Newbie here ... Aquarium/Silicone questions

[hangurber]

Hello everyone, I have a few questions! (TL/DR at bottom)

I started my first reef aquarium in a 20G and everything is going great. Got upgradeitis and decided to buy a second hand aquarium and I got everything for really cheap, including the sump, stand, skimmer etc, and everything was up and running with no issues. Here is a shot of the entire thing:

But I started looking at it and started to feel uneasy, the silicone appears to be placed between the glass panes, as apposed to only on the outsides:

Is this something I should be concerned about long term? What, if anything, can I do about it?

Secondly, I decided that if this is going to be a long term tank, I want to get rid of that huge overflow weir and internal plumbing for an overflow box.

Is there anything I can do about filling in the drain holes on the bottom? If I drill some 1/2 glass to match and place the pieces into the bottom and silicone it, will that work?

TL/DR

• Silicone appears to be between glass panes instead of glass on glass, is that a problem?
• Can drain holes be filled/repaired by using glass of the same thickness?

Thanks all!

 

[naterealbig]

Silicone appears to be between glass panes instead of glass on glass, is that a problem?

No. Quite the contrary. If the is no silicone between the panes, there is nothing holding them together.


Can drain holes be filled/repaired by using glass of the same thickness?

You can place a piece of close on top to cover the holes. Seal with silicone and you are good. My option would be to pull the standpipes out of the bulkheads, and just role the pipe with a pvc plug. This fix would cost about $10, and can be done in 45 seconds.

 

[hangurber]

Silicone appears to be between glass panes instead of glass on glass, is that a problem?

No. Quite the contrary. If the is no silicone between the panes, there is nothing holding them together.


Can drain holes be filled/repaired by using glass of the same thickness?

You can place a piece of close on top to cover the holes. Seal with silicone and you are good. My option would be to pull the standpipes out of the bulkheads, and just role the pipe with a pvc plug. This fix would cost about $10, and can be done in 45 seconds.

Awesome! Thanks so much for the info! Would you recommend I add any additional silicone before adding water to the tank?

 

[naterealbig]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the info! Would you recommend I add any additional silicone before adding water to the tank?

You're welcome. I wouldn't add any. If you did, it would not help structurally anyway. Most likely the tank was manufactured this way. You should be good to go. Water test it in the garage door a couple days, then start setting it up.

 

[hangurber]

You're welcome. I wouldn't add any. If you did, it would not help structurally anyway. Most likely the tank was manufactured this way. You should be good to go. Water test it in the garage door a couple days, then start setting it up.

Gotcha, I guess since I don't know the exact origin of the tank, my brain is just going bonkers over the potential failure points haha thanks again!