Thoughts on this tank?

[Skyeboy]

Im in market for another bigger tank. Found one local that is actually a 225g. 72x27x27. Tank.stand. 75g sump with mag drive pump and 2 rear overflows. Went and looked at tank today. Everything appears to be cared for.stand is solid.however, i found a small penny sized flat chip on front corner of the tank. Small chip out of the corner. Looks to have been filled with silicone. There was no water in tank at the time but guy says it was filled until he moved it. Think its safe or flirting with danger? Hes asking $400.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Obviously hard to say. I have had tanks similar with chips, one was on the end and all the way through with a leak, but extra silicone sorted it.
IF you decide to risk it, I would suggest making that the rear of the tank if possible and adding additional silicon inside to help support. Concern would be how old the tank is and potentially how good the silicone is. If the tank has cross bars above, less pressure is put outwards on the glass so less probability of "bust" but at the end of the day none of us can say it will or won't be ok for certain. A further option is to silicone corner pieces to the outside to brace further. L shaped wood or pvc can be added and made to look like part of the hood, tank, frame, stand.

 

[Skyeboy]

Yea i thought about that as well. Sadly that has to be the front bc the back is drilled with 2 overflows in rear.

 

[Skyeboy]

Any other opinions?

 

[Backfromthedead]

Nice looking tank but that is a substantial ding. From the pics the glass looks like 15mm at least and that chip appears to be maybe half of that or more deep. My old glass tank with 15mm has a few chips like that maybe 2-3mm deep which have been inconsequential, but i might consider some type of repair for the damage on that tank...

But even with the damage, if the silicone is in good shape it will probably hold water fine for years.

 

[MrsE88]

Any other opinions?

Ask them to go down on the price?

To me damage like that brings value on an already used tank way down. To fix it the “right way” will cost more and be a good deal of work.
Of course it might be fine and hold water for years without problems... but no one can know for sure.

Also, new silicone will not stick and seal to old silicone. So if you wanted to add more for peace of mind that would mean resealing the whole tank. Then you’d be able to have a thicker silicone bead near the damaged area.

I don’t know what the rest of the tanks seals look like, but I’d give it a really good look over. You might be looking at a reseal anyway.

 

[Skyeboy]

Yea thats my worry. The other seals look ok for used tank. The front corner with the chip has the worst looking silicone. What would proper repair be?

 

[duanes]

Here is a chip in the front of one of my tanks,

I had it set up this way since the mid 1980s, when I moved to Panama in 2015, I gave it to a friend, who is still using it.

 

[Skyeboy]

What is this setup worth? I'm going to try and haggle down. And do some type of repair

 

[Backfromthedead]

Here is a chip in the front of one of my tanks,

I had it set up this way since the mid 1980s, when I moved to Panama in 2015, I gave it to a friend, who is still using it.

I remember you reassuring me with this when i asked about my old tank, as this damage is similar sized to the chips on it. But if you look at the chip on the op's tank close, specifically in the second pic, it looks to be a lot deeper of a chip.