Leaky Aquarium

[Daniel]

My neighbor just now gifted me with a 58 gallon aquarium he has had for 25 years or more. It has lovely woodgrain trim. He said the yellow tape was 'to keep birds from flying in to it'.

Recently it started weeping a bit (a small leak). It is not really clear where the leak is. Should I scape away the old silicone, or just slather a generous bead on all the seams?

Anyone had success with repairing older aquariums?

[MickS77]

I think best practice is to remove the old silicone first. I don't think new silicone with adhere to old silicone good enough to seal it. 

[Daniel]

Cricket is on the job already! She is in the tank scraping silicone, Watson her twin brother is supervising!

[DaveSamsell]

4 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Cricket is on the job already! She is in the tank scraping silicone, Watson her twin brother is supervising!

Is that the original silicone?  The old silicone "should" be removed anyway.  I believe that approximately every 10 years a glass aquarium "should" be resealed. Some have gone longer of course.   It's a messy & smelly job, but is doable.  Just scrape the silicone you can see.  Don't dig the razor blade in between the panels, unless you want a complete rebuild.  It's up to you.  From all the videos I have seen, it's quite a project, but can be fun.  P.S.  Remove the cat, first.  😅  Nice cat.  🐱

[Brandy]

yeah, a little acetone/rubbing alcohol or similar can help clean up the places you want the silicone to stick to. Something volatile so that it goes completely and leaves a squeaky clean and dry surface behind. I actually received a cracked tank from amazon. They refunded the money and didn't want me to return the tank. I siliconed the crack and it is fine. It was a tiny crack on a tiny tank, but for a free rimless tank, I decided to risk it. It was actually really pretty quick.