Repairng old/cracked tanks

I purchased an old 15g tank with accesories cheap. I looked at the silicone seams and I don't trust them. I found the aquarium safe silicone tubes from LFS (haven't bought yet), so I guess I can use this to re-apply the seams.

Should I remove all the old seams? Any tips on applying the new layers of silicone? (I don't want to end up with 15g worth of water on my basement floor... )

I also saw some cracked 10g tanks for sale at LFS. The crack starts at the top of the tank, extends about 3 inches down. Can this type of crack be sealed using the silicone as well, or will it simply extend by the time you fill up the whole tank with water?

Appreciate any feedback!

Originally posted by blitzen25bm
use a razor and get all the old silicone off and clean it with alcohol and then reapply new silicone. you can probably silicone another piece of glass over the crack. how much at 10 gallons in canada? might not be worth it i can get a perfect 10 gallon here for like 8 dollars and the silicone will cost me atleast 3.50 so its not worth it. unless its really cheap and you need a bunch of ugly growout tanks, but then you can just get a huge rubber tote box.

Click to expand...

Sounds good - I'll go ahead and repair the tank...

As for 10g, the cheapest I found is $17CA (plus 15% tax! How come us Canadians pay even more than the difference in exchange rate for these things? ). The cracked one is being sold for $4CA. I'll need to buy some sillicone anyways to repair some tanks so I don't consider that cost as being additional. And yes, I am looking for some more breeding/growout tank in the basement so cosmetic reason is not even a factor.

It does sound like too much trouble though if I had to use another piece of glass on top of the crack so I'll forget that idea...

Next time I visit US, I should buy a minival full of aquariums...

Just to give you some idea, 29g tank costs $63CA + tax...
42g breeder tank costs $96CA + tax!

There, I repaired the 15g tank by removing the existing silicones and applied a new layer (plenty of it!).

After 2 days, I can still smell that not-so-pleasant odor of silicone. Am I supposed to wait for number of days before I use it as a aquarium, or would rinsing it with vinegar be sufficient now?

Apprecaite some feedback!