Resealing a tank

[Brett]

I've been away from home for a while and when I got back I discovered that my 29G refugium has been slowly leaking. Luckily it wasn't much more than a drip, but in the time I was gone it managed to soak a corner of my carpet and seriously rust the iron stand the tank was on. (Of course, the good news is that it gave me a good excuse to go out and get a new 55G tank).

In any case, I just couldn't bring myself to throw away my old 29G tank and I was wondering what would be involved in resealing it? The leak appears to be on the bottom because while I was dismantling it I left it with about an inch of water for a while and it still leaked. Can I just put new silicon bead over the existing bead or am I asking for trouble?

Thanks,
Brett

[donpollo]

Bret,
I had a 75gln aquarium with a large Oscar and blue channle cat. The cat fish would swim from one side to the other realy fast back and forth resulting in a thunk pause thunk pause.... anyway you get the picture. eventualy the seams in this tank began to fail. I did reseal them a few times by just running a new silicone bead on them but with time and a few thousand more thunks they would fail again. If you have the time a few bucks and patience you can strip the old silicon off and redo it. Denatured Alcohol is great for cleanning up silicone and can also be used to wipe off the excess when you have the tank together. Most decent hardware stores will have some kind of clamp for making cabinets that will hold your glass at a perfect 90. 2 of these will help the stress level greatly.

[coralite]

IME of resealing tanks, only the silicone in the corner of the panes of glass needs to be removed. The sealant btween the panes should be left alone and no clamps are necessary, especially for a 29g.

[Fonchy]

One of the panes of my 55 AGA cracked, I went to the glass shop bought the side pane15 bucks, a tube of silicone 5.95, 2 clamps (because I had to replace the whole side) 25 minutes later woala!!!!!!!, then I left it drying for 1 week and is been running like a kitten for 3 months, the only thing about it is that you need to do is to clean the sides very, very, very god.

Sorry in your case try to remove the old silicone (DO NOT TAKE APART THE TANK) just the exposed silicone, and run a good bead of it on all sides and you will be fine.