Argh, take note, why water features suck

[LilyPad]

The fix, before and after.




I originally had a flexible piece of plastic in there so I could have a curved water area. I think the flexibility was my downfall. The leak was slow but persistent, filling my drainage layer in about two days. I wanted to be lazy in this fix and not rip everything out. My mistake, as my plants are now in poor condition as a result.

I ordered a piece of acrylic from Delvies Plastics, precut to the size I wanted. Then I siliconed it in, in front of the previous barrier. I had moved my aquatic plants out and into my betta tank, so I will probably just get more. I'm happy with the results and so far, no leaks. It is just under 5.5 inches deep and holds approximately 1.75 gallons of water.

[DigitalPunk]

That sucks big time Amy. Sorry to hear about your plants :/ I was never brave enough to divide a tank like that. the closest I could bring myself to try was doing a false bottom and just using the whole tank bottom as the reservoir, but even that has draw backs. All my tanks now have been converted to traditional drainage layer tanks and are drilled for drainage lol. In some of them I lowered the land and drainage in a corner (or in the mantella tank down the middle) to create a boggy section of soil for marginal plants and aquatic mosses. That will be the extent of complexity for me moving forward lol. I will leave water features and the like to better qualified people such as yourself


Again sorry you had to go through this. I know the frustration all to well.

[LilyPad]

I love the divided tanks, that's why I went for it to begin with (knowing what kind of issues can arise.) It looks really nice now other than all the poor plants. At least it wasn't my frogs, and at least it wasn't my red eyed tree frog tank. All of my "good" plants are in with the red eyes. My greys are plant bullies so anything of quality doesn't get put in there. I guess I can be thankful for that. I had thought about removing the water area completely, but I hate hate hate hate hate having to do daily water changes. Reaching into the bottom of that tank is the biggest pita. So far, it held up overnight. I have a piece of paper taped to the side of the tank that I marked out the water levels to make sure it doesn't drop too much LOL.