Royal removing silicone

zebra_pl*co · Post by **zebra_pl*co** » 29 Jan 2003, 12:43

my royal has decided that while im at work he is going to eat the silcone around the base of the tank !!!

he does have wood in there too which he spends all the time i watch him for eating.

but i dont want this to cause a leak and loose all the corys and brochis that live in the tank with him?

how can I mend this ? and will i have to take out all the water to fix this? pls help before I loose alot of fish.

Post by **Rusty** » 29 Jan 2003, 14:09

One of many reasons why this is not an aqaurium fish.

There is no way to repair the tank without draining all of the water. After you had drained it, you would apply the aquarium sealant, and then let it set for aprox 24 hrs.

Post by **Dinyar** » 29 Jan 2003, 14:31

Don't forget to mix some chilli peppers in with the sealant to keep him from munching on it in future!

Naw, you don't want really to re-silicone your tank andd probably don't have to. Neither would I quite agree with Rusty that a royal is not a suitable aquarium fish, though it definitely IS a high maintenance fish that is not for the faint of heart.

Maybe what your royal is trying to tell you is that it would like wood wih a softer texture. When we had hard wood (the kind that sinks naturally) in our tank, the royal wood (sorry, make that "would") start chewing on other stuff, like the sealant and the sponge on the power head. Once we got softer wood in there, this behavior seemed to stop. On the other hand, he managed to eat through a huge stump in a couple of years, to the point where there was just a little sliver left. We were cleaning our filters out as often as twice a day! Worse than changing diapers

.

Dinyar

polkadot · Post by **polkadot** » 29 Jan 2003, 15:45

Just wondering how big is this royal and has it been always hungry for food? I think its a advantage to have a tank with substrate at least they dont bite the bottom!

zebra_pl*co · Post by **zebra_pl*co** » 29 Jan 2003, 16:22

he is a mere baby, he is about 2" in length.

and it is definalty eating the silicone, as the cory's never touched it.

he has alot fo wood in there, but maybe it is too hard, i will try a softer variety, any advice on which to use?

I do not have much of a substrate, just 2-3mm of silver sand. Maybe if i add deeper sand, he will not be going near them edges.

Post by **Barbie** » 29 Jan 2003, 16:57

Just as a side note, silicone does not bond to silicone, so if you DO decide to reseal that tank, you will need to carefully scrape every bit of silicone off the glass before you apply a new bead to the tank.

I was given two brand new tanks that leaked, and carefully scraped the silicone, but didn't use acetone or rubbing alcohol to get off any traces of silicone, before reapplying it. One has held water just fine, but the other one developed a small leak about a week after I moved it. I was lucky. Its just not worth the potential loss of fish to cut corners on, IME. Hope that helps at all.

Barbie