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...
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...