any tips on re sealing a 220 gal. aquarium to hold water again?

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NORTHERNREEF

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Apr 8, 2008
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i got a 220 gal. aga,6x2x30, all signs point to the leak being on the bottom panel, the tank is perfect except that, i know its been done before many times with success and folks building their own tank my question is?

whats the proper steps and way to re seal this bad boy?
anything to look out for?
any advice would be greatly appreciated

looking for folks that have done this before :headbang2
thanks in advance
 
see i have heard that and i also heard that the only proper way to do it is take the whole thing apart,all panels clean/dry and re apply panels with new silicone
the leak is on the bottom seal and with the water pressure i just wanna do it right
 
flagtail is right. As long as you COMPLETELY remove the silicon around the leak (silicon wont stick to silicon) and get the glass TOTALLY clean, then its a piece of cake.

If you know exactly where the leak is, you can even just get a small square of glass and silicon it over the leak (just so that water cant get to the leak).

There is definitely no need for a complete re-do.
 
What flagtail told you to do was take it all apart, clean every last bit of silicone off the glass, clean the edges with acetone and reapply silicone to the entire tank.

Personally i've never done that. I've had a leaky 55 and a leaky 20, and both times I marked the leak spot with a wax pencil (on the outside of the glass), drained the tank, smeared a tablespoon of new silicone right on top of the old with my finger and let it sit for a day or so.

The 20 gallon has held water for 15 years now, (it leaked when I bought it new!) and the 55's been holding water for about 3 years. In both cases, the leaks were small, less than 1/4 inch..
 
No I have never taken all apart, nor did I mean it that way.....

Just strip all the silicone off with blade completely, clean well with acetone and apply new silicone.

If it's a new tank, with leaky spot, you might get away with jsut doing that area, if older tank, strip all around....chances silicone will let go somewhere else in future.
 
ok so basicly i remove as much silicone as i can from the inside
then i clean with acetone
then prob use masking tape or painters tape to make it look good
and apply the new silicone to all the seams
the tank is never completely apart

am i following right?
 
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NORTHERNREEF;3776125; said:
ok so basicly i remove as much silicone as i can from the inside
then i clean with acetone
then prob use masking tape or painters tape to make it look good
and apply the new silicone to all the seams
the tank is never completely apart

am i following right?
Click to expand...


mister, you wanna keep that 220 gal inside your tank ... it will take you couple hours to strip it all the way, get yourself some scraper with re changeable blades ( IMO it's the best tool to remove silicone ) Acetone ... hmmm use it ONLY after you removed all silicone ( don't think that acetone will dissolve any of the old silicone )

OR ... if the leak is on the bottom , what you could alternatively do is have some piece of glass idk how big is your leak ... but you could clean just the leaking part as much as you can from the inside, then put silicone there + on the piece of glass that you silicone in the spot where it was leaking - it worked for me when I had to ghetto fix one of the tanks.

so I reread it and you did say it was bottom that leaks ... if the leaking are is 3-4inch long cut off a little more of the old silicone ( you can give it 2extra inches on each side ) clean to bare glass, use scraper then acetone or something alcohol based, GE silicone 1 and voila =) haha

pics ?



good luck
 
i will be taking pics, yeah it is on the bottom, when we lifted the tank up to move it from the previous owners house it leaked from the bottom pretty fast i thought what water was left , this is a nice like new looking aga 220 gal, i really dont wanna use panels of glass to put over the glass unless i have to, keep it looking original and nice
and yes i don't want any disasters so i wanna do it right
 
razor blades, acetone, razor blades, acetone.... once you get the right angle of the razor blade its a breeze. i stripped 2 55's in about an hour. take your time and watch your fingers ha ha
 
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