add barbs last if planning to house them.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

like ice said, but do it with whichever fish you want, that fit the tank. A few now, wait a week or two, add some more. There wouldn't really be a point in waiting now as you have basically have no bioload in the tank, and your bacteria would just not have anything to eat.


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## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

Ok, I've done that. I want a decent school of zebra danios- 7 or 9, so I started with four (little ones, just under an inch each). I guess now I'm doing an in-fish cycle. For two days the Ammonia was close to zero (less than 0.25) and no Nitrites and low Nitrates (under 20) but now I'm starting to get Nitrite readings and Ammonia going up, so I guess it's going to spike some. I'm about to do a water change to bring the toxins down, and need to go read up on how to do a fish-in cycle!


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

Its a good sign that the nitrites went up, shows that the bacteria is alive and doing well. Do two water changes a week for however long it takes for the amonia to not go up anymore (shouldn't be too long)


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## Jeane09 (Nov 19, 2013)

Ok. I actually went and made a graph, drawing how the water parameters went up and down, and then it was real easy to see what was going on! It jumped all over the place first time I had the tank up, but this time there was a nice little ammonia spike, then a smaller nitrite spike. I haven't seen any ammo or nitrite in 2 days now 

Now I've got a little question about the Nitrates. It's been around 20ppm. (But I can't really tell the difference between those two orange colors on the API Master test kit chart, 10 or 20 look same to me). Should it be lower, like under 10? I thought supposed to do a big water change at end of cycle to bring the Nitrites down, so I did a 20% change, then a 40% the next day. It's still at 10-20ppm. Should I continue to change some water each day until it gets lower? Or is that good and now I can relax and leave it alone for a week?


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