Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi, has anyone fixed a leak in an ibc? I have a tank thats been running for about a year or so. The other day was rainy, and I noticed that its dripping from the wall to the left of the outlet valve. It's been dry weather for a day, and it's still dripping, apparently a little more than before.
I can't tell exactly where its leaking from, since it is insulated and clad....which I will probably have to be removed.
Or maybe I can bust out the ol' snorkel and go for a swim now that the weather is warming up....

I have a plastic welder and polyethelyne rod, but I was also wondering about JB weld epoxy putty.

I was wondering if anyone has successfully fixed a leak or crack while water and fish were still in the tank (from the outside of course)....wishful thinking....but I'm a dreamer.

You might try something from the Flex Seal product line ...... if you believe their hype.

Thanks for the input Aufin. I'm not really a hype kind of guy, but I have seen a few people use FLexseal products on their systems via youtube. Looks like a gel type product.

I have used the jbweld on rain barrels before with some success. It cures underwater. I don't think I'd want to do it inside the tank with fish, but maybe outside??? If you have ever used it, its a two part putty, and it has a strong epoxy smell while it's curing, so i don't know if it would put chemicals into the water. My Dad introduced it to me years ago when I had a tricky leak on a boiler. It is amazing stuff, and is NSF rated for potable surfaces.

I really want to find out if plastic welding can be done on wet surfaces, since I already have everything I'd need to use it for a repair. Cheers

I had to find a fix. I was losing 30 or more gallons from the system per day....
So my journey began. The water was dripping from the left side of the IBC's valve. This had me thinking it must be a crack or leak on that side. Maybe I popped a screw through it while putting on the cladding. Maybe the time it spent in the sun before i got around to building weekend the liner. The questions abounded....
So, what else was I to do? The screws were removed one by one.
As I peeled back the paneling, I kept waiting for all of the water to cascade upon me.
I gingerly peeled it back, and lo and behold, not a drip was in site.
Convinced that the leak was on this side, I begrudgingly made the decision to remove the insulating foam. You see, this was grossly over engineered to begin with, using a strong duct tape on all the seams, to build up multiple layers of thin foam until I had a thickness around 1.5 inches....
So I began, still waiting for a drenching waterfall to gush.
I finally peeled off the last layer, and water began sheeting down the side of the tank. And, in hindsight, I would not have built this thing so that a screw would hit the liner. I did the math, I did the calculations. Things weren't adding up, no screw could have hit the liner. By Jove, it hit me, the UNISEAL for the SLO.
There it was, staring at me, right in plain sight the whole time.
Sure enough, upon inspection, I found that somehow, the pipe going through the seal had migrated and changed position, and sure enough, the seal wasn't making good contact on the lower portion. I had to think quick! AHA!
a scrap piece of wood. It would have to do the trick. A few mallet taps later, and a jammed in piece of wood, and voila, good as new.
The moral of the story.....check the fish tank exit first!
The second moral of the story: KISS, I overdid it with the duct tape.

For me uni seals have been a pia so I went to bulkhead fittings with a tad of silicon