I wanted to give everyone that helped an update on my 3rd attempt to re seal my 225 glass aquarium. The most important lesson I learned is that if something doesn't seem right it probubly isnt.
When I bought this tank and stand I noticed right off the bat that the stand was only supporting the tank on the corners. My thought was that it was built proffesionally so it should be fine..... WRONG... My belief is that this was the main cause for the tank to leak. 225 gallons of water = 1800 lbs. not including rocks decorations and canopy. Always make sure your tank is supported completely on the stand. Glass even Tempered does flex with weight applied to it. This has to be the cause of the tank seperating
I flipped the tank upside down and removed the silicone that was holding the trim on. Once I pulled the trim off I saw my problem. There was gravel inbetween the bottom piece of glass and the front piece. It was atleast a 1/16" gap inbetween them. On the plus side having this gap made it much easier to remove the bottom glass. Then again if the gap was not there I more than likely would not of leaked.... Once I removed the glass I cleaned with a razor blade and denatured alcohol. The glass in this area is not as polished as when you are just re sealing so this was a slow and very tedius piece of the project. After I noticed the glass was seperated I decided that the GE silicone 1 was not my issue so I went back to it rather than waiting to have some other type shipped to me. I ran thin bead of silicone around the edges of the glass and put the piece back on. Before I put the trim back on I inspected with a bright light to ensure that there was no air pockets in the silicone inbetween the glass. I then siliconed the trim back in place so that it would keep the glass from sliding around when I apllied the wieght on it. I then placed 3 5 gallon buckets of rock on it to make sure that it was attached well. The tank sat like this for 7 days.
I then flipped the tank back over and cut out the rest of the silicone on the sides and any that pressed out through the seam on the bottom. "I did not remove the silicone in the corners while I removed the bottom piece of glass cause I was not going to chance moving 350 lb tank without all the silicone in place. Yes It added another step and more drying time but I did not damage the tank in the process."
Then I finished re sealing the the remainder of the tank.
Now lets get back to the stand. I attached a piece of 7/16 plywood to fill the void in the framing of the stand. Now the top of the stand is solid piece and the frame of the aquarium is set on a solid surface.
I let the tank dry for 48 hours then water tested for 5 days. No issues.
Now I re set the tank back in the house So far so good.
I apologize for not taking pictures of the process but it was a new adventure for me as well and I was just focused on getting it right. 225 gallons of water in my computer room would be a nightmare. Here is a couple Pics of the finished product. Thank you all again for your help.
TTT
BUMP
