Resealing tanks

Hey everyone, just got two tank setups, a 29 and 55. the corners seem to have plenty of silicone and the sides have a thin strip right along the edges. so far the 29 has not leaked at all. i am going to do a 55 test soon. what are your thoughts and is this how they used to seal tanks back in the day? previous owner said he had fish in the 55 two weeks ago before clearing everything. thanks!

So from what I've heard if a tank is actually leaking you should probably disassemble the tank and do the inside seams between the panes of glass as well as the seams you can see. If the silicone on the outter seams that you see inside the tank feel dry/cracked/brittle or are peeling you can cut those out with a razor, clean up the area with alcohol, and put a new bead of 100% silicone in there to effectively reseal the tank and prolong its life but only if the tank is still holding water.

The theme here is that the inner seals where the panes are actually glued together with silicone do most of the work in keeping a tank water tight and the seal inside the tank is a second level of protection. It's my understanding that if a tank is leaking the inner seal is bad and just redoing the silicone without disassembling the tank can lead to a rapid failure again.

In the middle of a rebuild myself, and I agree with Aqua410 on the seems. If they aren't leaking, I would either leave them alone or carefully reseal the inside only.

If they are leaking, it might not be worth the trouble with those tanks, unless you are looking for something to keep you busy (I do this quite often).

If they are standard 29 and 55, I would just pick up new tanks from petco during the 1$ per gallon sale.

Also, this is the new silicone that is being used at the factories, or at least one of the manufacturers of it. Its an RTV made for aquariums. Supposed to be much better that GE silicone 1. Just ordered some and gunna try it soon.

http://www.bestmaterials.com/detail.aspx?ID=19108

I didn't even see the tank sizes mentioned. I agree that unless you're doing this for practice or just fun (we're fish nerds we love this stuff right) that the best route is to buy a new one. If you didn't see the post the dollar per gallon sale is on right now. I have two brand new 55s in my car right this moment. $125 after tax for both. Regular price is $130 each so it's a steal.

yeah, they seem to be pretty well sealed and the guy said the 55 was runnign leak proof 2 weeks ago. water test shows ok then i wont need a new one. thanks eeryone

Unless a tank leaks after testing it, I wouldn't even consider re-sealing a used tank... and if it does leak, it either gets recycled as lids or given to someone who enjoys re-sealing tanks (not me)...

Matt

I'm with Matt. Unless the tank is a very special tank, resealing it is almost never worthwhile. It never looks good, and you've gone from having one corner that leaked to eight seams that may just start leaking on you. Especially with dollar a gallon sales. . . not worth it.

JLW said:

I'm with Matt. Unless the tank is a very special tank, resealing it is almost never worthwhile. It never looks good, and you've gone from having one corner that leaked to eight seams that may just start leaking on you. Especially with dollar a gallon sales. . . not worth it.

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Eghhhhh....I would say no for 55 but I have resealed a 180 that belong to Kevin here on the forum. Just remember these words. Prep work prep work prep work. It's not hard to put silicone on, so take your time preping.


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