tank cracked

S

stephenray75

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Mar 9, 2004
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Texas
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I'm using a 20 long as a refugium and the other day i had a little miss hap. I put a crack that runs from the top down the middle and curves to the corner of the tank. The crack is about 6inches. there are 2 more but they are smaller. If i silocone them do you think it will hold? THis section of the tank is where the water is to be returned to the tank so the pressure shouldnt be to great.

thank

stephen
 
A crack is a crack, eventually it should leak. I wouldnt take the risk with the cost of replacing carpets, or wood flooring if I were you, but hey, do what you like!

You can certainly try to seal it with silicone, but if it leaks while your away you stand to lose all your fish (since it's a refugium I assume that it works on syphon, so if it leaks it could syphon out a lot of water from your main tank), or at the very least produce a puddle enough to have to replace the carpets or floor in your home.

As gcvt said, 20 gallons are cheap (around here they are about $19 at most, and sometimes much cheaper) so it's best to just replace it if you can afford to do so.
 
I've had many tanks fixed by just having a new piece of glass siliconed over the cracked one.

-20 gallon sump tank, I had to have a new botton piece glued in, and then later a new side piece.

-Another 20 gallon, I had to have a new bottom piece glued in.

-10 gallon sump, a new side piece.

-33 gallon, a new bottom piece.

I had all the repairs done at a glass shop, where they cut a new piece of glass, and glued it to the inside right over the old one. I have never had a problem with the repairs. The last one I had done was about 2 years ago. I probably wouldn't ever repair anything bigger than a 33 gallon tho...

The 20 gallon with a new bottom is now SW, and again, it's never been a problem.
 
What did it cost you to have that new bottom put in the 20 gal tank?

I ask because around here, I just had one of the glass plates for the lid on my tank cut to fit some more equipment in the tank and it cost me $5.00 just to have a piece of glass cut. So I would imagine that for my area it would be cheaper to just replace the whole 20 gallon tank with a new one for $19.00 then it would to have a piece of glass cut and siliconed in.
 
It was about $10 CDN to have a new piece of glass glued into the bottom of my 20 gallon...

a new 20 galon tank up here is around $85-100 CDN... so it was well worth the $10.
 
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well i use gorilla glue. it's water proof and it drys white so you know if you got it where you need it. As far as it leaking on floor. I learned with my crappy wet dry to put in something. I had my dad's welders make me a 1/2 inch stainless steel pan that the whole stand and refugium sit in so any leaks just stay in pan. All so had them build my aquarium stand out of 1/2 angle iron.
 
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