# ReCalking a tank.



## Juiceworld (Dec 13, 2010)

Some of you may have read my earlier post Uh Oh. All about how my 125g tank busted a seam and drained out in about 10 mins. I managed to save most of the fish and plants. My wife's cat actually killed two, a guppy and my fav. fish a red tailed shark.

After transferring the fish and plants to my daughters 30g and getting my 50g back up and running, everything seems to be OK.

That leads me back to my 125. I had put it up on Kijiji as a reptile tank and got a few responses, but no bites. Soooo, I figure I'm going to reseal it. I can't see my wife letting me go and buy another BIG tank. So, I am going to take this opportunity do do some upgrades as well. Add a sump, refinish the stand. A new hood as well.

The tank is leaking from a bottom seal. My question is should I just recalk the bottom or should I reseal the whole tank?


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

is it just leaking or are the seams tearing apart? If you are confident the seams will hold, you could just reseal the inside. Cut away all the silicone on the inside corners and don't touch any inside the seams. You have to do all the inside corners to create a waterproof seal. Where old and new silicone meet it will not seal.


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## cidco (Aug 10, 2010)

*Fixing the tank*

You need to do this cleanly and properly as you know water damage from a 100+ gallon can cause a lot of damage.
I would recommend that you invest in a large storage tub and house the fish there until you can re-seal the tank properly.


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## cidco (Aug 10, 2010)

cidco said:


> You need to do this cleanly and properly as you know water damage from a 100+ gallon can cause a lot of damage.
> I would recommend that you invest in a large storage tub and house the fish there until you can re-seal the tank properly.


Meaning re-seal completely...


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## Juiceworld (Dec 13, 2010)

Riceburner said:


> is it just leaking or are the seams tearing apart? If you are confident the seams will hold, you could just reseal the inside. Cut away all the silicone on the inside corners and don't touch any inside the seams. You have to do all the inside corners to create a waterproof seal. Where old and new silicone meet it will not seal.


That's what I was thinking. I have to do the entire inside of the tank, not just the bottom.


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## Juiceworld (Dec 13, 2010)

cidco said:


> You need to do this cleanly and properly as you know water damage from a 100+ gallon can cause a lot of damage.
> I would recommend that you invest in a large storage tub and house the fish there until you can re-seal the tank properly.


I plan on taking my time with this. As I stated in my above post, I plan on adding some upgrades as well.


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## cidco (Aug 10, 2010)

*How I re-sealed*

There are some real good posts on how to reseal your tank.
There is a place on Dundas Street on the south side of called CDS. Located in the back of a pool shop. They sale EXCELLENT AQUARIUM CAULKING for under $5.00 a tube (black)...


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## Juiceworld (Dec 13, 2010)

cidco said:


> There are some real good posts on how to reseal your tank.
> There is a place on Dundas Street on the south side of called CDS. Located in the back of a pool shop. They sale EXCELLENT AQUARIUM CAULKING for under $5.00 a tube (black)...


Where abouts on dundas is this place? Just a general location would help a lot.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

I believe Cidco is talking about this place - http://www.cdsco.net/Website/Default.aspx?tabid=171


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

If the tank drained in 10 minutes, i would be looking closely at it to determine how big a hole there actually is. I'm guessing that a rebuild would be a better idea here. Resealing the inner tank without fixing the problem is an invitation to disaster. I think that this tank should be disassembled, at least where the leak is and rebuilt. If one joint was suspect I would feel better rebuilding the entire tank. It seems like a lot of work, but it would be worth it to me.


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## Juiceworld (Dec 13, 2010)

I still have to get all the gravel out of the tank. So i'm not really sure how big the hole is. Once I have everything cleaned out, I'll take some pics and try to figure out a game plan from there.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Not sure how old is your tank. But if the bottom is that bad, it can only mean the sides aren't good either. I would redo the entire tank. Think of the bigger picture, if your tank bust again, your wife will either think about throwing you out of the house or will definately ask you to throw the tank out of the house.

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## Juiceworld (Dec 13, 2010)

The tank has a sticker on it saying, "Built by MG/CL Nov. 2005". That's fairly new. But I am going to replace all the inside caulking. Not sure if I will separate the glass panels and do a complete reseal though.


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