45G Diamond Tank

[teencie]

Planning to gradually get back into the hobby after a long break with a cool retro feeling diamond shaped 45 gallon… planning for minimal fish (clown pair, blenny, wrasse?) and soft corals… I’m obsessed with zooanthids and frogspawns.

Starting point is redoing the seals in this bad boy, and building a new stand that better fits my decor a little better (ie. light and bright rather than blaaaaack)

I used to be a member here back in my early days, but can’t find my account anymore! Looking forward to everyone’s great advice and making my wishlist from everyone’s good ideas here!

 

[Reefing102]

Welcome back and can’t wait to follow your progress.

If you recall the username or email, @JohnL may be able to help you recover your old account

 

[griss]

Welcome back. Tagging in to follow your progress. I love to follow new builds.

 

[Dustin07]

When you say "redo" seals, will you scrap it down to bare glass and start from scratch, or simply add a new layer of sealant over the old lines? I am constantly living in fear of some day seeing a fail point on my old 40g and I'm also concerned about the quality of the new tanks I'm interested in moving up to lol.

 

[teencie]

hey! I got the tank off a buy/sell and the interior side seams have been chewed quite badly by snails… so I’m scraping down the interior vertical seams, not compromising the seal between the panes, as the tank does hold water, but like you said, I’d rather not see some of these seals erode over time when it’s full of fish and corals… so I’m scraping the old silicon and replacing with new… there’s a few YouTube videos to guide you thru the diy.

 

[griss]

Back in the 80's my parents bought a used fish only 200 gallon. When they divorced in the early 90's neither wanted the tank, I inherited it and the silicone was similar to what you are describing. There wasn't a lot of information available about resealing tanks back then so, I did just what you're describing. I used a razor blade and scraper to take out the internal silicone. I then used aquarium safe silicone to reseal the tank. It worked great for years.