60 gallon- START to FINISH - resealing, scratch removal, etc.

I bought a 60 gallon for $40. It needed some work. I've resealed it and am about to start experimenting with scratch removal. I didn't really want to undertake this much work for a fish tank, but the tank has glass almost 1/2 inch thick! And it's very sturdy, so I figured it's strong enough to deal with a makeover, and it's a good opportunity to learn.

So, to begin:
The tank in its entirety. You can see the thin scratches that I'll have to deal with. They're hairline scratches, but irritating, and I'd like to remove as many as possible.





The old silicone! See how thin and crumbly it looks on the sides? Someone had resealed it in the past, but poorly. i was able to pull most of it out with my fingers.





Using a glass scraper and razor blade to remove the old silicone.






After sliding the glass scraper along the entire edge, along the top and bottom of the silicone seal, I simply pulled away the silicone. Occasionally I came along a piece that wouldn't come out, but running the glass scraper along the edge while I pulled it away worked like a charm.






The edges after I had removed the old silicone. The blue that you see left is the sealant between the panes of glass.





This junk is what I pulled off the edges of the tank. Gross.





Very important. I used the glass scraper to go over the edges AGAIN, and then used a handheld vacuum to suck up all the little pieces of silicone sticking to the sides.





The cleanup crew. Use the nail polish remover, or pure acetone, (both work) to put on a paper towel and thoroughly clean off any silicone residue from the edges of the tank. Use a glass cleaner to clean the glass all over the tank. You want to give your new silicone a clean surface to adhere to.





This is what to look for on a fish-safe glass cleaner. I'll be rinsing out the tank before I put fish in it, obviously, but this glass cleaner is safe to use on the tank even after I put in the fishes.






I used painter's tape, but masking tape might work just as well. Tape off the edges of the tank so that the silicone only smears along the edges. You get a much cleaner looking tank. Thanks for the idea- someone on this forum suggested it, and it worked great. I can't remember who it was, but thanks!






Tape off ALL edges...





These are critical! I squeezed silicone along the entire edge, then used a gloved finger to smooth it down. I used an entire 10-pack of gloves (one pair for each of three tubes of silicone, plus 2 pairs for touch-ups and clean-up). I would suggest getting a 20-pack if you can to allow for mistakes.





Towels for clean-up and wiping off smudges. Absolutely necessary.






THIS IS IMPORTANT! REMOVE ALL TAPE ASAP! AS SOON AS YOU FINISH SILICONING THE TANK, PULL OFF ALL TAPE! If you let the silicone sit for even 10 minutes, it will set enough that when you pull the tape off, it will pull silicone with it and break the seal, then you will have to reseal that entire edge.



Here you can see the scratches that I'll address next. I'm going to try a baking soda and toothpaste solution first.





I tarped the tank while the silicone was curing. It's been four days now and I'm going to clean up the silicone edges today and check the seal. I'll post photos once I get that done.

Now then, I figured I'd update just so everyone wouldn't think I was slacking... after quite a few days of poor weather, rain, cold, etc, I finally got a chance to fill the tank and check my seal. Everything looks great. My silicone job is far from perfect- functional but not very pretty. Oh well.

As for decoration, I'll be using some of the plants in my established aquaria, but I wanted to do a more natural theme for the goldfish. Fishbase pointed me toward Lake Biwa, indigenous home of Carassius arautus, which, I've found, has huge reed beds and a shoreline similar to:
http://www.davidbjack.com/Reeds_by_lakeshore.jpg

Therefore, I'm going to simulate a somewhat rocky lakebed with grasses and reeds. Some examples can be found at aquariumdesigngroup.com in the freshwater gallery section. I thought I might be able to find silk grasses in my LFS. Unfortunately, it seems that most of the silk plants available are Amazon or generally South American species. No grasses whatsoever. So I thought, why not try craft store grass?

I found grass in huge bunches for about $6 each at Michael's. The grass itself is strips of thin plastic, painted for variation. Well, I bought a few bunches and took them home to dissect them.

After pulling them apart, I found that the plastic grass is wrapped around plastic-coated wires. So i discarded the wires and the paper-based tape used to bind them, and hot-glued the grass itself into bunches, with plastic plant-bases on the bottom of some and rocks on the bottom of others. I soaked the final bunches overnight in a bucket of water and tested the water before and after - nothing changed. I still have to test for ammonia, but other than that everything looks golden.

So as far as I know, craft store grass is safe for use, once it is separated from its wire. Grass on the cheap- nice. I'll keep everyone updated.


I'm priming the fluval 303 for the 60 gallon by hooking it up to the 20/goldfish. It's been filtering that tank for about a week now, so it should be ready to go by the time I get the 60 up and rolling. I also exchanged the standard gravel in both my tanks for the black gravel that I'll be putting in the 60, to allow some bacteria and algae growth. I'm trying to minimize the cycling time for the 60.

I traded in both plecos at my local LFS, bought some mystery snails. This cleanup crew will be much more suited to the 60 gallon tank, I think. Far less waste involved, and far less space taken up by enormous plecos!

The only fish left in my 16 are the four neons, three female bettas, one male betta, two black skirt tetras, and the snails. I'm going to try to rehome all the tetras, preferably with a larger school of neons and a community tank where the black skirts can be happy. I'm not sure what to do with the bettas... It wouldn't be an issue except the goldfish already have a resident betta pair, and the 16 has a crowntail, so I can't throw the males in together... I may have to rehome somebody too. In the interim, I have a tank divider, so I can corner off 10 gallons or so for the incompatible inhabitants.

I didn't try the scratch removal yet- hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow. Well, we just bought a tank stand today, so I'll have to do it tomorrow! I ordered some cerium oxide online, but it's not here yet, so I'll try the baking soda and toothpaste tomorrow and probably see if the cerium oxide does anything at the next complete water change. I'll keep the thread updated with each new happening, though.