How to Reseal an Aquarium | Resealing Our 75 Gallon Fish Tank
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- How to Reseal an Aquarium | Resealing Our Fish Tank
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Special thanks to Kevin at N.O.A.H. Northern Ontario Aquarium Hobby
/ @n.o.a.h.-northernonta...
Today Mike and Kevin reseal our 75 gallon aquarium before it becomes an issue. The silicone on the tank was bubbling and water was getting between the glass and silicone. The fish tank would have eventually failed and started to leak or let go and made a big water mess.
To start the process of resealing our fish tank Mike removed the old silicone first. A few tools that make this job easier are, scrapers of assorted sized, calking puller and some razor blades. Start by scraping silicone from each side of a seam. Once it starts to lift either use your calking puller or scrapper to remove silicone. Be mindful of adhesive, do not dig out seams as you may damage the adhesive. last step after most of silicone is gone would be to use Acetone to remove remaining traces of silicone from seems. Also note that Acetone will eat adhesive so do not apply to cracks.
After your tank is clean you want to start taping your safe area with painters tape. You want to leave a 1/4 inch on each side of seam. Apply silicone in all seams and either use finger or calking spreader to spread to appropriate thickness. The last step in this process is to remove tape as soon as you are done spreading the silicone. It takes about 20 to 25 minutes before the silicone starts to harden up so these last steps have to be done promptly.
Allow 24-48 hours for the silicone to cure. If you still smell a strong odor the silicone is not yet set. Allow additional time to dry if needed, until no odor of silicone remains. The last step is to fill the tank. We recommend slowly filling it over a period of 24 hours or more to be on the safe side. If at any point you see large stress fractures in the silicone it may be necessary to restart the resealing process. It usually means it did not adhere well enough, which can be caused by not cleaning the area enough prior.
I really wish someone would show in the video how to do corners. Corners always trip me up, especially when using a tool, because when you switch from smoothing the horizontal seams to smoothing the vertical ones, you tend to slightly wipe the horizontal seams. Do you have any suggestions for this?
it is a dip in motiontipping the toe of the tool to near contact and straightening as you travel
Same way I did my 10G and same silicone. Did you use the clear or the translucent? Great Job!
Hey thanks Diego, this stuff here is the clear i believe. They only had the one kind at my local home hardware. $16 bucks for 3 tubes so a decent price. It would have costed about $300 to claim the warranty for the tank so a lot cheaper of a solution.
took you 3 hours to remove the silicone... maybe use a razor blade to scrape it off instead next time because I just did this step and it took 30 minutes. I'm just here to find out the best way to put the new silicone on before I do it and screw up and make a mess lol
Wow dude. If you think the silicone seal on this tank was bad you would trip the hell out if you seen my tank. Missing big ass chunks all around and in some areas it's completely gone. I still use it though and have zero leaks even when filled to the top. It's a 55 gallon curved front glass tank. Weird huh. But yeah I'm thinking about finally resealing it so that's why I am here.
Thanks guys. Cut, clean and re seals on a level surface are just as important as tank and filter maintenance for long term fish keepers. The real hard part is waiting for the silicone to dry before you refill it with water hehehe.
What kind of silicone did you use to reseal ?
Would you have to remove the top bracing of the aquarium or just only remove the silicone at the edges and corners?
i realize I'm kind of off topic but does anybody know of a good place to watch new series online?
@Collin Jamal Flixportal :P
@Elliot Tucker thanks, I went there and it seems like they got a lot of movies there :D Appreciate it !
@Collin Jamal No problem :D
Have been lucky enough I've only had to do this a few times. I never taped. Found if you just used a steady hand, it was neat enough. Also found it so much easier to just use my finger as well. The biggest lesson I learned was really give it time to cure. I got impatient once, and it did not go well lol. Great vid
Yes patients is key when doing this sort of stuff. Thank you very much for watching and leaving us a few comments they are greatly appreciated.
Awesome tutorial! I’m sure this will help a lot of people 👍🏻
Hopefully man, i appreciate you watching.
Great video!....about how long does seal last "normally" ?? I've had my tank 5 years now.
Thank you man. Well this tank was made in 2014 but i have had tanks last me much longer. I am not sure if this was just a bad batch of silicone Marineland used but i would think that 6 or 7 years would be the average.
Watching this as my 100g is draining into storage bins 😭😭😭😭😭
Oh no that's terrible, sorry to hear that Luke. They just don't make em like they use to.
watching this as my 225g leaks outside
@@Booneville2024 I removed the silicone and and reapplied, I didn't tear it all the way down and it's still holding water 8 months later as of now
@@Booneville2024 i resealed it and its good as new
@@seanearly54321 How's yours doing? Mine is still not leaking
You Two helped me out !!! Thank you 🤜🎯🤛
No problem man happy to help
Thanks for the video guys. Very helpful.
No problem happy to hear it helped.
Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Heather, we appreciate the comment
I have a 90 gallon that's leaking at the joint between the bottom pane and the front/back pane. You can see the whiteness in the joint where the silicone that holds glass together indicating that the joint isn't bonded. Would you just reseal the inside corners or would a complete rebuild be needed? I feel like it should be a rebuild as the leaking joint remains a weak point and would risk a future blow out. Anyway of going about it without a complete rebuild?
Ah dude that really blows. I would rebuild it at that point man. I would always be worried that it would blow out at some point.
AQUA NUT thanks for replying. Not the answer is was waiting for 😂. Well, I have a lot of work ahead of me then.
I would love to meet you some time to get some of the knowledge you have I am from Brampton been in the hobby for a bit but I jus started really taking it serious would love to pick your brain sometime
So you dont have to remove the rim to reseal?
No just make sure you remove all of the silicone on the inside and you are good.
Great video guys
Couple of Questions
You have to do it all in one go?
I have an 8 ft tank
I have to realy hurry with it
It's just the bottom front join that's leaking
Can I get away with just resealing the front edge ?
Does the thickness matter? Can I do thin? I don't plan on filling it with water. It's for reptiles
Yes if you are just using it for reptiles the for sure thin is fine.
@@AQUANUT awesome! Thanks for the response. Love the video
The Dynamic Duo, very well done guys and informative in the whole process with solid tips on the project to make it a successful DIY aquatic endeavor.
Hey thanks Walter. Its always fun getting to work with Kevin on a project. We appreciate the kind words man hope it helps someone out
I kinda went too far with the razer blade and digged into a top corner seam and the glass is a little loose so your saying I have to tear the tank down completely now
I have never done that before Ethan but if your glass is loose then it sounds like you are going to have to fully reseal it now. I would look at a few videos from someone doing a full tear down.
AQUA NUT so I did dismantle the tank completely and my tank in particular has a bottom trim which the bottom glass panel rest on and then the side panels go down into the bottom trim I haven’t seen anybody on UA-cam dismantle a tank like mine and put it back together it’s a
10 gallon aqua culture aquarium btw.
I'm glad I watched this. I have a 60 gallon I have to do.
+Frank's Tanks oh right on Frank. Its a great skill to have. I have a few tanks to do myself.
How’s the tank holding after 2 years of re sealing it? I have the same tank size and I’m thinking about re sealing it but I was reading online that it could be more of a disaster then problem solver
Reseal it if you think it needs it I have had tank disasters and its not worth the risk.. The tank is holding up great. and I am not worried about it at all.
AQUA NUT I started cleaning the old silicone and iv got about 85-90% off. Does it have to be 100% clean??
@@AG-tm4gr Yes it has to be nice and clean for the silicone to stick properly
thanks helped me build up the courage to do a 40 gallon breeder i got used for free
+velvet blue moon oh thats awesome. Glad to hear it, I have 2 20 gallons that I am getting ready to reseal on my own this time. One thing to remember, if you mess it up you can always scrape it back down and start over. Practice makes perfect as they say. Good luck.
FIRST!!!!!! AHHHHHHHhahahaah , lol
Haha thanks for watching Kyle
The GE sealant that it is not for aquarium use
This is really helpful. Thank you just subbed!
Glad you find it helpful man. Thank you for subscribing also, its much appreciated
Great video Mike😁👍🏼
Thanks bro
Not true bad info all silicone is safe
Thank you, this was a very helpful demo. Should come in real handy for lots of people.
Thanks Shelley. I know i myself am going to find it useful in a few weeks when i reseal a few tanks i have lying around here. I really appreciate you watching .
I may too , have to refer back to this someday :) I will save it in my faves
If you need any advice when the time comes feel free to ask away. Have a great night Shelley
Thanks for this very informative video.
You flipping us off lol
Thanks for the awesome video!
Much appreciated, thanks for watching.
When the acetone dries is there a harmful residue? For some reason I was thinking that if it was completely dry I didn't have anything to worry about. Getting ready to do this on a 55.
I am not sure Corey i always have rinsed out the tank really well before use but it is the only thing that really works to remove that fine film. I have not had losses from it.
Can we use acetone nail polish remover?