Refurbishing an ancient tank.

[Formiga]

Well My newest project. A 56 Gallon 36x18x20" ancient beat up crap. Along with the 20H inside it, for $15 Canadian dollars.

It also came with broken trim, the top piece came off without effort so I can use it to replace the bottom piece if I need to. It's been resealed at some point with blue silicone, and it's filthy.

It's much easier to remove the bulk of the old silicone with a large Olfa knife, a lot of online guides recommend using one of those construction scrapers(with the one-sided razer blades) for cleaning windows. I agree, just for the final cleaning off the old silicone though.

At this point those scrapers are usefull, there tends to be a thin film of old silicone that needs to be removed. Vinegar, water, and a little bit of dish soap in spray bottle, some serious elbow grease!

It's now trimless! Going to want some advise on that subject later too. Pardon the chaos behind it, it's cold outside and I'm only allowed to use the storage room for this project. Going to go take some better pictures with a real camera so that everyone can see what the hell I'm asking about.

Thanks!

 

[5am]

great pick ups..resealing those 2 tanks would be pretty simple.. just make the extra effort to get off ALL the old silicone...

 

[Dr Joe]

"ancient"?!?!?

I still have a couple Metalife tanks I'm using(for you "youngin's", that's a tank with a chromed metal frame)

Use acetone of alcohol for the final cleanup (alcohol if your indoors and use a fan with either one)

Good luck with the reseal job.

Dr Joe

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[Formiga]

The 56G is the only one that gets resealed, the 20H is gonna be dismantled for dividers for my sump!

This is my current MinisculeFishKeeper tank, 30ish Gallons 36x12x18 perfect for a sump for this 56 that's being resealed! I found the real camera and some batteries to go in it so I can give some better pictures.
And don't worry when I get to that point there will be nothing but air on that pure clean glass before silicone touches it!

 

[Formiga]

With my previous experiences with this I haven't seen this, and I'm not sure what to do about it.

That's not silicone on glass, I have it flush with the glass now, it's silicone in between glass. This tank was poorly built, the bottom pane is decidely not square and not anywhere close to an even gap around it. I don't know if it matters though. It looks like the sides were put together, put into the trim, the bottome pane put in and silicone used to seal the gaps. Does this mean that I can't use this tank trimless?

These bubbles are in the areas where there is a large gap filled with silicone, some areas worse than others. I still have the top trim, which was at some point identical to the bottom, which I could put back on. but I don't really want to. So I'm not really too sure what to do, or if I need to do anything. How thick can the silicone be inbetween panes and still have full structural integrity?
Tank building/refinishing gurus help me out here!

 

[Dr Joe]

1/8" - 3/16" in spots, but not for long runs. On a 10g I've gone 1/2", but I wouldn't do it on a 56g.

Silicone between the glass? are you saying they stuck two sheets of glass together?

Dr Joe

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[ronin_man]

Silicone between the glass? are you saying they stuck two sheets of glass together?

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thats kinda what it looks like doesnt it...

 

[Formiga]

I meant the silicone in the space between the ends of the bottom pane and the sides of the tank.

It's about 1/8" between the bottom pane and one end pane. A little less than that on that corner of the long run, tapering down to nothing. That corner, though looks like they knocked on corner off the bottom pane before putting it together and just filled that 1/4" gap up with silicone. So I shouldn't worry about this I take it.
OK, if anyone else wants to pipe on that one, great! Otherwise onto the next questions, and I'll just lay them out all at once.
1. Since I'm worrying about this bottom pane in the first place... Whether it's needed or not, would it be a good idea or not to put a piece of pink styro the thickness of the space underneath the bottom pane? I've always used it under my tanks, but not for bottom support like that.
2. Will the new silicone adhere to the old silicone that's in the gaps between panes? Or does it matter?
3. Going trimless on a tank this size. Glass looks to be 10mm, 8mm on the bottom, and it's heavy! The tank was (assumption here) designed with top and bottom one piece trim, was it structural or cosmetic? I can add bracing as needed after the reseal.

Now on that note, I'm going to go pretend I like that scrapy thing and make some clean glass!

 

[fishman646]

my 240 is all glass and the bottom is a 1/2 inch of the stand and there is no banding or braces

 

[Formiga]

Your stand is the bottom of the tank?!
or 1/2" off the stand? I think it's time to go to bed!