Keep aquarium fish in certain conditions. But sometimes it happens that they cannot be supported, for example, because a compressor appeared to leak or break. Such problems need to be solved immediately after detection, and it is not always possible to take the aquarium to a specialist. Therefore, each fish owner needs to know how to repair their aquariums with their own hands at home.
Why is the aquarium flowing?
Aquarium leakage is the most common problem for fish owners. The reasons may be different:
- Loss of performance of the sealant with which the joints are filled. This problem can be prevented by periodically analyzing the aquarium and filling the joints with a new layer of silicone.
- The use of poor-quality sealant during the manufacture of the aquarium. To avoid problems, it is recommended to carefully study the documents for materials, including the available quality certificates.
- Violation of repair technology. Leak may occur if water has been poured into the aquarium until the silicone has completely dried or when using a small amount of material.
Repair Preparation
If a leak is detected, you must immediately resettle all the inhabitants of the aquarium. This should be done so that the fish do not experience stress due to prolonged intervention. Capacity as temporary housing should be as spacious as possible. Fish can be relocated along with algae so that they are less stressed.
Until the moment when the hands have not reached repair, you need to add a little water to the aquarium that is leaking. This will prevent a sharp change in the parameters of the fish habitat, and will maintain the bacterial balance at the right level.
Now the aquarium needs to be washed, both inside and out. It is best to use a sponge for this. Next, the tank must be thoroughly dried. You can speed up the process with paper napkins or towels.
Leak Test Rules
After preliminary preparation, it is necessary to check the tightness of all joints in order to know which places to pay special attention to. Most often, the problem occurs in the side joints between the glasses.
Verification should be carried out as follows:
- Pour clean water into the aquarium.
- To the outer surface of the glass attach a paper towel (instead of it, you can take corrugated paper).
- At each site, you need to hold it for several minutes. After that, you can assess the condition of the wipes, which means that you can easily find the place of leakage, even if the cracks are not visible visually.
If damage is detected that passes through the entire glass, the latter must be completely replaced. The fact is that when filling the aquarium, additional pressure is created on the walls, so sooner or later the glass will burst anyway, even if the repair of the aquariums with your own hands was of high quality.
Rules for performing restoration
There are two ways to repair an aquarium:
- brew cracks;
- glue the surfaces with silicone sealant.
The second option is preferable if you repair the aquarium yourself, because welding requires special skills and tools. Silicon is present in the sealant, which provides long-lasting bonding of surfaces. Often this is precisely the method of gluing glass used in the manufacture of frameless aquariums.
You can buy a suitable sealant in any hardware store. And also it is at some points in pet products. When buying in a hardware store, you must definitely choose the one on the packaging of which has a mark on the possibility of use for aquariums.
To simplify the restoration work will help a special gun, thanks to which you can not only save sealant, but also perform work in any conditions. And the quality of gluing will be much higher.
How to remove old sealant?
Before closing the cracks, the old sealant must be removed, especially if it was applied during the previous restoration. This is easy to do, as the material is soaked over time.
To remove sealant from large cracks, you can use a knife or nail file. These tools will not cope with narrow openings, in this case a blade is better, but you should be extremely careful when working with it.
After all old glue has been removed, the surface should be degreased. This can be done with acetone, alcohol, or White Spirit.
Ignoring this step is not recommended. This is the most common cause of repeated leaks after repairing the aquarium with your own hands. Surface preparation should be given no less time than the direct repair of cracks.
Step-by-step restoration instructions
After thorough preparation of the surfaces, you can proceed to the immediate repair of cracks, including repairing the bottom of the aquarium with your own hands. The step-by-step instructions are as follows:
- The sealant must be applied to the seams. You can facilitate the process with a nail file or knife. It is impossible to regret glue, since the result directly depends on this.
- Spread the silicone sealant with a damp sponge along the seam.
- Leave the aquarium for a day so that the silicone is completely dry.
- Now you need to test the work. To do this, fill the aquarium with water, and leave it for several days. If a leak is found, you need to repair the aquarium with your own hands from the glass again according to the described plan.
- If there are no leaks and the work was done well, then you can fill the tank with old water with fish and plants.
Recommendations of specialists
The quality of repair of the aquarium with your own hands depends on many factors. It is impossible to take into account everything, therefore it is better to adhere to all the advice of specialists, namely:
- In order to prevent glass from getting dirty during the repair of aquariums with your own hands, they can be protected with masking tape (it leaves no residue).
- Carefully read the instructions for silicone sealant. Although they seem to be the same, there may be some nuances depending on the manufacturer.
- Within 2-3 days after the inhabitants return to the aquarium, it is better to strengthen the compressor.
- In the future, it is recommended to periodically carry out preventive disassembly and sealing of joints with a sealant, which will avoid sudden leaks.
- You need to buy a replacement aquarium in advance, so that in case of something (for example, during illness, spawning, or in the event of a sudden leak), you can safely move the fish along with their houses, plants and other attributes.
- Glass should be periodically cleaned of algae and fish residues, for which it is best to use a special scraper. In this case, all actions should be as accurate as possible, since additional pressure can lead to leaks.
If the glass cracked
If the glass cracked in the middle, then in this case a replacement is required. You need to do it as follows:
- Prepare the replacement wall in advance. By the way, it does not have to be made of glass, plexiglass of appropriate quality is also suitable.
- Thoroughly clean joints and ends with sealant.
- Install new glass in place of gluing.
- Secure it with a rope. The glass must be wrapped both vertically and horizontally.
- After an hour, repeat all the steps.
DIY compressor repair for an aquarium
There may be several problems with this device. The most common is an increase in noise during operation. This is due to contamination of the valves. Repair must be performed in the following sequence:
- The compressor must be disconnected from the network and disassembled.
- Remove the compression chamber with tweezers, and then the valves themselves. If they are glued, then you need to carefully tear them off on one side.
- Now a cotton swab needs to be moistened with alcohol or cologne; other solvents are not suitable for this. With these sticks, wipe the valves themselves, their installation locations, as well as the duct ducts from accumulated dirt. If during the repair of an Aquael compressor for an aquarium with your own hands or any other company, it was found that the valve was torn, then it can be cut out of a rubber bandage that is sold in a pharmacy.
- Leave all parts to dry, after which the system can be reassembled.
Another common problem is a torn membrane. In this condition, the compressor cannot work, so it must be replaced.
Cracking during operation can also occur due to damage to the surface of plastic parts that hold movable anchors with magnets. You can solve this problem as follows:
- Damaged part must be removed.
- Heat the soldering iron, and then melt it flush with the surface of the wire trimming part (steel will do).
- Eliminate burrs with a file.
- Now the compressor can be assembled. Before installation, it is recommended to check its performance.
When repairing the compressor, you must be extremely careful, in particular, you must not forget to turn off this device from the network.
To disassemble, and then assemble back, you can any frame aquarium. This work is within the power of almost everyone, which means that you can repair the aquarium yourself without any difficulties. The main thing is to carry out all the actions carefully, as well as select high-quality materials.