Finished scraping the insides, took some steel wool and acetone to all surfaces and I hope all the silicone is gone. I can't see or feel anymore except the structural between the glass. Taped and ready to lay down some funky beads.I am borrowing some industrial air fans used in water mitigation for drying houses next weekend to air the garage out as we silicone the tank back up.
The glass for the tank is 3/8" so I left room for 3/8" overlap on either side of every seam. I have not yet decided if I am going to insert the glass rods in the gaps between the hex panels but am leaning away from doing so. I taped the outside as well leaving a millimeter overhang although I am not sure of this is necessary and may just go back and tape the glass right to the edge.
When we go to seal(planning at least 2 if not 3 person job) I think we will run the four outside seams first, clean them with a straight edge then run the inside seams, smooth them either with a tool or gloved finger and then plop a couple of silicone plugs on a piece of acrylic or cardboardand place them in the bottom of the tank and cut one a week later to gauge the cure time.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on the tape job or suggestions on moving forward.
The clean up looks good!
As I mentioned previously I recently moved my tank into my new place after after it spent a few months in storage and the clean up process you have pictured and described is exactly the process that I just went through myself. The good news is that I can tell you now that my tank is filled and in its beginning stages of cycling!
While I did not have to fill the gaps you are having to fill in the front (my structural silicone was still there) I did replace the silicone on every interior seem of my tank, the same way you are doing now. The silicone I used was: http://www.bestmaterials.com/detail.aspx?ID=19108
As far as actually doing the job: it was a 2 man job, although I'm sure an extra man wouldn't have hurt.
Basic breakdown of how I did it -
I started at the front right hex corner, ran silicone up the vertical and across the bottom edge to the next corner, ran the vertical, then ran about 6" across the main front pane. At that point I smoothed everything by finger (up to the last 4 or 5" of the front pane bead) then continued across the front all the way to the left hex vertical, repeated the first corner then worked my way across the back around to the corner I started at. I did not run a bead across the top, only the bottom and verticals. I also had a buddy of mine follow me with about a 5 min delay pulling the tape from all of the areas that I had smoothed out by finger. The final product came out looking great but you have to work pretty fast with this method, making sure you can still smooth and shape the silicone with your finger after you have laid it everywhere it needs to be and still allow yourself time to start and smooth the next section (difficult with large tanks for sure but do-able) a third man to smooth while one guy lays silicone and another pulls tape would be great for this!
I know it's not rocket science and I'm probably over explaining it and that might not be how you decide to tackle it, I just figured I'd share since our tanks are so similar in nature
I can imagine that the bottom seam that you have to deal with across the center of your tank will make the job a bit harder!Still not sure how I feel about the glass rods... I mean, I understand the idea, I'm just not sure if it would make the corner any stronger; however, I'm not an engineer or have I tried it for myself, so I can't really weigh in with any sort of truly educated opinion on it.
Again, good luck and make sure to keep us updated!
