Tropical Fish Forums

[jimmy campbell]

I recently had a 140gal come apart and leak about 80gal +/- onto my hardwood floor. The corner seal let go and no broken glass. I cut the silicone out and removed 2 pieces of glass from the tank ( the 6ft rear pane and 1 end pane). I cleaned all the glass with a razorblade and rubbing alcohol, put new silicone back on and installed the glass again. has been sitting for about 3 days now.

When I installed the glass the silicone came out from between the panes and I ran my finger along it and made a nice smooth seal but......

heres my question:

do I water test it now, drain the tank, dry it and put the nice smooth bead of silicone so it looks good

or

do the nice smooth bead now then let it dry then water test it?

as far as I can see, the glass is held together @ this point and the final bead is just for the visual look. does it serve only as a visual look or does it actually hold the glass together better?

Jimmy

[Darkblade48]

You are correct in assuming that the glass is held together only by the silicone between the panes of glass. The extra silicone that is seen is just excess.

If you take a look at ADA made tanks, you will see that there is very little excess silicone, and the only thing holding the glass together (and the water inside) is the small silicone bead that is between the glass panes. However, I am not aware of ADA tanks that are as large as yours, so I would be extra careful.

In addition, usually, when you resilicone a tank, you have to do all the panes of glass; how did you manage to get the back pane to re-adhere to the (other) end pane, for example? Silicone does not bond to silicone, so...
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Anthony

[jimmy campbell]

ill have to look up what ADA tanks are.

My back glass overlaped the "end" panes. I cleaned up all the pieces and cut all the old silicone just from the corners I was resealing. now that I thought about it, u mean the silicone that I didn't cut out? I just used a lot in those areas so it ran out once the glass was put on and see how it goes. I figured if there was a small gap between the 2 silicones (old and new) it would be sealed up when I add more silicone overtop for the "visual" seal.

hope I explained it right so it makes sense.

[Darkblade48]