Mystery leak

[Jakesaw]

Woke up this morning - and  10 gallon ( standard ) was about 2 inches lower than it was last night ( 8 PM was proper level ).  I saw an excess of bubbles on the water surface too.  

 

Tested SG and it's right where it is supposed to be at 1.026.  My intuition says it has to be a leak.  but I can't find any salt around seems of aquarium indicating where the aquarium would be leaking from.  I also don't see any salt creep around the base of aquarium or the top it sits upon..  

 

Anybody experience this before.  Any suggestions for identifying leak? 

 

I refilled aquarium with saltwater to see if the water level drops again and how fast.

 

Looks like this may be the reason I upgrade to 20 L aquarium.  May be an emergency bucket day.  Will have to see how it unfolds.

 

 

[jservedio]

2" of water in a standard 10g tank is a bit over 1.5 gallons of water. If a gallon and a half of saltwater leaked overnight, everything would be soaking wet and it'd obvious where it was leaking from. If it was a steady leak, that'd be a bit over 2 cups of water per hour dumping on the floor. That amount of saltwater doesn't just leak without leaving traces and it'd smell absolutely horrible.

 

Is it possible there was an HVAC mishap or the heat/ac was cranking in that room the whole night and drying the air? When we had a dehumidifier in our house, I was going through 2-3 gallons per day on my ATO with my 20g tank.

[seabass]

I agree, a leak that significant should be pretty obvious.  Evaporation is a more likely explanation.  I get that specific gravity doesn't appear to support the evaporation theory; IDK, maybe it was a bit lower than you thought it was.

[Jakesaw]

The only change was the room was quite cold last night as the temp dropped precipitously outside and had no interest in turning on heat. 

 

For the past hour the water seems to be holding up.  

[jservedio]

19 minutes ago, Jakesaw said:

The only change was the room was quite cold last night as the temp dropped precipitously outside and had no interest in turning on heat. 

 

For the past hour the water seems to be holding up.  

What was the relative humidity last night vs. normal? That could be the culprit if in addition to getting colder, the humidity dropped quite a bit.

[Jakesaw]

54 minutes ago, jservedio said:

What was the relative humidity last night vs. normal? That could be the culprit if in addition to getting colder, the humidity dropped quite a bit.

DOn't know.  Had already started the A/C for season, but It didn't run last night with cold weather, and I had the windows closed all night.  Could have been a factor. 

 

If it's a leak it's a small one.  I can see the water has dropped in last 2 hours by maybe 2 mm.

[Murphs_Reef]

I'm.with EVAP. A leak is easy to see. If not wet at the time you'll see salt deposits 

[Jakesaw]

Seems to be holding up ok today.  - STRANGE!!

 

Shame, I was looking for motivation to get me to swap to larger tank.

[M. Tournesol]

8 minutes ago, Jakesaw said:

Shame, I was looking for motivation to get me to swap to larger tank.

why should you need "motivation". If you have the money and the time, you should go for it 😉

[Jakesaw]

It's not money, it's the hassel.  I've got all the hardware already 

 

I've got the tank painted in the basement. Have to do a work around with hanging my Light over longer tank.   I'd also have to just move a few more gallons around the house each week.

 

Maybe I should make a leak in my tank to move things along ... 

[rough eye]

if it was evaporation the SG would be noticeably higher. wouldn't it?

[Jakesaw]

I found the Mystery Leak culprit!!!

 

It was my carbon bag I had added back to HOB filter last night.  My bag is quite large for my filter and doesn't fit fully inside my Whisper 20.  Last time I used carbon, I let the excess hang out front of filter with lid on.  Last night, I had the bag hanging outside of the back of HOB filter with lid on and it was wicking the water out  and dripping it off behind back of aquarium one drop at a time. 

 

Wish I did a bit more examination before just filling and observing this morning.

 

That explains why the SG wasn't moving with the water level.

 

Problem solved