Should I be concerned?

Quo Vadis

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 12, 2014
912
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Wisconsin
I just re-siliconed my 160g tank that I got used, and I have a few questions. When I was stripping down the silicone I realized it must have been previously re-silconed, because I found a chip, under the silicone, on the inside of the glass, bottom corner. I siliconed a piece of acrylic over that corner to be on the safe side. The glass is 5/8th inch glass, so even though it was a fairly deep chip, I have seen proportionally deeper ones. I mainly did the silicone because of it being on a bottom corner.

The part I am actually more concerned about is a couple seams I redid. This is the third tank I have re-siliconed, but it is the largest, by far, so I had trouble getting the silicone out of the caulk gun fast enough, because it seemed extra slow and hard to push out, and because of this and the size of tank, my hands were getting tired and I was getting blisters. So the silicone was drying too much for how fast I could get the seams laid and smoothed out. As a result a few of the seams are not nice and smooth like my other tanks have turned out. I don't think they have any air bubbles, but they are thick and sort of rough. I really don't want to re-do the silicone if I don't have to, because I think the same thing would happen all over again, but if this is likely to be a problem I will have to. Thoughts?

P.S. The tank is going to be in a basement where a leak really isn't a problem, except for the fish and the hassle. It wouldn't damage anything, it would just get the concrete wet and run down to the drain. BUT, obviously I don't want to deal with that...
 

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
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I cant provide too much help but im sure pics will help determine if it is ok or not. Not sure if you mean you may have gone too thick a silicone bead or its just thick n messy inside where the panels meet. If its the 2nd one then you should be fine. Youd be amazed how little silicone you need if done right. When I saw my first ada rimless tank I couldnt imagine it would hold since there was no bead inside like all other tanks ive seen
 

DIDYSIS

Mantilla Stingray
MFK Member
Feb 9, 2012
5,542
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West Jordan Utah
Acrylic won't stick to silicone at all. !!! Heads up it won't do anything.

Sent from the Monster Fish Keeping App
 

deeda

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Mar 26, 2008
4,019
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Medina, Ohio
My concern would be the difficulty dispensing the silicone, it sounds as if it was either a partially used tube or that it was out of date. I have had difficulty with silicone that fell in both those categories that would not set up or cure properly and had to redo the tank due to a leak.
 

Quo Vadis

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 12, 2014
912
21
18
Wisconsin
It is thicker than the other panels and messy, because when I went to smooth out the bead it kind of pulled and made bumps. It was not a partially used tube, and it set up fine. I don't know why it was so hard to squeeze. I would hope the acrylic will work. The tank has holes drilled about halfway up the tank for the return from the sump, but I covered those with a sheet of acrylic that I siliconed in, because I don't want the water form the sump to return that way. My LFS guy who knows his stuff said that would be the best way to cover it.
 

PDRed302

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 4, 2011
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Fort Worth Texas
X2 to DIDYSIS's comment above.

The silicone seal to acrylic may seem tough but it will not hold up. If you want to cover the crack/chip use a piece of glass to silicone over it. When it comes to the pre drilled holes: bulkheads with end caps are the way to go.
 

Quo Vadis

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 12, 2014
912
21
18
Wisconsin
Well bulkheads may not be the best option for me, because whoever drilled this tank drilled two huge holes in the overflowbix and two huge holes below it for the return. So the acrylic for sure wont work? It think id have a hard time getting it off, so it seems pretty secure to me. I dont know how id get it off since it is too big a peive to wedge a razor under. Is there a way to redo the seams in question without doing it doing the whole thing over? I know new silicobe doenst bond as well with cured silicone, but is there a way to get around that?
 

Quo Vadis

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 12, 2014
912
21
18
Wisconsin
Also, figured out why it didnt come out well. When I took the silicone tube out if the calk gun I realized the back bart of thw tube it pushes on got messed up, and silcone was coming out the wrong end of the tube. On the silicone tube it says it adheres to plastic...
 

Quo Vadis

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 12, 2014
912
21
18
Wisconsin
So I took off the acrylic sheet I siliconed across the bulkhead return holes, and I am going to silicone a piece of glass there instead, but I still don't know what to do about the messy silicone seam. Above is a picture. As you can see it looks terrible, but it doesn't really seem to have air bubbles, or any missing spots. It looks even worse because since because it dried too fast when I peeled off the painters tape the extra silicone on it didn't just rip off with the tape. I would clean that up. I don't care if it is messy, because it is the bottom of the tank, but it has to be functional.
 
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