# Silicone seal



## nfamusic (Dec 19, 2012)

So I was wondering how long a tank seal will last before it need to be resealed?
I just seen this 



 and OMG
It was bad enough cleaning up a 5gal salt water spill,


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## badmedicine (Oct 27, 2012)

i just finished re sealing my 180 gallon tank after many years.

How long will the silicone last??
From what I read 7-10 years is the proper life expectancy (differing silicone companies give different expiration). I know I exceeded that by a long time (almost twice). Mine felt like plastic when I changed it (Oh VERY bad).

Having gone thru the process, I will say it wasn't so bad once I started. I let mine cure for a few days before refilling it/ testing it.

Strongly suggest you get the silicone remover tool (Princess auto) and a silicone applying tool. I bought one that attaches to the silicone gun and worked great.

Still got to masking tape it, but it looks good and consistent throughout.


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## rickcasa (Dec 7, 2011)

badmedicine said:


> Mine felt like plastic when I changed it (Oh VERY bad).


Was it sitting dry for a significant length of time? Kinda scary since I just picked up a 3 year old tank.

I know now who to call in 4 years then.


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## badmedicine (Oct 27, 2012)

I never drained the tank before I re sealed it. I guess over the years, it goes more and more brittle. I was lucky it never went so bad that it caused a leak.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

If you ever need a tank resealed I don't mind doing it, as long as you bring the tank to my house and it's under 60g or so. Beyond that size I wouldn't trust anyone resealing it!! Although I think I did a 75g once and it came out fine...


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## PureHash (Nov 29, 2012)

From my experience with silicone, if you can do a good job re-sealing a 10g, you can re-seal a 250g with no problems...

As for making it look good, you just have to be smooth flowing, make a nice even bead, then spit all over your fingers, and smooth the silicone into the corners (it doesn't stick to spit at all)


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## PureHash (Nov 29, 2012)

LOL at that vid,

"Its 830 in the morning and the fucking seal on my fucking fishtank just blew maaannnnn" ahahahah oh fuck, I'd shoot myself dead. All that "hardwoods" fucked.


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## nfamusic (Dec 19, 2012)

after a little more research and with chatting with a few guys, I think it comes down to how many times the tank has been moved and if it has sat empty for any period of time.
my 125 has been set up for 13 years, It has never moved, and has always been full of water
but I must admit I am getting a little worried, 
to replace the tank its only around $400 bucks, I paid over $700.00 for it new.
I thought the price would have went up but to my surprise 13 years later its cheeper. or maybe I quoted on the wrong tank.
I was thinking of resealing it, but I'm not sure if I want to deal with the plastic internal overflows.


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## PureHash (Nov 29, 2012)

If you have 400$ to blow, blow it. 

Personaly, glass doesn't really break down over time... A new tank, is 400$. A tube of aquarium sealant, is 15$. If you clean the glass really good before you apply your new seal, you shouldn't ever have a problem... And I would just go over the old seal in the corner flow.. If the old one isn't leaking, it probably won't. But a new seal ontop of the old (cleaned) seal would help me sleep at night, if I was loosing sleep over it...

And I would expect the price of the tanks to drop. Aquariums have become extreamly popular lately vs cats, dogs, and repttiles (been there done all of that..) Fish or "easy" and theraputic, as the demand for tanks increase, the price goes down.


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## Ryan.Wilton (Dec 12, 2012)

I find it funny that the guy had the time to grab a camera and video tape the tank leaking opposed to the logical thing of removing the fish to an isolation bucket/tank and oh I dunno... FIXING THE TANK.


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## nfamusic (Dec 19, 2012)

PureHash said:


> If you have 400$ to blow, blow it.
> 
> Personaly, glass doesn't really break down over time... A new tank, is 400$. A tube of aquarium sealant, is 15$. If you clean the glass really good before you apply your new seal, you shouldn't ever have a problem... And I would just go over the old seal in the corner flow.. If the old one isn't leaking, it probably won't. But a new seal ontop of the old (cleaned) seal would help me sleep at night, if I was loosing sleep over it...
> 
> And I would expect the price of the tanks to drop. Aquariums have become extreamly popular lately vs cats, dogs, and repttiles (been there done all of that..) Fish or "easy" and theraputic, as the demand for tanks increase, the price goes down.


Interesting thought, putting new silicone over and old seal, to me thats asking for trouble!!!!


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## VinnyTang (Jan 4, 2013)

I agree with the above post.. If you're going to reseal, go all out. 

Is it a bad idea to fill a 200 gallon tank that sat in the garage through the winter? The tank is brand new from miracles and never seen water. I have a friend who is worried about the seal.


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## PureHash (Nov 29, 2012)

I wasn't suggesating reasealing over the enire old seal... 

The op was concerned about the corner flow. I'm sure it wouldn't be an issue to go over that seal.... NOT the main glass-on-glass seals..

You most deffinetly want to remove as much of the old scilicone as possible, but I would go over the cornerflow, if I had to.. If you can get a scilicone gun behind the overflow, even better.

I agree, if it was my tank, I'd rip the whole thing apart, pull out the corner flows, cut the seal ount, and apply a bran new one everywhere.


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## advanced reef aquatics (Apr 20, 2009)

As long as you cut out all silicone except the part that is glass to glass, you can easily repair and silicone over older silicone, We do it all the time.
There is no need to cut out all silicone, unless you have a leak,
If your doing this repair for cosmetic purposes, its fine,


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

that video was funny but did anyone notice the other video that was suggested viewing by youtube

Check out the repair job


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