Re siliconing

[Chris helland]

Just got this amazing plecotank and it will definitely be my summer project, but it needs to be re siliconed. And it’s a double bottom, glued together. Now there was moisture between the glasses that was glued together and it looks like it reacted with the silicone and created some sorth oil layer, or some greasy over the glass.
I’ve tried acetone, but it has no effect what so ever. Any tips on what might be effective?

[bekateen]

I've never seen a double paned bottom before. Is it just siliconed around the edges or are both layers glued together aling their entire surface contact? If the latter, I'd recommend trying a thin strong wire to saw between the two panes. I'm not sure it'll work, but otherwise I can't imagine how to attack this.

Good luck, Eric

[Chris helland]

looks like this, it’s an optiwhite tank or what it was cald. It’s from a well known pleco keeper in Norway named Richard.

So it’s like a puzzle, with several small pieces glued together. It’s so the bottom can handle more friction I guess. I’ve split the tank in 2 with fishing line to split the tank. But I need to clean it to re silicone it. But I can’t get this layer of oil that on the glass. Acetone doesn’t work for some reason

[MarcW]

Are you able to post any pictures? It may help us figure out what's going on.

Eric I'd not seen that before until recently, but if you look in my fish room thread, you'll see my big tank has 3 panes on the base, I'm not certain why but the builders seemed to think it was needed!

[MarcW]

I guess we posted at the same time! Something I've used to clean up pipes before solvent welding is MEK that may remove the film. It's methyl ethyl keytone I believe, it takes the surface off of pvc pipes, so it'd be worth a shot I think.

[Chris helland]

The tank when I first got it. It’s going to be an amazing tank



The glass with the layer og olibased cover that I can’t remove. Not the best picture but

[Chris helland]

I guess we posted at the same time! Something I've used to clean up pipes before solvent welding is MEK that may remove the film. It's methyl ethyl keytone I believe, it takes the surface off of pvc pipes, so it'd be worth a shot I think.

MEK? Never heard of that, I’ll look it
up

[bekateen]

Eric I'd not seen that before until recently, but if you look in my fish room thread, you'll see my big tank has 3 panes on the base, I'm not certain why but the builders seemed to think it was needed!

Thanks Marc. Yes it's alien to me.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Does the double or triple paned bottom relate to the fact this is a rimless tank?

[Chris helland]

No I don’t think so. The tank is only 480L but the glasses are 12mm thick, and the bottom is 24mm thick, I think it’s rly thick.

The lengths are 120cm 80cm 50cm

[Bas Pels]

Silicone will not dissolve, but you will want to have the double bottom watertight - that is, all glass panes will have to be separated and cleaned.

That will, ultimately, require a long and very thin knife, and yes, something to claen the stuf away.


But in case you could dissolve the stuff while the bottom is intact, there is still the questoion wheter you will want to use this bottom as it is now. I would think not.

[Chris helland]

Im a aware of that, and all glasses have bin separated, they only problem is the layer of some oil based on it. Just tried some simple glass cleaner and it acutely removed it, can’t wrap my head around how that removes it, but the acetone didn’t.

The hole tank is in pieces. Changing front glass to get rid of all the scrapes on the front glass. Changing out some of the bottom pieces as I didn’t like they way they had done one of the corners. So the hole tank is coming apart and getting re assembled

[Bas Pels]

Good the read everything is taken apart. I think I would try to remouve as much as possible without any chemicals - just paper-

Now I wonder you wrote `it acutely removed` - did you mean actually (surprisingly, it worked some) or did you really mean acutely (that is, very carefully). If it is the latter, you found your solvent.


When you want to dissolve something, the general rule is `alike dissolves alike`. there are lots of slovents such as aliphatic, aromatic, linear, hydrophile, hydrophobic - and yes, acetone is a rather odd melocule, which does not dissolve much. However, it dissolves both in water and in organic (alifatic) solvents, and water is even odder. So to us is seams rather universal, but it isn´t.

[Chris helland]

My mistake, I ment actually. I’d never re silicone a tank without tearing apart. I’d actually never guess that normal spray for cleaning glass/windows would to the trick. Still using acetone before I re silicon it

Thanks for the help!

[Chris helland]

So I’ve just got the glass and it’s laminated two 6mm glasses together, so the question is will this hold this tank?

[Chris helland]

Some pictures

[Viktor Jarikov]

I don't know if you tried a surfactant before (soap, detergent), perhaps this was all that was needed, or the ammonia in the glass cleaner was needed. Hard to guess as this is more of a trial and error scenario. Sometimes an acid is needed, such as acetic or muriatic acid, other times a base, such as ammonia or baking soda, will do the trick. Yet other times it is a matter of hydrophilic versus hydrophobic or even other more specific interactions of functional groups and moieties within the solute and solvent molecules.

As for the laminated glass, I've never dealt with it. I don't know how it affects the mechanical properties. I imagine it depends on what's sandwiched between the two glass panes. Your laminate is still clear, so it's not silicone that's between the panes, I think. We live in a hurricane zone and the impact-resistant glass is popular here. Firefighters hate it - it is extremely, and I mean it, extremely hard to break. My understanding is such glass consists of layers laminated together.

[Chris helland]

Thx I’ve borrowed some
Break cleaner from my dads workshop, let’s see if that dos the trick tomorrow.

As for the glass I’ve only had positive feedback on Facebook from multiple pages so I’m giving it a shot. And 12mm glass should be more then enough for an 480L tank.

Unfortunately the guy ho made the two parts for the bottom made them to long so me and my dad trimmed them down at his work shop. Used an angle grinder and water for cooling, it actually worked and we ended up grinding away 8mm on both the bottom glass pieces.

I’ll add som pictures:




All I need to do now is re build it and make the table, got some cheep doors from Ikea to make the table look a bit better

[Chris helland]

Just finished gluing the tank, some pictures from the proses.







Forgot how big it is

[kvnbyl]

absolutely gorgeous tank, can't wait to see it filled with cats and maybe a c*****d or two!!

[Chris helland]

Not gonna lie, I’m pretty excited too. Just finished the table and I must say the result is amazing. I’ll add som pictures of the process.



This is the plywood we used, and it’s cut to be the exact measure as the tank.



The table is more or less don, just need som details don, and a support team wall inside the table a bit off center as I’d like a sump on the tank one day.



We flipped it over to add six round knobs under the table, just to sorth of get it up from the ground so the door won’t be sweeping the ground constantly resulting in scratches all over the door.



Just painted the table and letting it dry outside in the sun.



The finishing touches and the doors are added, now I just need the tank to dry a bit faster and I can start filling it

[Chris helland]

Not sure how interesting this is, but I’m gonna keep posting anyway!

Safe testing the tank now, and we’ll see how it goes.







Relishing these won’t fit! Did some improviseing and cut the edges of the middle one.

[MarcW]

Good to see some water in the tank! Looks like you have done a great job reconstructing the tank, and the cabinet looks amazing.

Looking forward to seeing some fish in it .

[Chris helland]

I am excited to, but since it came with out any kind of support bars on the front and back glass I didn’t rly think I would need it. Oh boy how wrong I was, let’s just say when the tank is half full, the glass all suddenly looks like my juwel vision.

So i have to glue the bars back on. My guess is that thats reason why the silicon let go in the first place. The old tank owner glued them on after the silicon started to let go.

Anyways I agree the cabinet looks amazing, can’t wait to get this up and running. And thx, not quite sure how I will scape it. Got some amazing mood laying around, and a hole lot of stones. But we will see, any picture or ideas are welcome

[MarcW]

Good thing you tested it! There is a lot of water in there, maybe a brace across the middle will be needed too?

I'm planning of re-doing a tank soon for some new fish, so I'll put some pictures up in my fish room thread, it's going to be mainly rounded cobbles and a single large piece of wood, with lots of flow.

[Chris helland]

I hope not, I rly want any of the braces at all, but one to support the front and back glass should slide, one of the middle Is the last thing I want, but if I have to I have to.

I’ll check it out, all ready had a look actually and it looks amazing

[Chris helland]

The brace is siliconed on, and now I have to wait another 24h before we can test fill it, and if everything seems okey I’ll be painting the side panels and back glass black for a finishing touch

[Viktor Jarikov]

To me, this is very interesting. I am sure most who find it interesting don't post. Why post trivial stuff and dilute the substance... It's fun to observe a project.

[Chris helland]

I guess, didn’t se mutch activity so it felt like I was talking to my self. Painting and hopefully switching the tank tomorrow

[Jools]

Yes, it's the way this forum works, you won't get a lot of likes or +1s but a load of catfish keeping hardcore will be watching, and enjoying, your progress.