Okay so I give up, haha

[HybridS130]

So I bought this 55 gallon tank from a yardsale for $10 two or three weeks ago. I spent the first couple of days cleaning it and scraping away the old silicone that had to be removed anyway because it was peeling along the edges. I've never resealed a tank before but, I did lots of research about it on both this forum and a few others.

The first time I attempted to reseal it I laid the bead on too thin and wasn't happy with how it turned out so, I started the process of removing it. The second time I was told to mask off the area around the bead with masking tape before hand so that I would get a smoother edge. When I attempted to remove the tape immediately after laying down the silicone I pulled up the top layer that had already started to cure. Needless to say it was ruined so I scraped off as much of the silicone as I could by hand and allowed the rest to cure and scraped it off with a razor.

So last night I was up to the third time and I was sick of failure at this point so I made sure I had scraped off as much silicone as humanly possible, I probably spent several hours on that alone. Then I cleaned the glass with both alcohol and acetone several times. I taped up the area around the bead with 3M smooth release masking tape (the $5 a roll stuff haha). I worked each seam at a time smoothing it with my finger (that I kept wet at all times) and then immediately I removed the masking tape for that particular bead.

All in all it came out much better but, Im still not happy with it because it doesn't look like the silicone laid down by the tank manufacturers. I think Im putting too much oh and Im not able to smooth it out evenly because of the amount I have on so it looks chunky. I will let it cure completely and then tank it outside to water test it. If it holds then I will ignore how ugly it is and then I'll proceed to setting up my tank. If it doesn't hold then I'll either give away the tank and take a loss or turn it into either a terrarium or vivarium.


My plans for this tank, . . honestly Im not sure yet but, I do think Im either going with another african cichlid tank or a fully planted community tank. Either way I'm going to use a DIY hood with the "you put it together" VHO twin bulbs so that I'll have 4 watts per gallon. This will be more than enough for any planted tank and I might have to find ways to diffuse it a little. If I go with a cichlid tank then this should give me a nice lush layer of bright green algae on the rockwork.

[emc7]

Don't be such as perfectionist. Odd are most of the silicone will be under the plastic trim. If it holds water, it good enough. Nobody will look at the tank once you have gorgeous mbuna in it.

[Zoe]

It's true, once a tank is fully of water and fish, you don't notice the imperfections anymore.

[Christine]

One thing I learned the hard way about resealing. No, it doesnt have to look great, but if you ever plan to have small fry in there you might want to make sure there are no little cave type spaces in the sealant. I resealed one and lost 2 baby bettas to a spot in mine they could get in but not back out... I didn't fix it the first time cause I thought the chances were 1 in a million of it happening again, but sure enough it did.

[HybridS130]

Thanks for the positivie thinking guys. Actually I got a very good bit of advice from someone on cichlid forums for the next time I reseal a tank. He said that I could try using a plastic spoon to scrape off the excess silicone. I suppose I would have to take my time and constantly wipe off the silicone from the spoon with a rag but, it sounds like it would work nicely.

[joe kool]

the only areas you really need to worry about being "neat" are the corners from the bottom to the top as the bottom will be under your substrait. The front 2 are the most important as they are the one's you'll be looking at AND if you ever use any medication with metheline blue (sp? and it's not important enough to go look up right now LOL you get the point, if not ask ) it will stain it a blueish tint making it more visible. As it ages it's turn a cloudy milky color too so it'll be more visible. The spoon technique does work well. I'd also forget about masking it off and just use a razor blade to remover the excess globs once it's all fully cured and to leave a nice clean edge right where the bevel of the spoon meets the glass in the corners. keep the spoon moist with saliva like you did your fingers and it aids in not making such a big mess too

BUT like someone said if your tank is set up attractively and full of colorful cichlids hardly anyone will notice ... unless I come over I've got a bad habbit of picking on details (picky @$$ is what the wife calls it LOL)

[HybridS130]

Haha yeah it sucks for me because Im a perfectionist and OCD so these little problems are really going to dig at me. It's no big deal though because once I get it setup I'll be so happy with the fact that I have a 55 gallon instead of a dinky 29 that I won't even care about the silicone beads.

Im trying to go all out on this tank and get only the best stuff possible, there's no point in spending a lot of money on fish if I have crappy lighting that doesn't show their colors. I found a 48'' 2x65w compact florescent fixture for $100 online which should be plenty for the plants that I want. If I don't do that then I'll go with the VHOs although I have read some negative things about their ballasts going out and the bulbs not lasting more than 3-4 months.

It's hard to carry on so many hobbies at once and still do each of them correctly my project car build up, my tanks, my little carnivorous plant tank, and then just trying to carry on with stuff I need. I'll be selling my 29 gallon soon though to help pay for some of the stuff I still need. I guess all I really need is a light fixture, filter, and some more substrate.

On a side note, I bought a compact florescent bulb for my 5.5 gallon carnivorous plant tank. I had thought it was just a regular florescent bulb and was disappointed at the $12 price but, I couldn't find a florescent bulb anywhere else that would fit the fixture. I get it home and replace my standard incadescent bulb and wowee! What a difference, of course the old light was yellow and hot meanwhile this one is a bright white eventhough it claims to have a 5700k spectrum (if I recall correctly). I also picked up a hygrometer for the tank, hehe I had a lot of extra money this week so it was fun to improve some things.

[joe kool]

I've been using the CF "bulb" type replacements in the house for a while now. There's newer ones out over the past year or so that claim to be in the 65K range. They definately make the colors pop and the wife likes them for putting on makeup as it doesn't look "diffrent" once she walks outside like her other bulbs did. side by side the older CF bulbs look reddish more so like the incandecent they replaced. the newer ones are worth the diffrence to me but they'll come down in price as they get more popular and get more time on the market as with most everything

[HybridS130]

[joe kool]

that is some pretty substantial seamage in the corners there once inside and with some sand/gravel substrate and decorations I think it'll be fine, as long as it holds water ... right

Not many people have resealed enough tanks to be proficient enough to do as good or better than the manufacturers.

[HybridS130]

Hmm what's your input here? If it holds water then and seemed fine then it should be okay to use then right? Do I have to worry about it weakening in a couple of weeks or something and falling apart one night while Im asleep? Everyone says to let it cure 2 days or until you can't smell it anymore, I let it cure four days and could only smell it if I got my nose right against it and it was still faint, well that and I had the glass lids on the tank so Im sure some stink was held in.

Also right now the tank is empty because Im worried about the dresser not holding the weight. Several people have told me that it would be fine but, Im having doubts and I want to be safe so Im thinking about buying or building a stand. Just haven't made up my mind yet.

[joe kool]

the seams should hold ... that was just a bit if humor I was just saying as long as it holds water it's all good

dresser thing really depends on the dresser. Most of todays funiture isn't made to handel that sorta weight. Unless it's a high end piece of solid wood funiture I wouldn't try it (of course if it is a hig end piece you probably don't want "water" on top of it).

[HybridS130]

My thoughts exactly, thanks for all the input man I really appreciate it.

[emc7]

If you can't smell or taste anything and the pH of the water doesn't change overnight, then it is safe for fish. If it holds water for a day, odds are it will hold for years (watch carefully for leaks in the first week, though). You were right to reseal it. An empty tank thats been in a garage for years is far more likely to fail catastrophically than a tank that has continuously held water. Be sure to level the stand and consider putting a piece of styrofoam under the tank. Most every spilt seam I've heard of either had the wrong sealant or was on a tank badly out of level.

[HybridS130]

I did tons of research on resealing the tank before I went through with it and it seems that GE Silicone I was the way to go so that's what I used. Im still wondering if I should use some shims under the tank when I fill it because looking at the face you can see the bottom trim is convex and it's like this on several surfaces not to mention I have had several tanks like this. Does the trim flatten out as you fill the tank or are they designed this way? I always noticed how they arched his way empty while I was positioning the tank but, I always forgot to look after they were full.

[rba]

Originally Posted by emc7

If you can't smell or taste anything and the pH of the water doesn't change overnight, then it is safe for fish. If it holds water for a day, odds are it will hold for years (watch carefully for leaks in the first week, though). You were right to reseal it. An empty tank thats been in a garage for years is far more likely to fail catastrophically than a tank that has continuously held water. Be sure to level the stand and consider putting a piece of styrofoam under the tank. Most every spilt seam I've heard of either had the wrong sealant or was on a tank badly out of level.

The Styro under the tank is an EXCELLENT precaution if things (bottom of tank or top of stand) is even a little uneven. Silicone cures faster in humid conditions, don't know how the chemical reaction works but humidity in the air speeds curing. The smell is acetic acid (which is what distilled vinegar is). Not toxic the way organic solvents are. Filling it for leak testing before the smell is 100% gone should be no big deal. Only thing I can add is to really take a good look at the center brace on the top trim. Make sure it is not beginning to crack before you do a final filler-up in the permannent spot. How much glass can bow out with that center brace gone is scary. GE Silicone is good stuff.

[HybridS130]

All of the trim is in great condition and depending on which route I take I might be making a custom canopy for it which I assume would add additional strength up top.

[HybridS130]

Whelp I went ahead and got a tank stand from wal-mart. I have to admit though for where it came from and the price it's a very nice stand and was fairly easy to put together, just time consuming. I moved my dresser to inside the closet and when I take down the 29 gallon setup I'll have plenty of extra room in here. Im going to set it all up tonight and I will post pictures then.

Edit: Oh the stand was $82 including tax so I couldn't have even built a nice stand for that much.

[HybridS130]

So the tank has the millennium 3000 filter, two 100 watt marineland heater, Red Sea turbo C02 system and the old 29 gallon's light fixture. My friend is hooking me up with a 55 gallon light fixture tomorrow morning which I'll use until I upgrade to either CF or VHO in a couple of weeks. The filter will be replaced in the future depending on what kind of fish I choose to keep. After I upgrade the lighting my plans so far are to build a thick wall of vals in the back with an extremely large piece of driftwood to take up teh middle of the tank. From there I'll fill in the areas with different kind of plants over a period of time. I think Im ditching the idea of any cichlids because this tank just isn't large enough to really let them thrive so I'll be going with some nice community fish.

[HybridS130]

All seems to be going well as of right now, no flexing or leaks noticed and I've checked several times all around the tank lol. I checked the PH a few minutes ago and it seems fine, the water here is a bit high so Im going to go out later and get a couple boxes of distilled water. Only thing bothering me so far is this green discoloration in the water. I used all of the water from the 29 gallon and it used to have driftwood so it was pee yellow, maybe it was diluted enough and looks a bit greenish now. Im trying to get rid of it with water changes though.

Eventhough the tank is in front of a window I don't see too much of a problem with algae because I have blinds and a dark blue curtain. Eventually I'll be getting a black backround for the aquarium although I'd really like to get something other than the glossy stuff.

Hmm, maybe I could use natural light to my advantage and save money on lighting, just have to clean tons of algae. . . naaah.