Need a glass tank silicone expert

[Ruu]

I've had my 180 up for 7 or 8 years, and just did the teardown 3 weeks ago. The tank was left in place dry for a couple of weeks, and I've just come to the water test/plumbing tweaks phase before setting it back up. The tank itself is a custom-made starphire 180 (with a full length external overflow and significant bracing) sitting on foam mat on a well made stand that is as level as I can make it (< 1/16" off in any direction).

No leaks, but I did notice that the right edge seam looks bad once full. Sadly I didn't take pictures before the teardown, so I cannot tell if this situation has existed for a day or a year, or since it was built (but I doubt I would have missed it right at the start). It has been filled with water for a couple of days now without any noticeable degradation, for whatever that is worth. The seal for the bracing appears to be holding up, so I don't think I'm headed for a quick catastrophic failure, just possibly a slow quiet extremely damp one.

Anyone have enough experience to tell me:

a) What exactly has happened and
b) On a scale on one to ten, how bad and how likely to fail.

Obviously, this is not a cheap toy to just throw away, but I guess now is as good a time as any to discover I'm boned, and at least I don't have over a hundred gallons of water on the floor.

I guess follow up questions would be:

1) Is it even possible to repair something like this?
2) Is there a good custom tank builder in the greater Philadelphia area?

Maybe it's time to build the fish room of my dreams.

Dave

 

[Adamc1303]

Doesn't look like anything is wrong to me, but I am no expert.

 

[Ruu]

I'm a little short on experts myself. I don't recall it ever looking like this in the time it was running, but then again I don't really remember spending a lot of time staring at the seals either.

Another picture, slightly different light:

Dave

 

[vair]

No expert but it does look like half the seal/ bonding on that panel has failed, could last another eight years.... Who knows. Questions is can and will you ever stop worrying about it until it's fixed?
So ya just build the fish room and get a new tank.

 

[dave.m]

Yes, this can be fixed by emptying the tank (always a good first step), carving the pane off and re-siliconing it back on. However, if this is all the excuse you need to build the tank and fishroom of your dreams, I would definitely pronounce the seam unrepairable and go for the whole enchilada.

Dave.M

 

[Ruu]

Yes, this can be fixed by emptying the tank (always a good first step), carving the pane off and re-siliconing it back on. However, if this is all the excuse you need to build the tank and fishroom of your dreams, I would definitely pronounce the seam unrepairable and go for the whole enchilada.

Dave.M

Indeed. If ever there were a place that I could go that would give me an unbiased opinion on whether I should get a very large reef tank, it would surely be a reefcentral forum for large reeftanks. I shall be headed to the butcher next to ask him if I should be a vegetarian...

On that note though, does anyone have any experience with coast to coast aquariums? They arent too far from here, and I might drag them in to help.

Dave