# Project/Bargain Undertaking!



## LancsRick (23 May 2012)

What does £25 get you these days?

Half a tank of fuel (if that).
A handful of recent DVDs.
A small restaurant meal.
Oh, and also, a 4ft x 2ft x 1ft fish tank with very nice clarity glass....







So I liberated this from someone's garage today in exchange for what I view as a miniscule amount of money for a tank this size. I've been told it's watertight, but I'll test that for myself, the important thing is that all the glass is perfect - no scratches, cracks or chips.

It's got an interior ledge both for supporting the lid and also for a couple of horizontal struts, which should come in handy when building a lid for it.

One thing I don't like is that all the corners are done in *black* silicon. So, first more pictures, then questions...











I'll preface all of this with saying that I'm handy in a workshop (a.k.a. the garage), but have no experience with fishtanks or glass.

1) I'm going to replace the black silicon with colourless for aesthetics, and was wondering if I do a single straight edge at a time, if I could get away with removing the black and re-siliconing without the need for jigging the whole thing, mainly because I don't own a set of 90degree 3D jigs.

2) Plan of attack for cleaning up the glass is white spirit, followed by window scraper, followed by more white spirit, followed by many rinses with water. Any tips from those of you who have walked this path before me?

3) Finally, I'm going to build a stand for this, which will be a slower time project. Bearing in mind it's going to need to support 300kg and I'm not made of money, it's likely to be a pine and MDF affair, shellac'ed and then painted. Any tried and proven designs, or shall I break out my ruler and pencil?

I think that's it for now, just happy to have a project for the workshop!


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## Ady34 (23 May 2012)

Hi,
changing the silicone will be some task, youll have to seperate all the panes to get it from between them i would think. Black isnt so bad, it frames the scape   
Oh, and be sure to test outdoors away from the house and on a very level surface with some suitable wood and polysyrene sheets underneath, or wait until youve built the load bearing part of the stand!
Good luck,
cheerio,
Ady.


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## LancsRick (23 May 2012)

I was going to see what it would be like by just removed the beads and leaving the thin layer sticking the panes together intact - not as good an idea as I'd thought?

Already got testing ideas thanks, don't want to get anything wrong with large volumes of water!


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## Mar10 (23 May 2012)

To seperate the panels is going to take a lot of effort and patience to ensure that they do not get chipped or cracked and to reassemble the tank accurately would probably require a jig which in itself would be a frustrating and time consuming job, I think it looks okay as it is, I would stick with the black


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## Mar10 (23 May 2012)

P.s- At £25 you got a stonking bargain, well done,good spot


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## LancsRick (23 May 2012)

Thanks for the advice on the silicon, I'll leave it be in that case and just clean up the tank itself.

I do love a good project .


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## LancsRick (23 May 2012)

I've just been through all the plastic trim etc - it's a Juwel Rio 240! Even more chuffed now .


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## hinch (24 May 2012)

use meths to clean the glass not white spirits. white spirits is oil based and water proof at that it is a swine to get completely out of the glass/silicone and is massively toxic. 
meths on the otherhand is a stronger solvent and evaporates off completely


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## LancsRick (24 May 2012)

hinch said:
			
		

> use meths to clean the glass not white spirits. white spirits is oil based and water proof at that it is a swine to get completely out of the glass/silicone and is massively toxic.
> meths on the otherhand is a stronger solvent and evaporates off completely



Awesome tip, thank you.


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## ian_m (24 May 2012)

IPA alcohol is better as it will remove both solvent based "dirt" eg oils etc as well as ionic based dirt ie stuff that dissolves in water.

This what I used when I last cleaned my tank when stripped down. Oh and masses of kitchen towel.


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## hinch (24 May 2012)

ian_m said:
			
		

> IPA alcohol is better as it will remove both solvent based "dirt" eg oils etc as well as ionic based dirt ie stuff that dissolves in water.
> 
> This what I used when I last cleaned my tank when stripped down. Oh and masses of kitchen towel.



which is a different name for meths


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## ian_m (25 May 2012)

hinch said:
			
		

> ian_m said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nope....wrong wrong wrong & wrong.   

Meths is denatured ethanol (ie methanol, colour and bitter flavour added, so you can't drink it).

IPA is isopropyl alcohol.

Completely different subtances.

Meths may and will often leave a residue of purple colour and/or flavour.

IPA is used to clean glass as it leave no residue.


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## hinch (25 May 2012)

meths (which usually contains IPA anyway) is just fine pure ipa is much much much more expensive not to mention considerably harder to aquire

meths should never leave any trace or residue behind other than perhaps a few fibres from the cloth you used to wipe it with  and they can be resolved with a simple damp water wipe over after the solvent has removed the bulk of the nastyness


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## LancsRick (25 May 2012)

I've got a few litres of IPA knocking around, so used some of that, has come up an absolute treat thanks guys .


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## Dogtemple (12 Jun 2012)

you could strip out the silicone if you wanted to and re glue it with clear, it would be quite straight forward if you leave the bottom seams in.    i would cut the silicone with a razor blade only on the vertical edges and scrape it all off.   then you would just need to fill in the bead again and hold it with 90degree clamps.   that should do it fine.


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