Need your thoughts on resealing 55 gallon please!

[severum mama]

A while back I got a 55 gallon tank for free that has a leak in the bottom left seal toward the back of the tank. I've finally gotten a stand and extra filter for it and it's about time to reseal it. I've resealed a 55 before for my work, and I did not strip all the seals, only the ones in the corners from top to bottom. Now I'm wondering if I can just strip the seals around the bottom and leave the others alone. I've heard conflicting advice on what I should do. There's an article around here somewhere that talks about only stripping and resealing around the leak, and other sources say to do the whole thing. Any thoughts on the matter would be much appreciated, as usual!

And hey, if I mess it up too badly, at least the floor in my main living area is all ceramic tile!

 

[tropicalfish]

How old is it? What are the seal conditions like? does it move when you push it or touch it?

 

[Lepomis]

I am firm believer that if you are gong to do something do your best to do it right the first time. You may be able to seal it without removing all but bottom line it isn't going to be the best option. Even with the ceramic flooring I would hate to clean up the mess, possible damage to the stand and other furniture loss of fish etc... because I decided to save a little time. That couple of hours spent will more than make up for the several hours cleaning up the mess (forget the dollars in replacing the inhabitants, that alone could add up to several hundred dollars) if the tank fails.

 

[tropicalfish]

Not only will you have to replace the inhabitants, if the tank fails and the heater is not an auto-shut off, you can destroy the heater, and you might overheat your filter just by running it dry.

 

[severum mama]

Believe me, I realize what you have to deal with when a tank leaks... that's how I got it in the first place! I just wanted to make sure it really mattered. I absolutely loathe the part where you strip the seals, so I was trying to make it as easy on myself as possible. You all are right though, I should just go ahead and do the whole thing. But first, one more question- do you think 1 tube of silicone will be enough to reseal the whole tank? I got the All-Glass brand and I can't decide if I need to buy another tube. Thanks for the input!

 

[mp3z24]

get a second tube of silicone. when sealing a tank, you DONT want to run out and have to leave to get more silicone. if you dont need it, you can return it.

~mike

 

[tropicalfish]

You can go to the walmart or some place and get two tubes of GE Silicone I Clear. Even though it says it is not safe, it is.

 

[DeFeKt]

If it's leaking through the seams, you really want to strip the panel off and fix it properly.

 

[severum mama]

If it's leaking through the seams, you really want to strip the panel off and fix it properly.

What do you mean?

 

[DeFeKt]

Just that if it is leaking all the way through the seal and all the way through the joins in the panel as well. You would really want to strip that panel/s off and reglue it entirely, as well as resealing the tank.
Only resealing it (in mine and my builders opinion) is insufficient if you want the tank to last long term. There will always be a residue of either water inside the join or air pockets will come back and form under your fresh seal. (seeing as it leaks) The join will fail sooner or later if not fixed properly.

EDIT:
Just thought i'd mention that this recently came up in a discussion between myself and my builder when I was repairing a seam.
Only constructive advice, hope it helps

 

[BillD]

I have fixed leaks by resealing the inside, and so far after 13 years, the tanks are still not leaking. Do strip off all the old inner seam, as silicone doesn't stick to old silicone very well, and it isn't worth the risk. for the extra 20 minutes, it will be well worth your while. It isn't necessary to rmove the pane for small leaks.

 

[severum mama]

Ok, so my plan was to strip all the seals in the tank and re-silicone them. I've done that before and I'm confident I can do it again. However, I have never actually taken the panes of glass apart and to be honest I'm not really comfortable with doing that. Jeez, maybe I should just buy a new tank. I guess I will go ahead with the easy plan, and let it sit in the garage full of water for a week or so and see what happens. I'm not trying to blow off anyone's advice and again, I appreciate everyone's point of view.

Defekt- if I wake up one day to 55 gallons of water in my living room, I will gladly accept an "I told you so!"

 

[kickeralpine]

the inner seam is what stops the leaks not the silicon that is put where the glass goes together the glass panels are siliconed so the glass aint rubbing glass and helps hold it together but the inside silicon is the most inportint part in my book my tank is 72x 18 and i didnt take it all apart and i had a leak threw the seam but the inside silicon was coming off would be to hard to take apart and put back togher that size tank