Re-sealing aquarium corners

[2quills]

I'm considering re-sealing the inside corners of my aquarium and am looking for some opinions on the best way to go about doing it. The tank is only a couple of years old but some of the silicone looks like it has been nipped on by fish.
I've considered cleaning the old silicone really good with some alcohol and then re-sealing over the old stuff and I would just extend the edges a little bit further out to help get a better bond. Would it be ok to do this or should I remove the old stuff alltogether and re-do it. If I were to remove the old stuff and re-do it will that comprimise the corners...will I have to use any adhesive or clamps to keep the tank from coming apart?
Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated, thx.

 

[flower]

You can't put silicone on top of itself, it won't addhire to itself. You would have to completely remove the old and redo it all with fresh silicone.

 

[2quills]

Yep...that's what I figured. I'm in the process of removing it all right now. The side corners came off pretty easy but the stuff on the bottom corners is turning into a job and a half. Almost done with the removal process though. Gonna clean it up real nice and get it preped with tape and alcohol. Don't ever let anyone tell you that this is a fun process, sheesh.

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by 2Quills
http:///forum/post/3284253
Yep...that's what I figured. I'm in the process of removing it all right now. The side corners came off pretty easy but the stuff on the bottom corners is turning into a job and a half. Almost done with the removal process though. Gonna clean it up real nice and get it preped with tape and alcohol. Don't ever let anyone tell you that this is a fun process, sheesh.

On the 4th of July???? Go out an BBQ..LOL

 

[2quills]

Yeah...not much of a vacation for me...I've already been called into work twice today for a/c's not working. I'm on call...lucky me. I guess I'm just in work mode and can't get out of it now.

 

[acrylic51]

Hey 2Quills.....I honestly would remove the entire whole joint instead of just removing the bad section completely.....I'm pretty sure that's what your considering.

 

[2quills]

Well so far I've removed everything that I could short of actually taking the panels apart and getting what's inbetween the glass edges. I was hoping to not have to do that...do you think I should. Other then that I've removed all of it.

 

[2quills]

O.K...I got all of the silicone scraped out of the inside of the tank. After I was done I went back over everything with rubbing alcohol. I must say the alcohol worked wonders when it came to getting the last little traces of silicone out. This is deffinately an important part of the process so it should not be skipped. Infact I went around the whole tank about 4-5 times untill I was 100% sure I got every last little bit of it out.
I held the tank together with wood clamps...this probably isn't necissary especially on smaller tanks but I did it anyways as a precaution. The tank is all taped up and ready for the new silicone tommorow. Thankfully I have the day off of work so I should be able to get it done. In the morning I plan on going around all the joints one last time with the rubbing alcohol for a final clean up and then will let it dry really good before I apply the new stuff.

 

[acrylic51]

I would remove all the old silicone in the seam.....For the point mentioned earlier that it won't adhere to the old properly.....At least with a totally clean surface you could be assured you have a good seal....JMHO

 

[meowzer]

Holiday weekends are great for new equipment LOL...with the exception of nowhere to buy anything (which I always have that problem) You have the extra time to actually keep a good eye on your "project"

 

[2quills]

Originally Posted by acrylic51
http:///forum/post/3284414
I would remove all the old silicone in the seam.....For the point mentioned earlier that it won't adhere to the old properly.....At least with a totally clean surface you could be assured you have a good seal....JMHO
That would require taking the whole tank apart. That's a little more working than I was wanting to do. I found some really good articles on how to go about doing this and I followed them to a "T" so hopefully it works out. I did scrape as much of the old stuff out of the seems as I could so that I could force some new stuff in there.
Actually, silicone will bond to old silicone givin that the old silicone still holds a good bond and is properly preped before you lay any new stuff over it. I forget the name of the chemist who said this but maybe I can find the article again.
I think it will be fine, I went pretty heavy with the stuff and I like how it's looking so far. I'll take it out and set it up on the back deck next weekend then fill it with water, cover it with a tarp and leave is for a few weeks and see what happens.

 

[scsinet]

When I resealed a tank a short while ago, I did what you are doing, I didn't actually pull the panes apart and get inside the seams, I just removed the entire bead down to the inside corner and cleaned everything up well with alcohol.
Personally I don't think that unless the tank is very old... maybe 10yrs+ ... that you need to do this step. Water is never exposed to the silicon inside the seam unless the ******** bead is completely gone or if the tank has leaked. If you are doing a proactive re-seal like I did, you'll find that the silicon inside the seams is basically virgin.
Anyhoo, it looks pretty good so far... one tip I have... keep an open dish of alcohol handy. Wear latex gloves, and dip your fingers in the alcohol before smoothing the seams. Your fingers will glide right over that silicon and make the whole operation very neat and easy. Of course, be sure to pull the tape promptly after laying the silicon, because once it starts to skin over, it'll deform your smoothing job when you go to pull the tape.

 

[acrylic51]

Hey SCSInet does the alcohol trick work better than keeping the finger wet? I'll have to try that when install my panels.....

 

[2quills]

The alcohol works really well, Shawn. Your finger really will glide right through the stuff instead of sticking to it and dragging a big glob of it along with it. I can also tell you from exp. that it works really good with the colored adhesive caulk used for countertops and backsplashes as well.
SCSInet...Thanks, I feel a bit better to hear you say that because that's excactly what I did. I had figured it would be ok because the tank is only 2 years old and I havent had any problems with it leaking. I was mostly conserned about the nipping that the fish had done to it when the previous owners had it, pluss the manufacturere seemed to have laid it on a little bit thin to the point where some of the black silivone was actually translucent and light could pass through. Ontop of that, they say it's never good to let the silicone dry out...especially if the tank had saltwater in it. Which mine is obvoiusly sitting dry right now and will be for a little while so I don't want to take any chances once I finally do set it all back up. Hopefully it will last for many years to come.
I'll let ya guys know how the leak tests turn out.