Usually the bottom is the only tempered piece . If you want I will tell you how to use a cheap pair of polarized sunglasses to verify.Thanks! An interesting take, like you said peopleon HOB’s all the time.
What size overflow for a 125?
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Grog
Active Member
Redundancy is good. Two drains are better than a single drain. If one gets clogged and your pumps run, you could flood your room. I'd recommend two drains on a tank larger than like ~40g. Smaller tanks the risk is lower, and you may not want to use up that much footprint for drains.
Same with returns. Have multiple returns and pumps. That way if one fails or gets clogged, you still have flow.
Clogs will happen via algae, crabs, fish, snails, you name it. Plus, they will happen at the worst possible time.
Drilling is easy. Buy the diamond bits. Make a template and back each side with wood and clamps. Go slow and run water over it to cool it. Let the drill do the work and don't be a gorilla and push on it. I've done it 5-7 times now. It is always stressful, but I've always been successful.
Same with returns. Have multiple returns and pumps. That way if one fails or gets clogged, you still have flow.
Clogs will happen via algae, crabs, fish, snails, you name it. Plus, they will happen at the worst possible time.
Drilling is easy. Buy the diamond bits. Make a template and back each side with wood and clamps. Go slow and run water over it to cool it. Let the drill do the work and don't be a gorilla and push on it. I've done it 5-7 times now. It is always stressful, but I've always been successful.
theclownshow
Community Member
You don’t need to cut a tank apart to reseal it
To actually reseal a tank you do. Silicone does not bond to old silicone. The actual seal is the silicon between the glass panels not the silicone that is pushed out when the panels are placed together. Smearing silicone on the inside corners is not resealing a tank.
theclownshow
Community Member
if you cut away and scrape the old silicone in the corners that is 100% resealing the tank. The Silicone is going to be bonded to 1/2" of clean glass on each side before getting into the very corner Cutting the entire tank apart is not resealing. That is rebuilding.
I have to disagree.
@UncommonSense can you explain? If you don't want to get involved I understand I'm just trying to avoid misinformation being spread not trying to convince @theclownshow because they already have their mind made up. You have the expertise and ability to describe how a glass tank is actually sealed.
PS what you are describing is not sealing anything. You can take a razor and cut the excess silicone off the inside and not even compromise the seal. I've scraped it off of many tanks because it was peeling and looked bad. That silicone is just excess and not part of the actual seal. The only way to reseal a glass tank is to rebuild it.
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theclownshow
Community Member
https://aquariumscience.org/14-12-silicone/#Rebuilding_versus_Resealing
Its only one source but as far as I can tell a somewhat reputable one.
To quote the above source:
“So if there is a leak there probably is a problem with the silicone holding the glass together. And some small portion of the time that bond will fail and a catastrophic tank failure will ensue.”
This source specifically notes that the structural glass:glass silicone interface holding the tank together can still fail after an interior silicone bead reseal… this is much more common on rimless tanks, vs. rimmed tanks wherein the vertical panes are contained by the plastic rims!
— I’ve actually seen a few examples of rimless tanks around here which experienced a full “unzip” of a vertical seam, with just a thin membrane of the interior silicone (which was presumably newer) hanging on for dear life…
— I’m of the opinion that the tank should be rebuild, or otherwise strategically reinforced if the structural seams are in question! (Primarily because glass can actually bend, and will start to appreciably do so once a section of the structural silicone separates, creating a peeling force on the remainder of that structural seam!
— If you’re curious about methods of structural reinforcement using additional glass, feel free to reference my build thread!
theclownshow
Community Member
I’m not at all arguing with any of that. The guy that tagged you said cutting the interior silicone away and replacing it is not resealing. …replacing the interior silicone is in fact resealing. He’s saying that cutting the tank apart and completely reassembling it is resealing. That is not resealing that is rebuilding.
okay, so the issue herein is the terminology used…
“Resealing” (by laying a new bead of primarily cosmetic silicone) is a misnomer, it can technically patch a leak, but it isn’t a reliable way to make the tank last if it already had structural issues…
It would be more technically correct to call replacing the tank’s interior silicone a “cosmetic refresh”, whereas a full disassembly/rebuild is just that…
I think “resealing” is a terrible term for what’s actually happening here, it exaggerates the effectiveness of the process to the uninitiated, creating a false sense of security! (Hence why I typically put that word in quotes!)
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