glass tank repair

[don]

does any one know of a place that redo glass tanks,or would it be cheaper to buy a new one?

[Redfish]

I would have to say, it would have to better to buy a new tank. Say, you only had one bad piece of glass in the tank that needed replaced. You might as well take it all apart and replace all of the silicone, that way you know what you have when you are finished. Just going thru the process of replaceing one piece of glass may cause the silicone on any of the other pieces of glass to weaken. You wouldn't want to come home to a bunch of water on your floor. Now if you could do the work yourself and save the labor cost, thats a differant story.

[don]

thats the probelm, i'am not sure that i want to tackle this on my own. i too would hate to see what 100 gals. of water looks likes on the floor of the house .

[Doug]

I wouldn't be as concerned about the replacing of one piece of front or side glass weakening other silicone joints, but more that whoever replaces the problem piece gets the right amount of silicone in the joints. Both too much and too little silicone make for potentially weak joints.

The old Oceanic Systems overcame this problem years ago by placing wafers of pre-cured silicone of a specific thickness in the joints of their large tanks. That way, a tank builder could just apply pressure to the joint until the excess uncured silicone stopped squeezing out, and know what was left in the joint was the right amount. Once dry, the wafers became invisible.

What is the exact nature of your problem? Leak, crack, or chip? Minor edge chips usually don't turn into anything-- I ran a 75 salt for years with a half-nickel size chunk missing from the front glass near the bottom.

[don]

filled tank with fresh water, once tank was filled to bottom of the pastic rim, the center brace broke loose from back side of tank,no leaks. but did notice that one corner did open up. about a 1/16",- 1/8" drained tank tank and inspected the spot, when i pushed on the corner i did notice that the glass panes would seperate on the outside of the tank, i have not reattached the center peice of glass to the back of the tank. i wasnt sure if all you had to do was resilicone the joints or if you had to put some kind of glass adhiseave, in between the glass planes.

[Doug]

Is this a tank where the center "brace" is a horizontal piece of glass siliconed across the top front-to-back, and the glass covers rest on it? If so, that kind of failure not uncommon-- every tank bows to some extent when filled with water, and that piece of glass offers little in the way of actual bracing and tank integrity. If you're getting tank wall separation at a corner, that's indicative of either a bad silicone joint (as described in post above), or the tank is "torqued", i.e. the front is unlevel left-to-right in one direction, and the back unlevel in the opposite direction. If that's the case, the constant slow pressure will eventually separate the joint altogether.

Rather than repair, I would explore a replacement tank, of a national brand, with a good warranty, and making sure the stand is level in all directions. Check the floor first, as most wood cabinet stands will conform to unlevel floors once a tank full of water is placed on them. How do I know this? Personal experience with a 300 gallon tank one year after installation.

[don]

thanks for all the help, went by Gerwins and bought a new 100 gal. hope to have it set up sometime after thanksgiving.

[Redfish]

I think you made the right choice. We want pics of the tank being set up.