Hi guys,
I have a 75 gallon African cichlid tank. I started noticing lime and salt scale streaks on the exterior walls a couple months ago. When I ran my finger along it, there were a few drops worth of water at the top of the tank, but not at the bottom, hinting that there was only a trickle of water escaping, and that trickle was evaporting before reaching the bottom, leaving the lime scale. Other streaks appeared here and there in other places in the coming weeks. I checked thoroughly for cracks and leaking seals, but the leaks were never at the corners.
My brother studied physics and I put him to good use. He looked at it and explained to me how water will flow vertically in a very tight space. My aquarium has a plastic rim around the top (as do most aquariums), and it apparently had a bad seal or no seal at all, and water seemed to get sucked up into that space and conducted over the glass wall to the exterior of the tank. I dropped the water level for 2 days to let the crack between the glass walls and the plastic rim dry out, then applied clear caulk the exterior junction, and have had no leaks since!
I have a 75 gallon African cichlid tank. I started noticing lime and salt scale streaks on the exterior walls a couple months ago. When I ran my finger along it, there were a few drops worth of water at the top of the tank, but not at the bottom, hinting that there was only a trickle of water escaping, and that trickle was evaporting before reaching the bottom, leaving the lime scale. Other streaks appeared here and there in other places in the coming weeks. I checked thoroughly for cracks and leaking seals, but the leaks were never at the corners.
My brother studied physics and I put him to good use. He looked at it and explained to me how water will flow vertically in a very tight space. My aquarium has a plastic rim around the top (as do most aquariums), and it apparently had a bad seal or no seal at all, and water seemed to get sucked up into that space and conducted over the glass wall to the exterior of the tank. I dropped the water level for 2 days to let the crack between the glass walls and the plastic rim dry out, then applied clear caulk the exterior junction, and have had no leaks since!
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