I Got A Leak

[noreaster]

About halfway down one corner of my aquarium I noticed this morning, I lost about 20 gallons on the floor (good thing it's in the basement).

I drained my tank and have my fish in buckets and boxes and waiting for the tank to dry
Any advice on re sealing the seams??


Any help apreciated

 

[Oddball]

Glass or acrylic? What size tank?

Glass: take a safety razor and clear all exposed silicone from the inside seams. Then, run a bead of fresh silicone and flatten/smooth it with a rubbergloved finger or dowel. I've had success with this method.

Acrylic: Get an acrylic bonding adhesive (like Weld-On #30 or #40 from rplastics.com). Get a piece of scrap acrylic (like acrylic pictire frame covers from a hardware store). File/grate the scrap acrylic til you have a nice little pile of shavings. Mix some of the shavings into batches of the bonding agent and quicly work it into the seams of the tank. The bonding agent partially melts the seam surfaces to meld them and the shavings add structure/strength.

Someone may have a better method of repairing leaks but, these have worked for me.

 

[noreaster]

thanks oddball

it is a glass tank
110 us gallons five foot long

 

[Oddball]

The method I listed should work just fine. I've used it on tanks up to 240 gallons.Above 240, I'd recommend a silicone dissolver and completely redo all seams with new sealer.

 

[Oddball]

You'll want to also clean all the seams with alcohol after you finish scraping to remove all oils before resealing. I just noticed I neglected to mention that.

 

[noreaster]

I scraped the one seam cleaned it with alchohol and aplied the silicone.

I also took off the top corner brace things whatever the hell they are called and glued them back on with some strong glue.

I'll fill it back up tomorrow and see how it goes

 

[jpatz18]

so does it leak anymore.............

 

[smeese]

My fingers are crossed for ya! Good luck with it!