150 gallon repair help please.

[gman]

Hello to all I just became a member at the last meeting. I could use some advice. I am about to replace a 6 foot by 2 foot glass in a tank.
Here is the plan, place the tank on its back side so the piece to be replaced is at the top. Clean the mating surfaces with rubing alcohol, put a layer of "GE SILICONE 1 Window & Door " in the blue tube on the mating surfaces, lower the glass in place placing tooth picks on the four corners to insure an even layer of silicone. Do the inner seal and the bottom, and let it cure.

Is silicone 1  right for the seal ?
Is alcohol the right cleaner ?
Will this plan work ?
COMMENTS PLEASE.
Thanks.

[BigDaddy]

Unfortunately not.

The silicone is okay for the inner seal.. but you need a special adhesive to bond the glass to the other two pieces at the joints.

The silicone itself won't hold the weight.....

[jaracas]

i have always built tanks (about 200 to date) using only the silicone (it is adhesive as well as sealant)
my show tank, back in the UK,  was a 6x2x2 that i built myself and is still holding water after 8 years with no leaks whatsoever, along with the 6 48x18x18 growouts in the garage still up and running.
the trick is making sure the surfaces are perfectly clean, getting no bubbles and having a uniform thickness of silicone

[BigDaddy]

Hmmm.. my understanding was that the material used to bond the glass wasn't the same as the silicon that waterproofs the tank.

Well, there's a real-world example for ya gman...

[Jeff]

I completely dissassembled an 85 gal about 2 years ago and resealed it with no leaks to date. I used black general purpose GE silicone and did pretty much the same process you described minus the toothpick thing.

From the stage youre at I simpily beaded the silicone on the side glass edges, placed the glass on top and secured it for 48 hrs (maybe a lil overkill) using large rubber tipped clamps.  

No clamps? Try a 2X4 frame with a cloth between the wood and glass.

jaracas is definately right, make sure the glass is perfectly clean, as well as free of all old silicone (razor scrapper w/ several blades and rubbing alcohol) and apply new the new stuff evenly and with no bubbles.


Then I would highly reccommend stripping all the silicone from the inside of the tank, cleaning as mentioned and resealing the entire inner seal in one sweep. As I understand it new silicone does not bond too well to old silicone...expecially after 150 gal of pressure is aplied to it.

The best way I found to apply the silicone is to lay a good bead along the edge and smooth it into place using your finger. Get some water in a bowl to dip your finger into while smoothing it, without it the silicone wil not be even.

Good luck and I hope everything works out for you.

[Mila]

I use only silicon on my tanks, never had any problems.
Don't know about spacers, never used any.
I tape all edges inside the tank, it makes big difference.
You have to work fast, it start drying in 5-10 min. (temp. of the room), tape has to be out before it start drying.

Mila

[damarech]

Touth pics?? To me this would not be a good idea . I would think that you need to have all the edges to mate as close as possible.To much silicon will allow some flex ,as small as small as that would be ,but with 150 gals pushing on it ,it might allow enought travel to to pull it apart .
Of course this is only my opinion .
Good luck

[Nerine]

when you silicone, make sure you have a VERY well ventelated room...it makes you heady after a bit! I let my tanks cure for a week..48 hours and you're usually good depending on how fast and how much silicone, but don't get anxious and get water on it before that!! toothpicks in my opinion are NOT a good idea...I've never used them and never have had a problem....
good luck with the resealing!