180 gallon reseal

[reslawski1]

I bought this aquarium second hand and this aquarium was bought by him first hand by a retailer and and had not been altered until it was in my care I wanted to reseal the whole aquarium based on a crappy looking seal and I’m at this point to where I’m so close to done and found this chip? In the bottom corner panel connecting to the structural seal. What are your guys thoughts on this? Any advice on what to do next or where to go from here?

 

[UncommonSense]

Hmm.. it’s to say with how close the camera is to the spot in question, but I assume this video is of a seam between bottom pane and a vertical pane on a rimmed tank?

I have a very similar chip in my rimmed 180G, on a vertical structural seam…

— in my case, water eventually started seeping around the seam, through the air gap between glass chip and glass pane… I went down a rabbit hole to properly repair that fiasco!



would it be possible to get pictures of this chip from a few different angles to help determine where it begins and ends on the silicone side, and where it physically is within the tank?

 

[reslawski1]

Hmm.. it’s to say with how close the camera is to the spot in question, but I assume this video is of a seam between bottom pane and a vertical pane on a rimmed tank?

I have a very similar chip in my rimmed 180G, on a vertical structural seam…

— in my case, water eventually started seeping around the seam, through the air gap between glass chip and glass pane… I went down a rabbit hole to properly repair that fiasco!



would it be possible to get pictures of this chip from a few different angles to help determine where it begins and ends on the silicone side, and where it physically is within the tank?

To be honest I wouldn’t even know how to get a better angle or where to start with that it was a pain in the butt to get this one lol and yes the aquarium does have the black plastic trim on top and bottom of the aquarium how you get a better angle of the chip itself? And yes it is a vertical pane on top of the bottom pane of glass.

 

[JonezNReef]

I had a similar issue with my last 180 and decided to reseal it. If you reseal it you will need to do the whole tank not just the one seam. Take it all the way apart cleaning off all the silicone. Then put it back together using silicone 1 not silicone 2. I resealed mine 8 years ago and it still holds water.
It’s not easy but cheaper than a new tank.

 

[UncommonSense]

how you get a better angle of the chip itself?

I usually try to view it from both sides, but this chip is semi-hidden by the bottom rim… best-bet here will be examining the chip from an angle off to one side, or looking through the glass bottom pane up at the chip!

The goal being to determine if the chip terminates in the first half of the structural silicone seam, or if it continues further than that, and needs some glass reinforcement in the area as insurance against water starting to weep in the future…

 

[reslawski1]

how you get a better angle of the chip itself?

I usually try to view it from both sides, but this chip is semi-hidden by the bottom rim… best-bet here will be examining the chip from an angle off to one side, or looking through the glass bottom pane up at the chip!

The goal being to determine if the chip terminates in the first half of the structural silicone seam, or if it continues further than that, and needs some glass reinforcement in the area as insurance against water starting to weep in the future…

If that is the case how old I reinforce the glass to make it sturdier?

 

[UncommonSense]

If that is the case how old I reinforce the glass to make it sturdier?

You literally add more glass to the tank! In this case, at least one thin strip or rod of thick standard soda lime glass would be added during the reseal, creating a secondary structural glass brace/gusset inside the primary tank seam… this glass bracing should be thick enough to completely span over the chip once added, entombing it inside a very robust reinforced joint!

My tank thread has documentation on how I did this to the vertical seams of my 180G, and my ongoing FrankenReefer 450 build thread goes way deeper into the details of custom structural glass fabrication, and silicone application!

(Example symmetrical right pentagon profile glass rods, made from 5/8” thick, ~1/2” thick, and ~5/16” thick glass… as far as I know, I’m the only one out there making these custom profile rods from soda-lime glass, with extremely plane perpendicular faces:)

 

[reslawski1]

If that is the case how old I reinforce the glass to make it sturdier?

You literally add more glass to the tank! In this case, at least one thin strip or rod of thick standard soda lime glass would be added during the reseal, creating a secondary structural glass brace/gusset inside the primary tank seam… this glass bracing should be thick enough to completely span over the chip once added, entombing it inside a very robust reinforced joint!

My tank thread has documentation on how I did this to the vertical seams of my 180G, and my ongoing FrankenReefer 450 build thread goes way deeper into the details of custom structural glass fabrication, and silicone application!

(Example symmetrical right pentagon profile glass rods, made from 5/8” thick, ~1/2” thick, and ~5/16” thick glass… as far as I know, I’m the only one out there making these custom profile rods from soda-lime glass, with extremely plane perpendicular faces:)

That’s quite amazing how do I order form you? Or is it possible? And not to sound lazy but do you put the glass beam in before or after you lay the bead on and the cake more on to the beam?

 

[UncommonSense]

That’s quite amazing how do I order form you? Or is it possible?

I went through the design process on those thin rods for my own needs, but am not opposed to cutting some for other people! In fact, a few R2R members have my glass work in their tanks in one form or another!

— feel free to send me a PM! Local pickup is always best with glass, but I have successfully shipped it on several occasions, too!

And not to sound lazy but do you put the glass beam in before or after you lay the bead on and the cake more on to the beam?

Simply put, silicone will trap any air you allow to stay between the glass parts being bonded together…

that said, I’ve always laid my bead of silicone along the inside of a tank corner, then pressed the glass reinforcement down into it like a wedge; subsequently extruding all the air from the seams, before silicone starts also extruding from those seams… The extruded silicone is then “tooled” to a nice radius against the edges of the glass reinforcement!

(This is best done with the area masked off using tape to ensure clean silicone termination lines, and “shims” set to stop the new glass reinforcement from being pressed down too tightly against the tank glass, starving the joints of silicone!)

— There’s a LOT more nuance to it than described above, this is more of a short format answer!

 

[reslawski1]

That’s quite amazing how do I order form you? Or is it possible?

I went through the design process on those thin rods for my own needs, but am not opposed to cutting some for other people! In fact, a few R2R members have my glass work in their tanks in one form or another!

— feel free to send me a PM! Local pickup is always best with glass, but I have successfully shipped it on several occasions, too!

And not to sound lazy but do you put the glass beam in before or after you lay the bead on and the cake more on to the beam?

Simply put, silicone will trap any air you allow to stay between the glass parts being bonded together…

that said, I’ve always laid my bead of silicone along the inside of a tank corner, then pressed the glass reinforcement down into it like a wedge; subsequently extruding all the air from the seams, before silicone starts also extruding from those seams… The extruded silicone is then “tooled” to a nice radius against the edges of the glass reinforcement!

(This is best done with the area masked off using tape to ensure clean silicone termination lines, and “shims” set to stop the new glass reinforcement from being pressed down too tightly against the tank glass, starving the joints of silicone!)

— There’s a LOT more nuance to it than described above, this is more of a short format answer!

Oh ok gotcha I appreciate the explanation regardless how much is shipping? I live in Michigan so idk how far you are away and could you explain how shims would come in handy to make sure the rod isn’t too tight?

 

[UncommonSense]

Oh ok gotcha I appreciate the explanation regardless how much is shipping?

I would have no clue until I figure out what you need shipped parts-wise, how I’m packaging it, and current prevailing shipping rates…. I would assume it’s going to be pretty expensive (very rough estimate, $100), based off what I’ve heard about shipping recently…

could you explain how shims would come in handy to make sure the rod isn’t too tight?

Well, you are applying a set amount of silicone to the area you plan to press the reinforcement into… this silicone is extruded out of the gaps between glass reinforcement and tank as you progressively press the reinforcement into place…

The trick is trying to get a consistent silicone gap between the glass reinforcement and the tank glass (~1/16”), not having the reinforcement cocked out-of-square vs. the corner of the tank, and not pressing any one portion of the reinforcement down so much that it squeezes out the silicone gap to a razor-thin film!

— I’ve found that the best way to do this without significant practice is using a shim material to get your reinforcement close to the final target silicone seam thickness, before removing shims and pressing just enough on the reinforcement to extrude silicone into the voids in the seams left by shimming!