Tank Repair

[sir crashallot]

Hi guys i am new on here though not new to the hobby.
A friend fetched a tank earlier and he managed to slam his van door on the side of the tank breaking the side, luckily i saw my dad as a child build and repair tanks, though i was wondering having not done it myself what sealent is to be used to seal the new side on to the tank im repairing. i have also a 5 ft juwel tank with the same fault and both tanks cant be repaired till i find out what sealent i need to order. any help would be great and i should be able to put some pictures up when i get started. any help will be great n thanks for taking the time to look

 

[razer121]

dont use waterproof stuff! looks like i was wrong on that lol, but aquamate like i sayd does work.....i tend to use aquamate, works a treat and really strong!

 

[sir crashallot]

from what i can guess...any fully waterproof sealent....i tend to use aquamate, works a treat and #41#### strong!

aquamate il check that out, thanks for the reply,

 

[Knox213]

from what i can guess...any fully waterproof sealent....i tend to use aquamate, works a treat and #41#### strong!

aquamate il check that out, thanks for the reply,

Anything witch says

"Aquarium safe" from what i've heard!

Good luck repairing the tank

Post some pictures of the aqurium when its done thanks!

 

[rabbut]

You need aquarium safe sealant, not just any old water proof stuff as someone above suggested.

How are you patching the 5ft tank and where if your crack on that pain? Which pain is it. I hate to break it to you (no pun intended), but a patch over a crack down the centre of the back pain is going to fail and dump the tank's contents over the floor. On the sides, you *may* get away with it (it would still be risky and a real botch), but not on the back. On a tank of that size, the safest way to fix is to replace the whole pain. That will require stripping at least the broken pain from the rest of the tank, and gluing on a new one. A 5ft tank isn't the place to start, especially if the pain you replace with is the same thickness as the original. That is a difficult bit of gluing to do, for someone like me that's fixed/built more tanks than I can remember (probably in the three digit figures now)... There is no safety margin there due to the thickness's involved, so the joints must be perfect or it will fail. Really not a good first tank to fix project

Start with a smaller tank, like 2ft, to get your eye, practice and technique in, then work up to fixing the 5ft (I know that may take a long time), jumping up an extra foot length or 6" height at a time. I really think that a 5ft tank is going to be biting of more than a new-comer to tank repairs can chew.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[sir crashallot]

You need aquarium safe sealant, not just any old water proof stuff as someone above suggested.

How are you patching the 5ft tank and where if your crack on that pain? Which pain is it. I hate to break it to you (no pun intended), but a patch over a crack down the centre of the back pain is going to fail and dump the tank's contents over the floor. On the sides, you *may* get away with it (it would still be risky and a real botch), but not on the back. On a tank of that size, the safest way to fix is to replace the whole pain. That will require stripping at least the broken pain from the rest of the tank, and gluing on a new one. A 5ft tank isn't the place to start, especially if the pain you replace with is the same thickness as the original. That is a difficult bit of gluing to do, for someone like me that's fixed/built more tanks than I can remember (probably in the three digit figures now)... There is no safety margin there due to the thickness's involved, so the joints must be perfect or it will fail. Really not a good first tank to fix project

Start with a smaller tank, like 2ft, to get your eye, practice and technique in, then work up to fixing the 5ft (I know that may take a long time), jumping up an extra foot length or 6" height at a time. I really think that a 5ft tank is going to be biting of more than a new-comer to tank repairs can chew.

All the best
Rabbut

hi there, the crack on the 5ft juwel tank is on the very corner about 1 inch tall from the bottom and 3 inch wide, its a rounded crack if you know what i mean with no splintering what so ever. what iv done so far is cut the damaged piece away from the silicon and cleaned the area up removed all grime and so forth and removed the old silicon. my plan of action is to glue the piece back in with aquarium safe silicon. then cut a piece of 8mm glass 12 inch by 12 inch. and silicon that over the crack but it will be plasterd with silicon. i will make sure there isnt an area of the patch that hasnt got silicon. then do the same on the outside of the tank. which to me sounds perfect if not allitle over the top. but i want to make sure it isnt going to explode when the water pressure is at its max. then i would use the repair side as the back of the tank.

 

[razer121]

hi there, the crack on the 5ft juwel tank is on the very corner about 1 inch tall from the bottom and 3 inch wide, its a rounded crack if you know what i mean with no splintering what so ever. what iv done so far is cut the damaged piece away from the silicon and cleaned the area up removed all grime and so forth and removed the old silicon. my plan of action is to glue the piece back in with aquarium safe silicon. then cut a piece of 8mm glass 12 inch by 12 inch. and silicon that over the crack but it will be plasterd with silicon. i will make sure there isnt an area of the patch that hasnt got silicon. then do the same on the outside of the tank. which to me sounds perfect if not allitle over the top. but i want to make sure it isnt going to explode when the water pressure is at its max. then i would use the repair side as the back of the tank.

hm that really doesnt sound safe, although from what i can tell it may work for a while, i think over time the water pressure will get the better of the weak joints, if i was to do that i would use some a few strips of wood on the back of the tank to act like brackets, although i still highly recommend you dont do that...i can see it ended in a big splash i think the panel replacment is your best option and maybe finding someone locally who could do it for you??

 

[rabbut]

If your crack has cut a corner off the bottom corner of the back pain, you'd be able to patch it as you state, provided that the damage is limited to the missing bit of glass only. How wide & tall is your missing chunk?

To get the patch in, you'll need to cut away all the water-proofing silicone (the inside stuff, not between the glass panels, but around the insides of them), to get the patch to sit flush. I assume there are no cracks into the glass anywhere near the missing bit, even at surface level? A photo would help considerably.

If you do a patch on the Rio, you'll need to do a full re-seal of the tank also, so if your fixing more than just that one tank, you may need more than one tube of silicone, depending on what the other tank needs doing to it and it's size

All the best
Rabbut

 

[sir crashallot]

If your crack has cut a corner off the bottom corner of the back pain, you'd be able to patch it as you state, provided that the damage is limited to the missing bit of glass only. How wide & tall is your missing chunk?

To get the patch in, you'll need to cut away all the water-proofing silicone (the inside stuff, not between the glass panels, but around the insides of them), to get the patch to sit flush. I assume there are no cracks into the glass anywhere near the missing bit, even at surface level? A photo would help considerably.

If you do a patch on the Rio, you'll need to do a full re-seal of the tank also, so if your fixing more than just that one tank, you may need more than one tube of silicone, depending on what the other tank needs doing to it and it's size

All the best
Rabbut

hi thanks for the advice and so forth, what i will be best off doing is after tea il take photos of the rio tank and put a ruler at the side of the damage. so you can evaluate it for your selves. i really do plan on doing a full re seal on all the edges in side the tank/s. i also have just aquired the one i mentioned about the side being broke. iv also bought replacement glass to replace the side. the size is on 50cm high and 30 wide. so its easy enough to just replace the hole side. but the juwel tank will be way too expensive to replace a 5 ft length of 8mm glass especialy when its 50cm high.
But yeah il take some photos and upload them so you can all check them out. all the best and thanks for the help guys. brent Pickering