# Suggestions on repairing a crack.



## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

What would be the best ,im a little concerned as it is on the bottom .
It is not glass ,5 gl .
We have SW crazy glue,epoxy and silicon .
Im thinking i broke my toilet one time dumping the parrot dishes (dropped the dish on toilet big hole, but dish was fine lol)
We baught this stuff and it is still holding 2 years later .
The crack isnt on a seam and in the middle on the bottom ,im thinking silicon wont be enough.
Any ideas would be great .(tossing it isnt an option) 
Thanks D


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

You can either silicone over the crack if it's small enough, or silicone on a glass/acrylic patch over the crack. Since it's a small tank, I think silicone should be good enough.


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## UnderTheSea (Jun 2, 2008)

Use some acrylic bond and the cut a piece of acrylic a little larger than the crack and acylic cement to adhear the patch over the crack. If you just weld the crack any pressure may pop the crack open again, the patch will help disperse the weight


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## Plecofinatic (May 9, 2008)

A patch is the best way with either Acylic or a small piece of glass. Being a small tank eiher way should be fine


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

Tonight i think we will try silicon and then construction tape on the outside (it works for my plant pots)
And see how that works .
I dont trust myself with the acylic cement and know it is hard to get .
should work right lol
we wont know for 48 hours


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## Plecofinatic (May 9, 2008)

*Crack Repair*

If you can get a small piece of glass you can silicone it to the bottom of the tank and that will work. I don't think Duct tape won't do it lol


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

The bottom is not flat so we cant do that .
And it isnt duct tape lol darn i forget the name of it but its red tape and so sticky once you get it on it dont come off lol


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## Cory_Dad (Apr 18, 2008)

How long is the crack?

Is the silicone aquarium grade (it better be)?

I don't know why all this discussion for a 5 gallon. Using aquarium grade silicone, clean the crack on both sides, acetic acid works well, make sure it's dry then run a thick bead of silicone over the crack and smooth out in one stroke with a piece of plastic (a credit card works great but kinda messes up the card) to get a thickness of around 1 mm. Try get an overlap of 2cm on either side of the crack. Do this on both sides but wait a couple of hours before doing the 2nd side. Let the silicone cure for 24 hours or whatever it says on the tube. Neatness doesn't count here (or even matter because it's the bottom) but coverage does. If you want, you can run some masking tape on either side of the crack and once you've smoothed out the bead, lift off the tape. Again, try to get the bead 1mm thick using a single stroke.

Or.....

You could just go out and buy a new tank.


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

Yes it is aquarium silicon.got it at big als
I did it last night and made a mess of it lol , it is sitting up untill tomorrow night ,i think the tube said 48 hours lol
1 will be filling it friday night when i do my waterchange to get it ready for the guppies on saturday 
hopefully i did ok


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Personally, I wouldn't trust silicone to seal a plastic crack as it does not stick well enough (or at all) to most plastics.


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

We siliconed it and taped the bottom after filled it left it for 2 days and no leaks ...........looking good now to figure out how to set it up


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Does it have to be this plastic/acrylic tank? If not, you could almost buy more than a glass 5G tank from Big Als for the price of aquarium safe silicone from Big Als.


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