2yo 150g reSeal or reBuild

[FisHaRNekEd]

Friends neighbor sprung a small leak last week and immediately drained the tank. The stand wasn't wet for long and has no signs of water damage. He said it was a "small" leak.

The tank is supposedly 2 years old and it's believable looking at the silicone and stand, it definitely looks new. I scrubbed it out ad started removing the silicone.

I've successfully resealed 20 and 50 gal tanks before but this is a HUGE tank.
Here is my question, should i finish cleaning up the tank and reseal it?

Or
Should i completely disassemble it and build from scratch? I've never done a build from scratch this large.
I wouldn't think that the integrity of the tank is ruined because of a small leak???

 

[OrionGirl]

I think it would depend greatly on where the leak was located. A leak along the bottom would be more worrisome than along a side panel. Have you filled and located the leak?

 

[FreshyFresh]

As Sheila said, it would be good to know where the leak was. In a way, there's two seals to every glass panel tank. The silicone that glues the panels together, then the bead of silicone spread over all inside joints. A re-seal typically addresses the later and is sufficient. Again, as said, bottom edge leaks can be troublesome because they see the max amount of water pressure against them, max weight, stress, etc.

To me, if the tank is only 2yrs old, I'd question how the previous owner had it on the stand. Hopefully it was as flat as possible. Leaks do happen and can happen right away unfortunately. On a tank this size, It is most definitely worth repairing IMO.

 

[fishorama]

To me it's unusual for the between glass panel seals to fail...I've never seen it in mine (smaller). But it can happen...but not so soon. I think I'd try resealing all the "corners" as the easy fix.

Have you checked the level of the tank & stand on all angles? I think that's a different way of asking what FF said.