Repairing a crack in a tank

[sombunya]

They were tossing out three small tanks where I work so I grabbed them. A 5 gallon and two 2 1/2 gallon tanks. The 5 gallon is an older style with metal frame. I noticed a crack about 5 inches long on the bottom panel.

I was going to test them all before I tried using them. And based on their size they are easy to manage.

Has anyone here ever repaired a crack in a glass tank before?

 

[DesignsOnYou]

I think that for one that small you may be able to just silicon a new piece of glass on top of the old one instead of re-sealing the whole thing. But, I haven't done it myself, so I'm not positive about that. It would be cool to fix the old one, those are interesting looking. I think that even if you did end up replacing and re-sealing the whole thing it's a pretty straightforward, but messy, process. You could google DIY aquarium repair and see what you come up with, at least until someone with personal experience responds. Congrats on your find.

 

[Orion]

Putting a new piece of glass over the existing one was my first thought as well and just silicone it well. I would probably make sure that it covered as much of the bottom as possible though.

Other than this, to replace the bottom pane, you would probably have to remove all 4 other panes of glass as well since most I've seen the sides sit on top of the bottom. Yep, it would be a mess and take some time, but would be a good learning experence for you and at the end you have the satisfaction of saying "I did that".

 

[War Eagle]

I have a crack in the bottom of my nano cube. I just spread a thick layer of silicone over the crack and let it dry good. Then I put a few large blobs of silicone on the bottom before I set the tank in place (with a piece of cardboard underneith) just to provide a little support from the bottom and relieve a little of the pressure on the crack. Have had no problems, about 8 months. Knock on wood.

 

[sombunya]

That's kind of what I was thinking. Spreading some silicone over it would be my first try and would be inexpensive.

I didn't think of adding a new entire piece over the bottom. I may look into that too. The tank is small enough that it would not be under too much stress.

Thanks for the replies.