Leaking Tank - Silicone Seal Broken

[jonnyf84]

Hi, I've posted this in tropical discussions alsoin the hope of a quick answer. Today i noticed the glass sides were coming away from each other in the front right corner of my tank, the inside seal is almost fully intact but i can slide my nail down the crack on the outside and when i squeeze the two sides of glass together a drop of water comes out. The outside seal is broken down to where i have lowered the water level on the pictures below but its worse at the top.

Unfortunately I can't afford to buy a new tank at the moment so I was hoping that by lowering the water level it would relieve pressure on the broken seal and that it would dry out by mid-afternoon today when i will pick up some silicone and thoroughly seal the outside corner, it won't be aquarium silicone but it will have to do. Will this work?

My concerns are that the fish, water and plants will still be in the tank when i do this - will this effect the quality of the new seal?

Is there a better way fix it?

I wont be able to reply to responses throughout the day i'm afraid so please just keep any sound advice coming.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Plecc]

Hi,

I am a novice fish keeper and i don't know much about working with glass.
So get a second opinion first.

The lower you can get the water without stressing the fish out too much the better.
Strap the tank up using some heavy duty duct tape every where you can around the area you want to seal up.(just to be on the safe side)
Don't pull the tape too tight, you want to still allow a little movement in the joint for cleaning.
Clean/scrape as much old silicone as you can from the damaged area, without damaging the seal on the inside.
Clean the area to remove any grease and left over silicone.
Using a hair dryer would be good just to make sure the joint is as dry as possible
Using as a really fine nozzle, do the best you can to inject the new silicone deep into the joint.
Then lay a nice wide bead the length of the joint.
While the silicone goes off it would be a good idea to apply some light pressure across the joint, using something like one of those hand ratchet g-clamps.

Personally i would make a light duty alli or steel frame to sit around the top edge just to be really sure.

Although the best way to fix it is to totally dismantle that end of the tank and reseal the lot.

Good Luck,
Hope this helps!

 

[thedc5]

as far as I know silicone will not bond with old silicone so even unless you replace the complete seal it will just leak again where it meets the old silicone.

Do a quick search on here as there are a few threads on here about repairing tanks etc