3xl 900

adam.1

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I acquired a red sea 3xl 900 for free. The rains Seam is failing at the top right but is not leaking yet. I know everyone is either going to say buy a new tank or completely tear down and rebuild. I’m thinking if I cut out the front panel and built the front panel the only area where old silicone metal new would be the two front bottom corners since it’s front floating glass. Then I add a bottom euro brace to those 2 areas. I have essentially now eliminated the new to old silicone and strengthened the front bottom seams. I would also eurobrace the top. Thoughts?
 
Thoughts?
Several!

You’ll still have the rear vertical seams to contend with, and the rear-bottom seam… these tanks do like to peel from the top-down, if they don’t fail from the bottom center!

The overflow box should be 1/4” (technically 6mm) black smoked glass, you would be best-off also cutting this out and rebuilding it with quality silicone,,considering that a failed overflow seam means the tank can theoretically drain down to the point of failure into the sump, then onto the floor during a power outage!

The tank’s bottom silicone seam inside the overflow box poses another challenge, given that the bulkhead holes are WAY too close to the edge of the bottom pane for both comfort, and for ATSM C1048 standard… you can’t really get glass in there to brace the seam with the bulkheads in the way! (I worked around this on my project tank by doubling up the overflow box’s bottom with a second glass layer, though this comes with many of its own complications)

Regarding bulkheads, Red Sea uses a proprietary plastic “pass through” collar siliconed down to the tank's bottom pane for each bulkhead hole, with the plumbing threading through that… the last G2 reefer I disassembled had four of these plastic pass throughs peel off the glass by-hand… I recommend deleting them and using proper bulkheads in the factory holes!


All this is to say that there’s not a single drop of factory silicone on this tank that you should really trust, and your plan only fixes the damage you can currently see (eurobracing aside)!


Here’s some further “light” reading on the subject from my current Reefer 450 project tank:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-frankenreefer-450.1147222/
 
@UncommonSense I have been reading these types of build threads obsessively lately. Obviously your idea is the best to prevent future failures. And I knew that was what everyone would essentially say. “Why risk it”. I read in your post you obtained glass from another tank. The 3xl uses 19mm glass so about 3/4”. I do not have another tank with that thick of glass nor do I think I’d be capable of finding one. I have a glass shop I use for work but I’d think they’d be pretty pricey. I also have no clue how to cut glass. Especially that thick. Are you aware of a source online who will make strips to my specifications? Sounds like it’s time to get more suction cups and clamps.
 

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