Resealing

[Steve]

If you've kept up on my 265g build thread then you saw last night where it needs to be resealed now. I don't like having a tank this big as my first reseal job by any means, but money is tight so I am going to first attempt to reseal it myself before having someone else do it. So I just want to make sure I have things right before I do this. So any pointers or things I missed here?

From what I have found the most important thing is to get rid of all the old silicone, every last bit of it even down to the smallest fleck correct?

I see on some article guys use rubbing alcohol to clean the glass after removing the old silicone, is the best thing to use or something else?

Since this is a 265g 7ft x 2ft x 30" tall how wide a bead should I use? guessing a bit more than most tanks that are smaller?

Fan for ventilation because I know it's gonna stink to high heaven.

Any other pointers/tips?

Thanks

[danielratti]

Use whatever size for the seam looks good to you. after going over the area with the alcohol hit it with some super fine steel whool or sand paper. Glass has pores so this will help free them up.

[Steve]

Thanks Dan. I had not heard of the steel wool idea before but that sounds like a good idea I'll run to the hardware and grab a pack.

[rcombs]

best of luck

[danielratti]

Yeah some people think its a bad idea cause it will scratch the glass but you are going over it with silicone and it will not be seen. Generally if you can get one of them caulk tools that works pretty well for pushing the new silicone into any of the gaps.

[Steve]

Yeah to be honest the only seam that I even have to be concerned about looks are the very front one, the rest is completely covered with the background when installed so at least I do have that going for me. I was wondering about one of those rounded calk pushers and if that would help. I'll pick one of those up this evening as well when I head to the store.

I went to Lowes this morning and grabbed a 4" razor scraper and pack of blades and have been scraping for the past hour now. Ohhhhhh my God my arms are gonna be sore by the time I'm done. Just getting all the background silicone off is gonna take for ever I can already tell.

[Marty]

I just use plastic spoons to spread the silicone bead.  I also keep either small rags or paper towel handy to wipe up any drips or excess silicone off of the spoon.

[Ron]

When removing the old, you have to be super, super careful to not cut the silicone between the panes of glass. Normally I start cutting on the edge perpendicular to the edge between the panes. Cut through that 100% without fear of slicing the panes in half. The careful cut the other edge without getting the razor too deep and peel it away.

I use a finger to shape the silicone after laying a bead. The trick is to wet your finger so that the silicone doesn't stick and drag along behind it. The bead size is hard to explain - experiment with the edges that can't be seen first and you'll figure it out. As already mentioned, keep a papertowl handy to wipe off the excess.

It's really like painting a car. The quality of the job is largely in the prep work. For a 6' tank, I'll spend a few hours a day for a few days, getting it prepped, then re-silicone.

[Ogre44]

Also, remember that when laying your bead you don't have to run the bead all the way along the edge first.
I like to lay silicone down in 6 inch sections, smooth it down with a wet finger, and then lay the next part of the bead, smooth, rinse, repeat...
I also like to use a dry finger to clean up the edges while I work, I find it easier than going back with a razor to clean up after it's all dry.

This is all from doing silicone and caulking around the house, but the principle shouldn't change that much.

[Ron]

Always interesting to hear how others do it. Almost seems completely opposite. I try to keep long continuous sections to lessen the chance of air bubbles. I'll line all the edges before smoothing the beads.

[lilscoots]

I smooth one whole seam at a time, switching fingers as a finger gets too much excess silicone on it, then wipe all my fingers and move onto the next seam.  Extra Fine steel wool will not scratch glass.  I always use the steel wool after I think I have every last bit of silicone off to make sure I do, you'll "feel it" when you've removed the last remnants with the steel wool, it will slide without grabbing. Then I rinse again with denatured alcohol on a paper towel. and start siliconing.

[Steve]

Stupid question maybe but if ya don't know for sure then best to ask right?  I'm working on getting the silicone cut out from the old seals right now, and working on the sides which I can see which way to cut so that I don't actually cut into the silicone that is "between" the glass panes, because I know you don't want to cut into that and damage that area's seal. But when I get to scraping the silicone that is on the very bottom of the tank I just want to make sure I am scraping that in the right direction so as to not damage the silicone between the bottom where the other panels meet the bottom.

So question is... all the glass sits ON the bottom panel correct? So I want to scrap from the side & front/back glass down vertical and not scarping from the bottom panel across to the sides/front/back?

Did the way I said that make sense or no?

Maybe this will help ...


As in the above pic, all panels sit directly on top of the bottom in all glass tanks I believe correct?

[Ron]

As in the above pic, all panels sit directly on top of the bottom in all glass tanks I believe correct?

Seems like that's how they'd do it, but the answer is no. Not all are like that.

On my 150, it's missing a piece of trim on one end and the sides go down all the way, with the bottom pane elevated from the very bottom and against connecting against the sides on all edges. I've got a dry 180 that appears to be the same. I've also got a 10 that looks the same. And I have recollections of resealing tanks in the past and thinking that it seemed they connected in a way opposite of what made sense.

That said, I don't know what your tank is with 100% assurance and accept no responsibility for what you choose to do!

Can you just keep the razor slightly away from either edge, work at getting a small piece lose, and just double-check exactly how it's configured?

[Steve]

Wow I'm shocked they don't all do them that way, but glad I asked. The bottom is what is going to give me problems keeping the edge of the blade at anything close to an exact distance away. Mainly because the tank is 30" tall, and on about a 32" tall stand, so I'm doing all this work balancing basically with halfway leaned into the tank off a step ladder. Even with my long arm reach I'm going to have trouble keeping the cuts slightly away from the edge all the way around.

I hate to even say it but I am almost tempted to take the dremel wheel to a small section of the lower trim just so I can be 100% sure.


I'll have to see though if I can try just a small section and somehow getting a closer look to verify as you mentioned.

[Steve]

Was able to confirm the way it is now without too much issue. Was able to slide the scraper between the trim and tank about the mid way point and managed to flex the trim out enough to get a light shown in the gap and luckily was able to see the edge of the bottom pane with some silicone sticking out. So this tank is built on top of the bottom panel. Now I can start scraping the bottom silicone out in the morning, then wipe it down/steel wool it and just maybe with a little luck I can get to resealing it with fresh silicone by tomorrow evening hopefully.