Making my 800 gal larger.

[TheFishGuy]

Ok, here's the thing. It's impossible to put anything under the deep end as it sits basicly right on the floor. The joists go from 5 1/2" down to 2 1/2".

From under the main part of the tank I can see water dribble from the top side of the plywood of the floor of the deep end... I wish friggin you tube would work then you guys would be able to understand... There's no way to know where the leak is coming from but here's wjhat I'm gonna do. I'm going to silicone all of the inside corners and slowly fill the tank until it starts to leak (if it does leak) then wait till it stops leaking. To battle the small drips, and they are small. I will be using an arsenal of fans, heat and the dehu to battle the small amount of moisture. Here's the thing, it only leaked like a sieve the first time I filled, every time after that it got better and better. But a leak is a leak is a leak... and in a wood structure it's not acceptable. I will try and load videos again to you tube today and you'll all go... oh... I get it...

 

[nolapete]

The black light is actually a good idea. All the pinholes or craters will most likely show up glowing under it.

 

[TheFishGuy]

That can be arranged too... I've got 2 four foot bulbs....

 

[nolapete]

I'm sure a lot of us wish we lived closer to you so that we could head over and help you out. Hang in there. You can do it! (think Tony Little)

 

[maclak5000]

Thought I would post this comment here as well. The idea of a black light is also very good, if you use that and the dye I bet you would find them no problem. (whish full thinking) I found some good info for you for Dye testing sorry for all of my sp errors earlier. I found two good sites. http://www.poolleak.info/solutions/find_leak_myself.php and http://www.brightdyes.com/MSDS.html
looks like this could work, and they may even send you some stuff for free. If you have any question let me know. Sorry I did not think of this earlier for you

Kevin

 

[tcarswell]

Stupid question but do you think the heat and dehumidifiers could be causing enough shrinking and expansion to create small leaks ?

 

[TheFishGuy]

Thanks for the links. I might use them if it leaks tomorrow... and tcarswell, there are no stupid questions. I don't think there's enough of a leak when it does leak to cause even a small amount of movement... But hopefully the silicone will do the trick...

Up Date:
Since you tube is not cooperating we’re going to do this up date old school… I got the entire tanks seams siliconed this afternoon. By the time I was finished (which it only took about 20 minutes) my eyes were burning! LOL I was able to keep the door open and there’s an exhaust fan just a few feet away in the small bathroom/laundryroom in the basement that I was able to keep on and it took care of most of the fumes from the silicone… Actually I think I’m still HIGH LOL. Here’s some pictures of that:

I also decided there wasn’t any reason the heat coil couldn’t be ran so I did that too… That really only took about 30 minutes seeing as I already had the thermostat wired and the pump installed. I’ll re-cap how this is intended to work. I might even go super old school and do a drawing in paint! Yeah… Let’s do that:

So here’s some coiled in the sump around a cage made from eggcrate from an old project. When I run out to my shed I’m going to grab a bunch of zip ties to separate the coils so they’re not touching each other. Hence the eggcrate… And it got the dang thing out of the way in the fish room! LOL

Here’s a shot of the heat lines running into the tank room and down into the sump. As you can see I took the 55 out in order to do this:

Here’s the pump mounted about 5’ up in the laundry room/little bathroom (which is essentially just a toilet, my toilet according to Dominic! LOL)

And here’s where you can see it going into the drain cock of the water heater.

Now I couldn’t just hook this up and not test it… So I filled the sump with 46* water and set the thermostat to 60*… We’ll see how it does… Of all the upgrades I’m doing to this tank this is the one I’m most excited about, well that and now I’m on the hunt for a giant piece of drift wood… Maybe I’ll just go cut a tree down in the back and wedge it in the tank so it doesn’t float… OOOO… Chainsaw!
That’s it in a nutshell, hopefully tomorrow will be a good day and we’ll have no more leaks. I’m goingto get on the horn with you tube and see what’s up their rear lately… Don’t they understand the importance of this? Sheesh… the nerve…
As always, if there’s any questions feel free to ask! I will do my best to typ out an answer for you… cuz you guessed it… you tube sucks!
Ps. Sorry for the book, but it would have only been a short video to listen to if you tube didn’t suck…

 

[tcarswell]

Best of luck way to stick with it buddy!

 

[ozpkchris]

good work man, thats a bad ass heater,
the paint diagram makes it look like a piece of cake
gl with the silicone i hope that does it

 

[TheFishGuy]

You like that I love messing around in paint. Funny thing is my 8 year old has a computer class where they work with the paint program and she tought me a bunch of stuff LOL

No water yet, I'm waiting for my wife to get home then I'm going to work on the return lines to the tank, mainly the spray bar and the main line for the under gravel jets. You tube is still giving me issues.......