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Reef Farm Leaking :(

9K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  Xannal 
#1 ·
Yeah. It happened again. One of our vats is leaking. :( Checked the date of the re-seal on the side - 5 years ago. :/ Seems no matter what we use, wood or concrete...they leak every 5 years. Or at least one did.

Been there, done that. At least right now the farm is reasonably empty! I think I may have a nervous breakdown moving EVERYTHING again...of course it is one that is full. :/ Moral support, please? Maybe liquor? LOL!
 
#9 ·
P.s.

Have you thought about painting the bottom of the vats, inside and out, with fiberglass hull paint for boats? The stuff will waterproof just about anything. It would require draining though. Also Apoxie Fix it is a product that will set under water. It's marine safe and is used by the atlanta aquarium to fix stuff in their displays. (I used the sculpt for rock work but it has to be used dry). You may be able to use Fix It to patch any future holes.
 
#10 ·
Well, when something like this leaks...there is no "hole" per se. Most of the time you can't even find where it is/was...the walls don't stay clean of coralline and so on, so unless it was at the very bottom it would be very hard to tell. Even if it WAS at the very bottom it may be impossible to tell...because a fine crack in it could slowly leak with 650 gallons of pressure. To even give yourself a chance at finding it, you would have to empty the whole thing anyway...and once you have done that you may as well seal the whole thing again.

We use marine epoxy...we have some fiberglass we can mix in...but we didn't like how rough it was with the fiberglass in there when we used it last time. :/
 
#12 ·
Another thought. Have you considered just lining it with a pond liner? They make them in white. Most have a 30 year warranty (if you get the good stuff). eBay has a huge selection on pond liners. I know when I did a pond years ago I was able to get a 600 liner for about 200 bucks. Was over thirty feet long and twenty wide. I had to splice pieces together but it held great.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Oh, I should have been more clear...every time the farm leaks you have to drain the whole vat that's leaking...there is no such thing as patching up "the leaky part" because you would never find it. So, as we just had a vat leak...we have one new painted one. :) The others were done about five years ago. If you know where to look on the sides of the vat the dates they were last done are written on each. :) The last time we did them we put in concrete...which has worked a lot better than wood! ;)

I see, you aren't talking about the 2 part paint...you mean the one part fiberglass stuff, right? While it is cheaper than what we use, I know we had a big five gallon of that hung around so long I threw it away. (Like 8 years!) I didn't know why it wasn't what we needed, so I just looked it up because you made me curious, lol. I thought it just wasn't strong enough...but then I found this...

The Lowdown On Bottom Paint - BoatUS Magazine

Eeek...polishing effect...no good! Copper leaching? Ugh, no good either. Both at the same time? Worse! :/ Is this the stuff you meant, or were you talking about something else?

I was intrigued by the pond liner warranty...and looked it up, thinking hmm, bet they won't give me one...and sure enough, it says you have to use a special underlayment for the warranty to be valid....and if it was "punctured by a sharp object" (bound to happen) it also would void the warranty. :/

Always love ideas and suggestions, though, never know, might find something better! I sure wish the one part hull paint would work for us...sure would be cheaper than the 2 part! :)
 
#18 ·
This post is from 2016, so no, not still leaking! BUT thank you guys for the support AND the reminder...because I didn't write the date of this leak on the side of the vats like I usually do, I guess...and was wondering why this seemed so outdated!!!! [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] I was thinking man...this one is probably about to leak tomorrow...but I may be good for awhile yet, knock on wood!!! [emoji51]


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