Hello to you all, my name is Felix, I am new to salty, but I have quite extensive experience with cichlids of the rift Lake, so to make a long story short, I was recently given a mixed 65g tank with a 25g sump, a swc 200 skimmer, max-s 170 maxspect led ramp, about 60-70 pound of live rock, a 3in argonite bed, 2 football size cheato ball, 3power head for the tank aquaclear 70 and a older model I know it's an aquaclear too in the sump to keep things moving, it had a hang on filter to but I took it off.... Anyway, my main query here was to ask people about my expansion, I since got my hand on a 125g (more like 121) used lobster pen for 35$....ok now before we move on I know a lot of you are more like "ahh... Not worth it get a new one for the cost and time it will take" and that's simply not me... I like fixing thing and I don't mind the bracing, so let's move on, the tank it self is roughly 65x24x20 with 1/2in glass, now problem is this, the tank as been neglected it as been left standing on one end on a piece of cardboard on a rough concrete floor.... So one thing led to another the tank was probably slided a few time around and we'll it now as a few clam shell chips in the corner seams on that end, not few as 2 but more like 15 most of them been in the lower part of the tank out of those 13 are on the same seam, and are mostly 1/8 in the seam by around 3/8 wide the rest (4 of them) are around 1/4 x1/2 wide, now, I know I could undo the whole aquarium and resilicone it all, but I don't have the place to do this, since I live in a medium size studio, so the option for me is to try and fix/reinforce the whole thing, so none (visualy) of the seam appear to have been fully compromise but I have already taken the internal silicone off as it was... Old and lobster pen are not done with craftsmanship in mind but so I will redo those, now, what I want to do is the following the corner will be reinforced with two strips of glass, one 1/4 thick and one 1/2 thick both 2in wide by the height of the aquarium, placed vertically, the half inch will glued by its side to the end panel it's half inch ledge silicone to the front panel, the quarter one will be on the exterior side, 1 1/2in siliconed to the side panel the other 1/2in to the 1/2ledge of the front panel, adding an extra 3/4in of seam to all four corner, in addition I will be adding two 4in wide by the length the tank by 1/2 brace that will be glued to the top (a la eurobracing) with two 4in wide center brace at the 1/3 and 2/3 mark those will probably be 3/8 thick.... Anyway, would like your opinion, I prefer more then not enough the building here I a 7 floors concrete building so not to scared of weight......
