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The continuing saga of the 700L tank


the-obstacle

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The internal silicone doesn't really do much, it's the silicone between the panes that I'd worry about, that's the stuff under stress.

ahh, so maybe I should redo all the joints while the base is off then? I can leave the braces attaced to the end pieces at the top (and redo them after the new seals are in place) and use that as the jig to re-allign the sides then lay the base on once I've picked it up? I like a good project :)

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A tank maker told me score into the corners (corner pieces are the hardest to peel off) and try and crack it into the corners then stick a blanket underneath a blanket on top stick on some glasses and smash it out with a hammer or piece of wood or similar, you want to get the bulk of it out and then gradually bend back the glass and cut the silicone away. It would be fairly easy with a tank as cracked as the one that you have there.

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id use a thin razor blade and run it along the gap inbetween the panes to cut the silicone , you can then use it to scrape unwanted silicon off

Yeah, I've had a PM confirming this is the only safe way to do it. I might have to get into the tank to do it! This is going to be awesome! :lol:

A tank maker told me score into the corners (corner pieces are the hardest to peel off) and try and crack it into the corners then stick a blanket underneath a blanket on top stick on some glasses and smash it out with a hammer or piece of wood or similar, you want to get the bulk of it out and then gradually bend back the glass and cut the silicone away. It would be fairly easy with a tank as cracked as the one that you have there.

Yeah, the internal bracing hasn't cracked with the base in most places though so I'm worried the bracing is going to hold onto the good side pieces and possibly take chips or worse off them.

I don't really get what you mean though about scoring the corners - do you mean to get as much silicone out of hte corners and cut away as much as possible so there's just he seal on the straight sides and then break the glass out? I figure once I've got a piece out the rest will be able to work away but unfortunately the guy I bought it off has siliconed the cracks with a ton of silicone and they're proving to be very hard to budge.

I'll stick at it for now but if I get angry I might just try to get a bit off so I can start leavering the bits out.

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I ended up cracking a panel of a tank I tried to take apart recently, the blade must have been too thick and a chunk of glass just cracked off, now I need to sort a whole new back panel :( It's harder than it seems.

Best of luck!

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Well, I managed to get 1/3 of the base off by smashing a middle bit that was already broken and levering the sides enough to get the razor in. I then did a side piece to prep it for re-siliconing and found that once I get a blade in each end I can then work my way from one end to the other and keep adding/moving one of the blades behind the newly cut area. Slightly levering the silicone up by a blade width each time and making the next cut that much easier.

It took 4 hours to do 100mm and 30 minutes to do about 2 metres of silicone once I figured out the blade lever technique. :D

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Is it going to be easier to strip then rebuild the tank if I actually take it down to a pile of bare panes or should I do one seal at a time to hold it's shape? I'm woried that if I do more than one join i'll never be able to line it all up properly again.

I also suspect the the most important join is to the base pane and figure all the joins should be started there to get a level and potentially better seal. I think I just answered my own question - I'm stripping it down to nothing. That way I can probably polish the crap off the glass on a flat surface instead of hanging on my side in the tank.

When I come to put it all back together is there some sort of jig I should use for the corner joints or is it a case of holding it in place until the silicone starts to hold it's own then taping and letting it cure?

Can you tell I've never done this before? I suspect I'm overthinking everything.

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Is it going to be easier to strip then rebuild the tank if I actually take it down to a pile of bare panes or should I do one seal at a time to hold it's shape? I'm woried that if I do more than one join i'll never be able to line it all up properly again.

I also suspect the the most important join is to the base pane and figure all the joins should be started there to get a level and potentially better seal. I think I just answered my own question - I'm stripping it down to nothing. That way I can probably polish the crud off the glass on a flat surface instead of hanging on my side in the tank.

When I come to put it all back together is there some sort of jig I should use for the corner joints or is it a case of holding it in place until the silicone starts to hold it's own then taping and letting it cure?

Can you tell I've never done this before? I suspect I'm overthinking everything.

I think you're better off totally stripping it down. And probably a good idea getting a handful of corner clamps to help hold it all in place.

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After a week and a half I gave up being gentle with razors and careful caressing and took a little mmetal mallet to the base. Finished the last 3rd in about 2 minutes. I was surprised at how little damage it did to the edges. There was the odd small chip here and there but nothing more than I was getting with the razor blades anyway.

It seems there's a fair bit of pitting on the glass from being outside for years so I'm going to have my work cut out for me cleaning it up. Suggestions on what to use / how to clean old glass would be greatly appreciated. Thankfully I can now take the panels out one by one and go over them with a razor and whatever else will clean them up. Acetone perhaps?

The parts list is coming together too. So far I have -

Sump (1000x300x500)

2 x CF1200 filters

stand to pull apart and rebuild in a more secure manner

2 x 150W metal halide lights (to pick up)

2 sheets of 25mm poly

1 refugium tank currently housing 10 of the first 15 panda cories to go in the big tank

and a bunch of tank stripping and rebuilding tools/accessories

To order/find someone selling -

sump pump

2 x 300W heaters

filter socks for sump

about 40kg of bio noodles

about 40kg of silica

about 40kg of daltons aquatic stuff for the plants

plants (some on the way, hoping alanmin has some more to move on in a month or so)

Game on!

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  • 2 months later...

Finally put it all together tonight. This tank is HUGE! Well, huge for me. It seems like a serious shame to put such tiny fish in it but then I'd much rather have 100s of little ones than 3 big ones. If only geos didn't destroy plants it'd be the perfect size.

I'm seriously doubting my ability to grow plants in there though. I've got far too much light and nowhere near enough knowledge to keep the ferts balanced. I think I should have the co2 covered with a diy + diffuser setup.

I'll get pics up tomorrow. Now I just have to wait a couple of weeks for the silicone to cure and then I can do some water tests.

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Finally put it all together tonight. This tank is HUGE! Well, huge for me. It seems like a serious shame to put such tiny fish in it but then I'd much rather have 100s of little ones than 3 big ones. If only geos didn't destroy plants it'd be the perfect size.

I haven't found that they do destroy plants. Dig them up, yeah, When they're sifting through the sand. But then you can just put rocks around the base to minimise that.

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I haven't found that they do destroy plants. Dig them up, yeah, When they're sifting through the sand. But then you can just put rocks around the base to minimise that.

Hmmm, you've got me thinking again... I might go for a heavily planted section (1/4 - 1/3 max) of the tank with rocks around and through the plants before adding geos. I'll fill the rest of the tank with a light river sand of some sort to keep the geos and corys happy. I've got a source of some amazing nz native hard wood which I'm hoping to set up like root structures.

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pics of the tank with the silicone drying. I built the tank on the stand so I didn't have to move it later. Masking everything before starting was well worth it although I screwed a lot of the measurements and some of the silicone has some extra large sides to it.

img7371u.th.jpg

img7370v.th.jpg

img7369a.th.jpg

The level/ruler is 1200mm long for reference.

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I had them while they were small with that giant sword plant (rocks around it to keep it in place) and they still dug all the roots up around the area outside the rocks. I think when they're big they'd make too much of a mess. But I'm no expert, it sure would look awesome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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