Plugging a drilled tank

[Rose22]

I found a great deal on a 125, but it's drilled. I am putting this up in my science classroom. It will be sitting on top of the lab counter, not on a stand. I don't have space in my room to just put it on the stand. I have no way/am not allowed to drill through the stone counters to run things underneath, so I need to plug the holes. Any ideas? I've never had a drilled tank, so I don't even know what that entails. Thanks.

 

[charliebankston]

Where are the holes?

 

[Rose22]

The bottom? I haven't seen the tank yet to know where exactly they are. I'm going to go look at it tomorrow. It was a reef tank if that that helps with a guess as to where they might be.

 

[charliebankston]

Prob in the bottom. I bought a 125 last year that was a drilled salt water. The silicone was shot, so i resealed it. I just watched some diy videos, it wasn't too hard. I've done about 5 more since then lol. Mine was drilled in the back about 4" from the top. Because there wasn't much water pressure there, I just went to the local big box hardware store and got 2 5x5" pieces of regular glass cut. Then I glued them over the holes with E6000 glue. After I let that cure for a few days, I sealed the back of the hole and around the edge with silicone. No leaks so far. It's not beatific, but it's not really noticeable cuz it's on the back. And the tank has 11 discus in it so no one looks at that part anyway, haha!

 

[charliebankston]

That was a long explanation of how we fixed up our 125. That being said, if the holes are in the bottom, I just guess you'd have to plug with pvc caps and seal, or use thicker glass to seal like we did. The water pressure from the tank will help

 

[Rose22]

Okay, so thick glass siliconed on top of it and then seal the edges of the glass should be fine. I might sandwich it, glass piece sealed inside the tank. Let it cure for like a week. Seal from the outside. Let it cure. Seal on another piece of glass from the bottom. We'll see what the tank looks like tomorrow. I just want to make sure it doesn't leak. 125 gallons of water on a classroom floor would not be good.

 

[charliebankston]

No kidding! I think that would work fine. That E6000 glue is also waterproof and will bond acrylic to glass too, just fyi