Year + long project at standstill - need suggestions!

[REEFLORD]

Ok so i've been building out this reef system (350 gallons in total system) for over a year and i've recently got to a point where I thought I could start cycling it and finish the cosmestics while it does that.. But I am unable to waterproof it it seems... The product I have been using is Flexseal. I coated the inside with flexseal and did a band around the viewing panes. It worked fine for 3 days before springing a leak. I gave it another coat and used acrylic caulk around the edges to prevent the rubber from pulling off the surface and letting water in... this time it lasted a week.

I am about to pull out all the rocks and sand. I need some suggestions on sealants - has anyone here ever built a wood tank before? What did you use for waterproofing?

 

[MERKEY]

A little more info needed...


How was the box constructed?


Are they panels of glass flexsealed to the wood?

 

[Cichlid Dad]

 

[REEFLORD]

A little more info needed...


How was the box constructed?


Are they panels of glass flexsealed to the wood?

So imagine a super sturdy workbench... Then add a back wall onto that.
The back wall is made like a regular house wall, insulated, but using 2x3's as studs.

From there a track was built along the floor of the "workbench" The acrylic panes sit inside the tracks.

Yes they are flexsealed to the wood.

I am looking to find the latest cause of this leak, will post more soon (current have flu)

First leak cause: I believe water was able to work its way under the flex seal around the acrylic pane - it was leaking around the frame. The flexseal was not adhering as tightly to the acrylic pane as I thought it would. Even roughing up the pane with a drimmel, the flex seal would still not adhere well. Pulls right up. So I cut the flex seal around the panes off and use sillicone caulk to fill the void

Second leak cause: water found its way down one of the the pipes the stubs through the "wooden workbench". I was using a different sealant before flexseal and this area was still the old sealant, not flexseal. Solution was to flexseal all around the ground in the overflow boxes and up onto the pipes themselves

3rd leak cause: unsure so far - from where it was leaking I could tell water got between the sheets of plywood that make up the "workbench". Possibly leaking around the overflow pipes again, or around the main drain (tank has a main drain).

 

[REEFLORD]

This is the video series that got me started building the tank. And I actually did a layer of the pond shield on the bottom before I switched to flexseal... Maybe that was the mistake. Maybe I should go back to roots and try the pond shield again