Repairing aquariums

[tracyp]

I've been doing some research on repairing my own aquarium, and thought this might interest someone. Would never have thought of the following:


Another method of repairing a cracked or busted tank is to buy a piece of glass that will fit against the old on the inside and seal the corners accordingly. If it’s the bottom gravel will hide it. If it’s on the back side of a tank try using a piece of tinted glass to hide the broken piece. Now best of all if it’s on the side you get the "mirrored effect" when looking through the front and won’t be able to see the damaged piece.
source: http://www.angelfire.com

[mydummyname]

very interesting!

[Chris M]

I've done that before, had a crack in the bottom of the tank, so I bought a piece of glass, covered it in shower silicon and plonked it onto the crack from the inside of the tank. I then put some pressure on the new piece of glass and left it a good number of hours to dry off - it held up no problem. However, I think it's really really important to think about pressure for this, because if your crack is towards another glass join, then I'd worry about cracks just forming elsewhere because the pressure will push accordingly.

[Slojo]

As a temporary measure yes,but not a permanent solution.
Repairing tanks is actually very easy. http://www.slojo.co.za/articles.htm#How_to_Take_Apart_a_Glass_Aquarium

[Chris M]

Nice link slojo :)

[tracyp]

Chris M: I was under the impression that one shouldn't use bathroom silicone? Something to do with anti-fungal additives being fatal to fish? And thanks to Slojo and his helpful website, have successfully replaced a broken pane. Was just interested by the quote!

[Zoom]

I think the size of the tank will make a huge difference on how you repair it. If it's a 1ft nano, it'll be fine... even a 3 ft might be ok, but when you start going bigger, you should rather replace the piece in totality.. i.e take the broken piece out. The wieght of water, substrate etc is just too high to take that risk.

And please, it the tank has cracked, try and source a reason why? Tanks can "just crack" (like my 1st curved glass tank), but generally there is a reason. The reason could have been a fault that occured through you dropping a stone many months ago... but at least try and find out if you have done anything in error. No point in replacing the glass, and cracking it again later.

[Chris M]

Chris M: I was under the impression that one shouldn't use bathroom silicone? Something to do with anti-fungal additives being fatal to fish? And thanks to Slojo and his helpful website, have successfully replaced a broken pane. Was just interested by the quote!

I used shower silicon glue, 100% sure of it, but I have a sneaking suspicion I had to get a tube that didn't have something in it. It was a number of years ago, but I got it at a hardware store and had no problems..

[azurekoi]

@ Zoom ... Yeah,good advice mate,but what with a bill to replace 2 panels that ZS6WDL had on his monster tank....

Personally I have used the "glass over crack + silicone" method very sucsessfully...Doesnt always look great,but DANG 12mm glass is expensive....

[Zoom]

azurekoi, there are always exceptions to the rules. Will be interesting to see how long that tank lasts.

[Slojo]

azurekoi.
Come get 12mm glass.You just have to take it to be cut and will then only have to pay for the "cutting".

[Jean]

I used the glass over crack method on my 2m tank.Bottom was cracked.Held up for 10years until I moved the tank to my new home... Had to do it again! Still no problems. :)