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Help. ive cracked the flippin tank !!

jayp

Member
Joined
20 Mar 2010
Messages
59
Location
Cheshire
Help folks ,

While doing a water change last night I banged the glass I was filling up with on the top corner of the tank front glass. Its a 4 inch crack leaking water slowly.

Ive dropped the water level below the crack .....what the jiminy cricket do I do ?

Will silicone seal the crack ? I will have to turn the tank around sometime which is a real p....r as will have to re-scape the whole thing . I'm such a clumsy idiot. Can't afford a new one as this one is only a few months old as is bespoke measured

OH MY DAYS ......im really annoyed with myself aaggggrrrhhhh

Edited with pic in reply
 
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New tank mate. That will go all at once at some point. You don’t want that much water on the floor. Trust me!
 
Added a pic ....its a semi-circle crack so can't run to bottom of tank , would only get about 20 litres on the floor
cracked tank.JPG
 
oh dear that is in a unfourtunate place. Dunno if any of the chemical bonding agents would work on that.
Might be woth contacting a glazing manaufacturer and for advice on what can be used.

I know there is a Clear bonding sheet that we used to use for glazing emergencies in social housing. dont know if that would work.
As sometimes the bonding sheet would be on the windows,glass secuirty glass for months before i could source a glazer to replace it.
 
Very unfortunate.

If you had the tank made for you, the manufacturer might be the best person to advise on repair. They may be able to remove the panel and replace it.
 
My friend cracked his tank, admittedly on the bottom (didn't place tank on a mat and grain of sand caused a crack) and he successfully repaired by siliconing a sheet of glass over the crack on the inside.

You need to go to your local glazier and get a suitable sized piece of glass cut. Or go to Ikea and find say a 6"x4" picture frame with glass front and use that. Glass doesn't need to be too thick, looking at your crack. Maybe 2mm - 4mm will do.

You might want to blunt the edges of the glass by sanding with wet and dry paper first.

Remove using a sharp craft knife, the silicone fillet in the inside of the tank, where your new sheet is going to go, so that your it butts nicely in the corner. Use silicone remover (and knife) to remove all traces of silicone, but be careful not to get on silicone it shouldn't. I have used silicone remover on my tank successfully without killing the fish. Just clean thoroughly after use using water.

Use IPA (or meths) to thoroughly clean the glass. Use masking tape to stop silicone getting everywhere.

Then silicone the sheet onto the cracked area, on the inside. Remember to silicone fillet the edges neatly, possibly using tools.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-smoothing-tools-straight-joints/92313

Use clamps and bits of wood to hold the sheet in place 24 hours or more.

Turn tank round 180', fill with water and buy a big plant or filter or surface skimmer or moss wall to cover the repair. Done. :D
 
You might want to blunt the edges of the glass by sanding with wet and dry paper first.
My local glazier will do this for me, takes them less than a minute. Useful if you don't have any wet/dry paper to hand.
 
very unlucky, hope you're able to find a quick and cost effective fix!
 
Some glaziers can replace panes of glass on fish tanks, but not all. My mate had a broken pane on a tank repaired. It was not cheap as they had to order in the required 8mm glass and then spent more time polishing the edges, was in order of £100 odd for a 120litre tank. They also silicone it back.
 
When my 400 gallon cracked thru double pane 10mm glass. From one corner to the other. The cost of the glass was too much. So had to sell it. Had used gaffer the to keep it water tight at the time ever. Panels were 4 long by 3 deep. And housed my hermit crab island one the worst affected corner.

Really miss that tank.over 2000 fish were housed in it. Including 30 dwarf puffers. And a shoal of African butterfly fish and hujeta Gars.


Wife accidentally knocked the tank with a ladder hard enough to crack both panels.

Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks everyone , some things to try over the weekend . Glad its not only me that does dumb stuff LOL Wonder if the Insurance on the house will pay ? Havnt claimed in 20 years so might be worth a try under "accidental damage"
 
Havnt claimed in 20 years so might be worth a try under "accidental damage"
Problem with that you will have to pay an excess of say £100 odd and will have an effect on your insurance quote for next year, probably up by the amount they paid out !!!

Have you investigated the cost of a new tank ?

You might be able to get cash for the cracked tank to someone who keeps reptiles, spiders etc.
 
I too have been a stupid mong and put a bottom panel tank on a stand with nothing underneath... 1 grain of sand later and waking up at 3am with water gushing everywhere.... i will never put a tank down without anything under it ever again.
 
I have ....same price as I paid which is beyond my meagre finances , its all so depressing as fish and shrimps all settled, plants doing great after starting ferts dosing etc. Cant bear to look at it
 
Unless shipping is the issue, I'd see if the supplier couldn't repair or replace the front glass at reasonable cost

I've a 2005 (manufactured) Oceanic tank that's received some pretty substantial hits with no cracking, so I'm rather surprised at the extent of your glass damage :wideyed:
 
I have ....same price as I paid which is beyond my meagre finances , its all so depressing as fish and shrimps all settled, plants doing great after starting ferts dosing etc. Cant bear to look at it

I totally get how you feel. I went through the same....more than once...

See post #7, that may work pretty well and save you time to get another tank.....
Also, in the mean time, you can get a heavy duty plastic tote and transfer everything there. The fish won't know the difference...
 
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