Free 55

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scubasteve06

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 10, 2008
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Just got a free 55 gallon tank with stand and penguin 350 and heater. Problem is the tank is leaking at the front of the tank from the bottom. Im not sure of the brand of tank and it is about 7-8 years old as is my guess. It has the braces underneath the tank and the actual glass of the tank seems to sit inside a black plastic trim piece. How would I go about getting that piece off without breaking it to see exactly the point where the leak is coming from. Once I do that how would I go about fixing it? I just filled it up maybe a 5th of the way to see where the leak was coming from and am now sipohning the rest of the water out to get it empty. Any help and ideas would be great as I plan on putting some of my community fish from my 29 in there as well as my GT from my 90 to make a little more room. Or I was going to use it as anothr QT hospital/breeding tank. Thanks!
 
Strip all of the old silicone off and put new silicone in . That should eliminate the leak.
 
Would I have to dissasemble the glass pieces on the tank to do that or just strip the seals off they are pretty thin. Once I do that do I just clean the seal and re-silicone it??? Is it really that simple?
 
bump for an answer or more advice? like to get started on this project tomorrow
 
scubasteve06;1547214; said:
Would I have to dissasemble the glass pieces on the tank to do that or just strip the seals off they are pretty thin. Once I do that do I just clean the seal and re-silicone it??? Is it really that simple?
Click to expand...

yes. Unless there is a gaping hole or a crack you can re-seal it without tearing it apart. Make sure you remove as much of of the old stuff as you can.
 
What is the best tool to use to get the old silicone off, just a metal paint scraper??? I figure I scrape all of it off, use *insert cleaning product* to clean off the seals and then re-silicone them??? The leak is slow and not bad so I don't think the need to take it apart is a necessity. I'm going to re-do all the seals seeing as these are leaking.
 
razor blade is about your best bet. and isopropol alcohol since it should eat away and small bits of silicon left behind. I'm sure if you search google there are plenty of guides to doing it.
 
use a a razor blade too scrape off the silicone.its small but does the job.
 
Razor blade does good at this. Scrape all you can off then clean with rubbing alcohol, unless this is an acrylic tank then neither of these ideas will work. Once it is really clean just reapply silicone. Just remember, silicone doesn't stick well to silicone. More glass=More better.
 
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