Reseal, Rebuild, or get new?

[Lucasha777]

Hey everyone I’m trying to decide on whether to reseal, rebuild or just buy a new tank. This is an Innovative Marine 100EXT. The leak is in the very corner of the tank in the back as you can see in the picture. What are your thoughts? Worth retrying to seal since it doesn’t look like the seam is actually giving away?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

it actually leaks?

 

[Lucasha777]

it actually leaks?

Yes, it’s a slow drip

 

[smitten with ocean life]

@UncommonSense ?

 

[UncommonSense]

Yes, it’s a slow drip

It looks from your photo like there’s an air channel in bottom silicone seal… — I’m not sure how this could have happened, short of some crazy thin/sharp object being stabbed into the seam there!

If that is the case, I think first step here would be using a bright flashlight to thoroughly inspect every structural silicone seam; looking for signs of silicone failure (bubbles) which the black silicone itself is hiding! — this will help determine if this leak channel is the only defect, or if something more sinister is also there/elsewhere…

Here are some reference photos I took a while back of what to look for… basically a lighter grey bubble within the black silicone seam that is only visible when you get light shining through it at the right angle:

Black silicone can hide failing seams!

So, I got a few free old tanks from my LFS today to break down to sheet glass and acrylic for other projects… The acrylic tank is hilariously bad; besides the AIO system looking like it got attacked by a mantis shrimp on steroids…. the manufacturer built the entire thing out of 3/8” thick...

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