Gargoyle

I have a 29 that a pretty good sized turtle was in for about 5 years. During that time he had scraped the excess silicone off the glass. It held water until he was moved to a bigger tank but the 29 was at most a quarter of the way filled all the time...

Do you think the silicone that was removed was structural or just excess from the manufacturing process and will do no harm if it is missing ??

I was thinking of filling it tomorrow and checking for leaks over the next few days but if I fill it it will have to be somewhere where the possibility of a flood could occur if it fails. I thought that 2 or 3 days with water in it would be sufficient to check for leaks.

Your thoughts ??

Gunnie

I would test it for at least a week. I resealed a 110 gallon tank for a week with no leaks. We filled the tank back up once we got it into the house, and added the fish. Within 4 days, it had sprung a leak.

Gargoyle

I decided to cut all of the old silicone from the inside of the tank as well as the bottom section where the plastic goes and perform a rebuild of the tank. The tank is 23 years old so it can't hurt to freshen it up a bit. Plus I have some chipping on the corners I would like to sand down not to mention I want to paint the back of the tank as well.

I was thinking of adding a piece of glass in the center top area of the tank as well to help reinforce the tank a bit... I dunno about that one yet. time will tell.