Cracked bottom of reef!! 50g cube

[Hbear8]

Cracked the bottom of a 50g cube drilled on the bottom with a center overflow. What do i do? Replace the glass Re siliconed along the bottom?

 

[fishguy242]

Hi, sorry to see, she's a goner...
would need entire new bottom,full reseal.
not sure would be cost efficient to repair.
new tank IMO, Sorry.

 

[Hbear8]

Hi, sorry to see, she's a goner...
would need entire new bottom,full reseal.
not sure would be cost efficient to repair.
new tank IMO, Sorry.

Ive seen alot of people just replace the bottom glass on a tank before though? Why would she be a gonner

 

[melonheadorion]

Ive seen alot of people just replace the bottom glass on a tank before though? Why would she be a gonner

as he mentioned, you need to replace the whole bottom. at that point, you will obviously have to reseal. the biggest part of what he was saying is being "cost effective". is it worth just replacing the bottom of that tank if you take into consideration age, overall condition of teh rest, etc. if its old, it may benefit from an all around re-seal. assuming only the bottom is done, is it worth it to redo the bottom, or just do a new tank.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Ive seen alot of people just replace the bottom glass on a tank before though? Why would she be a gonner

I believe what @fishguy242 is meaning, is that the juice may not be worth the squeeze.

That one piece of glass is inset and will require a full panel teardown and rebuild to make it how it was before with a new piece of glass.


I'm of another opinion. I would buy a piece of 1/2 glass, cut to full outside to outside dimension.

Silicone around All of your outside joints and across the face of the glass, leaving a plastic straw in there to allow trapped air to escape while assembling. The straw can even be used to apply a vacuum between the plates to get them closer together while they dry. Remove the straw back filled with silicone.

 

[GARRIGA]

Might as well reseal the entire tank and post new bottom glass will be like new. Consideration as to cost to acquire new bottom glass, time and effort to reseal and drill new holes versus off the shelf solution or better yet going custom. Latter might reuse the existing glass that isn't cracked. Glass has gotten expensive. Budget constraints another consideration.

 

[dadnjesse]

Those 90 degree bulkheads seem like a lot of stress on the glass bottom. What kind of stand did you have?

 

[Hbear8]

I believe what @fishguy242 is meaning, is that the juice may not be worth the squeeze.

That one piece of glass is inset and will require a full panel teardown and rebuild to make it how it was before with a new piece of glass.


I'm of another opinion. I would buy a piece of 1/2 glass, cut to full outside to outside dimension.

Silicone around All of your outside joints and across the face of the glass, leaving a plastic straw in there to allow trapped air to escape while assembling. The straw can even be used to apply a vacuum between the plates to get them closer together while they dry. Remove the straw back filled with silicone.

Are you saying to lay the new, 1/2 sheet over my broken glass, on the outside, and seal it? Or remove the broken piece first, and then lay a 1/2” sheet and seal it? Notice that it is drilled, also, hence my confusion

 

[Hbear8]

Those 90 degree bulkheads seem like a lot of stress on the glass bottom. What kind of stand did you have?

I bought the tank second hand, no idea, it broke when i was moving it

 

[helmsreef]

Take it all down to the panels, clean everything up, have a piece of 12mm or 10mm glass cut. Drill the back glass for an overflow and ditch the weir. If you can do all this on your own you'll just be out the silicone, bottom glass and a nicer overflow.

 

[polyppal]

Cracked the bottom of a 50g cube drilled on the bottom with a center overflow. What do i do? Replace the glass Re siliconed along the bottom?

She’s toast sorry bro, esp with the pressure of bottom mounted bulkheads, not worth an extensive repair and -hoping- it doesn’t leak

 

[zheka757]

I have resealed tanks before, all I can say is if you doing it your self and have time on your hands, it will be cheaper to do it your self, if it's your first time doing it, chances are silicone job will look like crap when it dries. And it will take many hours and patience to clean every single panel free of old silicone.

 

[Tamberav]

Silicone does not stick to silicone so you need to disassemble every pane and silicone between the panes and such.

While you could skip this step and probably get it to hold water just replacing the inside silicone. This is a risk for a future leak.

It will be a huge pita to fix correctly.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Are you saying to lay the new, 1/2 sheet over my broken glass, on the outside, and seal it? Or remove the broken piece first, and then lay a 1/2” sheet and seal it? Notice that it is drilled, also, hence my confusion

If that was my tank, I would eventually set the broken bottom glass, on a new sheet of thicker glass, attached both on the outside, and inside.

Laminating glass is common. One piece being broken won't make a difference.

I can't for the life of me figure out why everybody is saying it needs to be broken down to panels. It really doesn't. You have an entire glass to glass connection around the outsides and laminating the inside broken glass to a new bottom. Glass will completely seal it.

It's a quick fix, and one I'd have No issue doing on a tank in my house. I'm fully capable of breaking the tank down to panels and rebuilding it. I don't think it's necessary personally.

 

[Arego]

I've done this to a 40g lowboy, I cut a new piece and laid it right down over the old one inside the tank and continue the resealing underneath and above the new piece. You could see the crack through the new sheet but it made no difference.

I recently sold it but it held for 3 years and I assume it still is wherever it's at.

 

[Hbear8]

I have resealed tanks before, all I can say is if you doing it your self and have time on your hands, it will be cheaper to do it your self, if it's your first time doing it, chances are silicone job will look like crap when it dries. And it will take many hours and patience to clean every single panel free of old silicone.

I would do it myself, i have plenty of time and i am just unsure where to order/ get glass from

 

[Hbear8]

If that was my tank, I would eventually set the broken bottom glass, on a new sheet of thicker glass, attached both on the outside, and inside.

Laminating glass is common. One piece being broken won't make a difference.

I can't for the life of me figure out why everybody is saying it needs to be broken down to panels. It really doesn't. You have an entire glass to glass connection around the outsides and laminating the inside broken glass to a new bottom. Glass will completely seal it.

It's a quick fix, and one I'd have No issue doing on a tank in my house. I'm fully capable of breaking the tank down to panels and rebuilding it. I don't think it's necessary personally.

Love this idea, my only question is how i would go about drilling the holes with the existing holes there, one of them being broken around the bulkhead, im scared to even remove the bulkhead i believe parts of glass there may crumble off

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Love this idea, my only question is how i would go about drilling the holes with the existing holes there, one of them being broken around the bulkhead, im scared to even remove the bulkhead i believe parts of glass there may crumble off

Hmm. That's a bit of a wrench in the gears.

I can think of a few options. None of them are GOOD options as it does look like the cracks are radiating out from the left most bulkhead hole.

You COULD use a shop vac from the outside to draw Thin CA glue into the cracks, stabilizing them short term/holding them in place to add the lower glass piece.

That option is going to require a lot of silicone under the new bulkhead to seal and I'm honestly not sure if it will. I wouldn't do this.

After some consideration, I'm not sure there Is, a good option here other than dropping out the bottom pane (which isn't hard given the right tools) and replacing.

Spitballing ideas now.

If you can get the old bulkheads Out without losing the glass pieces( again, ca glue and blue painters tape to hold everything while removing bulkheads, You still may be able to get by with adding a half inch piece of glass under the tank as was the original plan, and drilling low in the rear panel, in the overflow box for new BH's. The immediate downside to this is that you are installing two 90° turns (flow restrictions) off the bat.