eMac’s attempt at rebuilding a Lee-Mar 187g

Emac909

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I made a bad decision a few weeks back and purchasing a used lee-mar 187g. The tank was perfect dimensions and what I was looking for. I purchased it off OfferUp but the guy that was selling is a member on a local forum here. Well I let my excitement get the best of me. I was told the tank held water (it did) and just had 1 moon on the bottom of the front pain that wasn’t even noticeable when on the stand. So being that I’ve done business with him before I trusted him. Well after getting the tank home and giving it a good cleaning I started noticing a few flaws in the silicone. By flaws I mean large bubbles where the silicone was starting to separate from the glass.
DFFAA659-35F6-4B81-977B-8F4ABC4965F8.jpeg
F61DE25D-5D6F-4D1A-9FD4-D50EA818EC7F.jpeg
68E5627E-07AE-4877-926C-2EC60FDE40B4.jpeg
B8646751-9D58-47D7-8AE5-4570ED9875FE.jpeg
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A7D7E7D9-12B2-41EA-A84D-EF7CAEE53A52.jpeg
85111434-79EA-4912-98C7-1A3B42FFDB65.jpeg

My first thought was to load the tank back up into my truck and take it to the dump. But while doing my cardio it hit me, why not try to re-build the tank. So this will be my attempt at re-building a Lee-Mar tank. I did notice that the glass looked to be in pretty good shape, a handful of small scratches and minimal etching from algae.
So I started by getting the Eurobrace off. The silicone was so weak that I really didn’t have to cut much of the silicone to pull the Eurobrace off. It took about 10 min to get all 5 pieces off
7AF6D705-FAE0-41F9-A62A-25044DE7362D.jpeg

Nest was the overflow box. By fare the overflow gave me the most hassle to get off. I thought for sure it was going to be fairly easy too sense I’ve always head that silicone and acrylic don’t bond the strongest together. It took close to 30 min to get the overflow box out.
B65A6C11-6542-4EBA-9B38-23DB3EA625B2.jpeg

Then I took the back pain off
8F3F35A6-0159-4E79-9283-0A4249127B73.jpeg

Then the front pain
0E25E4FF-6265-4211-9F70-EB0E824EA1C0.jpeg

last the sides
15F297F5-7574-46F7-B752-2E56B4D35650.jpeg

75D49D2B-25F8-4700-A66A-FD2D06B63379.jpeg

In all it took me an hour and 15 min to tear the tank down in to pieces
So after getting the tank apart here comes the really fun part and removing all the old silicone. Well luckily the silicone was so weak that a lot of it was pretty easy to just pull off. I even posted this vid of how easy the silicone was coming off the glass
Well after a week of scraping silicone when I had some free time I got all the large pains of glass clear and free of any silicone residue.
6DA6DF27-3AE2-4687-BBCD-8E6064B04A2A.jpeg

But now I’ve run into another issue I was to fix and this is calcium deposit etching. As shown in this picture
F01A6714-684C-4927-BB57-CE74DA9B75B5.jpeg

also here is the moon that was discussion earlier
610DA43B-3AE0-42FF-90EF-A0F546093D45.jpeg
So now not am I only going to rebuild this tank but now I’m going to restore the glass.
I’ve purchased a glass sanding and polishing kit, a lot of extra sanding discs, and a orbital sander. I currently waiting on these items to be delivered in order to continue on this project.
I also purchased a lot of masking tape, 4 10.2oz tubes of black aquarium silicone, 4 corner clamps, a good scraper kit with 200+ extra razors, and a external overflow kit.
So far I’m into this project about $450 with the tank and all the tools, extras.
 
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Emac909

Emac909

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So here’s the plan.
-Tear down tank ✅
-Clean off all silicone ✅
-Clean off any silicone residue with acetone✅
-Sand and polish glass
-Pre-assemble tank a mark where to lay masking tape and lines for the 1/16” gap of silicone
-Dissemble tank and lay masking tape for where I don’t want silicone to touch.
-Clean glass one final time with 99% alcohol
-Lay silicone beads and get my family to help setup all the pains of glass.
-Spread silicone
-Remove masking tape and clean any blemishes
-Wait 14 days allowing silicone to cure.
-Clean glass
-Lay masking tape for Eurobrace
-Clean glass and prep for silicone
-Lay silicone for Eurobrace
-Apply Eurobrace and remove excess silicone
-Remove masking tape and clean off any blemishes
-Then let tank sit for another 18 days allowing silicone to cure
-Then fill tank all the way to the top and let sit for 1 month, while checking for any signs of flawed silicone beads.
-Then after the tank has passed the month leak test I’ll be drilling the back wall and installing the external overflow kit.
 

Staghorn

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Well Your first problem, your doing cardio!

by chance have you tried using some magic erasers on that glass before getting into sanding, they may be enough to remove those marks.

It’s not easy to achieve an optical finish with glass unless you’ve had some experience. Maybe use some tester pieces before sanding.
 
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Emac909

Emac909

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Well Your first problem, your doing cardio!

by chance have you tried using some magic erasers on that glass before getting into sanding, they may be enough to remove those marks.

It’s not easy to achieve an optical finish with glass unless you’ve had some experience. Maybe use some tester pieces before sanding.
Yea I’ve tried a magic eraser with no luck. I’m just going to try it. I’ve purchased 30 of each sanding discs 1000, 2000, 3000, 5000, 7000, and 10000k grits, 10 hi-density foam discs, and 3 8oz packs of Cerium Oxide.
Another member on a local Cali forum had said he sanded the inside of his tank with 7k to remove some algae stains and he didn’t notice any scratches or hazing when the tank was full
 
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Emac909

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Well I ordered the glass for a new Eurobrace today. I’m doing 2.5” slim Eurobrace. I going to us the old Eurobrace as a re-enforced bottom.

Also the sander and sanding discs arrived this morning and I spent about 20 min sanding a 1’X2’ section of the front pain with 3000 grit paper. I noticed that the etching had reduced by at least half and the glass wasn’t getting foggy. I’m thinking I’m going to order some 1000 & 1500 grit discs to see if it will make the process go I little quicker.
 
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Emac909

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I ended up ordering more sanding discs. 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, & 2000grit. Worked on a side for 30 min and the etching is starting to fade but the glass is starting to get hazy
27D1A5B2-6467-412D-91F1-015ED3CABEDB.jpeg
 
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Emac909

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well I was polishing the glass and everything was going to plan. Here’s a pic of the first few steps
9E76CC85-8650-4D48-8123-BBBB35B8B672.jpeg
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I even got one side fully clear but still needed to polish it with cerium oxide.
6F128DEC-8234-4A7D-93E9-83C6B9A3083F.jpeg

so I took a grinder with a 5” sanding disc attachment (as seen in first pic). I started with 120g disc working out the etching and any of the large scratches. Then moved onto 150g and when working out the swirl marks from the 120g. Then moved on to 180g and working out the swirl marks from the 150. Then 240, 320, and 400 at around the 400 was when the swirl marks really started to go away and the glass looked frosted. The first two pics where taken after the 400g sanding. I then took a break the let the finder and glass cool. Then after the break I started at 600 then 800 then 1000g. After the 1000g the glass started to get pretty clear but had really fine swirls that were really hard to see but I know car guys have a name for it but I just can’t think of it. After the 1000g I started wet sanding at 3000 then 5000, 7000, and finishing with 10000g.
when fine sanding I decided to do the pain in 2 sections so i would have more focus on one side and not the whole piece. Well when hitting the other side I spent a little to much time hitting a corner a tragedy struck
9B8945AF-0C8F-44A9-A1AE-8079A685E4BD.jpeg

so after sitting there for 10 or so minutes really mad at my self I decided to call it quits on this project.
I sent a pic of what I did to my wife and she called me on her lunch and said don’t quit you have put so much time into this tank. She said do you think you can cut the panel off the 150 gallon and use it for this tank? I said I’m not messing up two tank to Hope and see if I can bring life back to an old tank.
9FD84B33-8C61-487A-96D6-1AF80CD58B8C.jpeg

so then she said so how much a new piece of glass is. So after making a hand full of calls yesterday I found a glass shop that could get me a new pain for $300
E40FA040-FD40-44BE-AD1F-492D1541064B.png

So the new pain will be hear Wednesday b4 noon
 

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I wouldn’t buy that glass just yet. Polish out the rest. Just Incase it happens again. You don’t want to be buying another piece. Lol. That would suck.
 
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Emac909

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I wouldn’t buy that glass just yet. Polish out the rest. Just Incase it happens again. You don’t want to be buying another piece. Lol. That would suck.
Yea I’m not doing to sides like I did the front. I’m just going to water polish the sides and back and really the only reason I’m doing that is to make sure all the old silicone residue is gone.
 
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Emac909

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I’ve had a great plan to attempt to use the old front pain as new Eurobrace. Well lucky for me I hadn’t paid for the new Eurobrace pieces to be made. Well now I have a 60”X24” 1/2 starphire paper weight and thought why can’t I use this glass as Eurobrace. So I contacted 7 local glass shops and asked if they would could cut this piece of glass. I was told they either can’t or don’t have the equipment to polish the ends. Sense I either have to break this pain up to toss it in the the trash I might as well try to cut it my self. So I purchased a glass cutter, glass oil, and a pair of HD glass running pliers off Amazon.
B5A41EB1-0B2C-4D21-9F36-4739A4AE14CE.png

37D418C0-9099-4941-AD79-37BFC70E92B5.png

They should all be delivered by Friday. So this weekend I’m going to practice on a few old pieces of glass I have.
 
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Emac909

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Well my glass cutting equipment came yesterday while I was at work. So you know me mister impatient I need to *** with it as soon as I get home. Well here’s the kit
78FE3158-128E-467F-9A37-5D96F1750292.jpeg

Scorer(aka glass cutter), cutting oil, and running pliers
Scorer(aka glass cutter), cutting oil, and running pliers

So here’s the first piece of glass I’m going to attempt to cut. It’s a piece of the old Eurobrace
55B2EC8D-F24F-463A-AABE-76D548A2E0C0.jpeg

I start off by cleaning the glass with windex and a razor. Then after scraping off all the old junk on both sides I clean the glass again. Not the glass is clean I marked my line where I want the cut. Then I flip the glass over and tape the other piece of old glass in place to use as a guide for the scorer. I place the guide about an 1/16 inch to give the thicken of the scorer tip
0C04A647-DC16-4C64-A86F-27998A51A84F.jpeg

After getting the guide in place I clean the tip of the scorer and make sure it will oiled and the wheel moves easily. After I know the scorer is good, I line the scorer on the line and put even pressure as I run the scorer along the glass. After the glass has been scored I take off the taped on guide and grab my running pliers. I place the line that is on the running pliers on the score of the glass.
This is the line
7AE2C914-7734-46B2-A6A4-E3F45509098B.jpeg

I then gently squeeze the pliers handle and snap!

Watch the video to see what happens

 
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Emac909

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Well my glass cutting equipment came yesterday while I was at work. So you know me mister impatient I need to *** with it as soon as I get home. Well here’s the kit
78FE3158-128E-467F-9A37-5D96F1750292.jpeg

Scorer(aka glass cutter), cutting oil, and running pliers
Scorer(aka glass cutter), cutting oil, and running pliers

So here’s the first piece of glass I’m going to attempt to cut. It’s a piece of the old Eurobrace
55B2EC8D-F24F-463A-AABE-76D548A2E0C0.jpeg

I start off by cleaning the glass with windex and a razor. Then after scraping off all the old junk on both sides I clean the glass again. Not the glass is clean I marked my line where I want the cut. Then I flip the glass over and tape the other piece of old glass in place to use as a guide for the scorer. I place the guide about an 1/16 inch to give the thicken of the scorer tip

After getting the guide in place I clean the tip of the scorer and make sure it will oiled and the wheel moves easily. After I know the scorer is good, I line the scorer on the line and put even pressure as I run the scorer along the glass. After the glass has been scored I take off the taped on guide and grab my running pliers. I place the line that is on the running pliers on the score of the glass.
This is the line
I then gently squeeze the pliers handle and snap!

Watch the video to see what happens

 
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Emac909

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Well cutting the front broke pain didn’t go as planned the glass wouldn’t snap on the score on long pieces

27155C60-4677-44AE-9776-91628F420802.jpeg

On Saturday I got the glass all taped off and cleaned with acetone
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with the help of a buddy and wife and daughter we were able to silicone the tank.

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then after a few days of letting the silicone cure I cleaned up any flaws in the inner seam and retapped the tank to put a new cleaner inner bead
6C0B225C-B2FA-4109-B1D1-2A8D628E2DFE.jpeg

Then me and the mis laid down a new inner seam this morning

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455Cutlassdave

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Im about to do a Redsea xxl 750 with chipped glass from moving it. I bought the same pliers as you but got a bit better cutter. Any tips?
 
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Im about to do a Redsea xxl 750 with chipped glass from moving it. I bought the same pliers as you but got a bit better cutter. Any tips?
I wasn’t able to cut the starphire glass the way I wanted. So I just ordered a new front pain and 4 new pieces for the Eurobrace. In all I spent 440 on new glass. The front pain was 60”X24”X0.5” starphire, all sides flat polished and cost $300. The new Eurobrace were regular glass with flat polished only on the long sides and these pieces were $120 but I dropped one a broke it so the cut me a deal for $20 when I ordered a new piece to replace the broken one. I ended up shipping back the pliers to Amazon cause they only worked on small pieces of glass. Anything longer then a foot the breaks would be off
 

NowGlazeIT

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I made a bad decision a few weeks back and purchasing a used lee-mar 187g. The tank was perfect dimensions and what I was looking for. I purchased it off OfferUp but the guy that was selling is a member on a local forum here. Well I let my excitement get the best of me. I was told the tank held water (it did) and just had 1 moon on the bottom of the front pain that wasn’t even noticeable when on the stand. So being that I’ve done business with him before I trusted him. Well after getting the tank home and giving it a good cleaning I started noticing a few flaws in the silicone. By flaws I mean large bubbles where the silicone was starting to separate from the glass.
DFFAA659-35F6-4B81-977B-8F4ABC4965F8.jpeg
F61DE25D-5D6F-4D1A-9FD4-D50EA818EC7F.jpeg
68E5627E-07AE-4877-926C-2EC60FDE40B4.jpeg
B8646751-9D58-47D7-8AE5-4570ED9875FE.jpeg
E534E824-0C90-4D8A-97A6-36222D8E78EA.jpeg
A7D7E7D9-12B2-41EA-A84D-EF7CAEE53A52.jpeg
85111434-79EA-4912-98C7-1A3B42FFDB65.jpeg

My first thought was to load the tank back up into my truck and take it to the dump. But while doing my cardio it hit me, why not try to re-build the tank. So this will be my attempt at re-building a Lee-Mar tank. I did notice that the glass looked to be in pretty good shape, a handful of small scratches and minimal etching from algae.
So I started by getting the Eurobrace off. The silicone was so weak that I really didn’t have to cut much of the silicone to pull the Eurobrace off. It took about 10 min to get all 5 pieces off
7AF6D705-FAE0-41F9-A62A-25044DE7362D.jpeg

Nest was the overflow box. By fare the overflow gave me the most hassle to get off. I thought for sure it was going to be fairly easy too sense I’ve always head that silicone and acrylic don’t bond the strongest together. It took close to 30 min to get the overflow box out.
B65A6C11-6542-4EBA-9B38-23DB3EA625B2.jpeg

Then I took the back pain off
8F3F35A6-0159-4E79-9283-0A4249127B73.jpeg

Then the front pain
0E25E4FF-6265-4211-9F70-EB0E824EA1C0.jpeg

last the sides
15F297F5-7574-46F7-B752-2E56B4D35650.jpeg

75D49D2B-25F8-4700-A66A-FD2D06B63379.jpeg

In all it took me an hour and 15 min to tear the tank down in to pieces
So after getting the tank apart here comes the really fun part and removing all the old silicone. Well luckily the silicone was so weak that a lot of it was pretty easy to just pull off. I even posted this vid of how easy the silicone was coming off the glass
Well after a week of scraping silicone when I had some free time I got all the large pains of glass clear and free of any silicone residue.
6DA6DF27-3AE2-4687-BBCD-8E6064B04A2A.jpeg

But now I’ve run into another issue I was to fix and this is calcium deposit etching. As shown in this picture
F01A6714-684C-4927-BB57-CE74DA9B75B5.jpeg

also here is the moon that was discussion earlier
610DA43B-3AE0-42FF-90EF-A0F546093D45.jpeg
So now not am I only going to rebuild this tank but now I’m going to restore the glass.
I’ve purchased a glass sanding and polishing kit, a lot of extra sanding discs, and a orbital sander. I currently waiting on these items to be delivered in order to continue on this project.
I also purchased a lot of masking tape, 4 10.2oz tubes of black aquarium silicone, 4 corner clamps, a good scraper kit with 200+ extra razors, and a external overflow kit.
So far I’m into this project about $450 with the tank and all the tools, extras.
Your a beeeeast!
 

vtecintegra

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So you only let it cure a week before filling? Curious because my glasscages tank specified several weeks from the production day.
 
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