one other thing i forgot to mention.
when you are applying your silicone to the faces of the glass, don't drag the nozzle along the glass. cut the nozzle so the goop comes out at the same thickness as the glass, then hold the nozzle about an inch off the surface and keep moving at the right speed so the silicone hangs down and keeps laying onto the glass in a nice consistent worm. dragging the nozzle along the surface always leaves air bubbles in the glueline (which look terrible if you are building a bare-glass tank) and can't be good for strength.
the nozzles are also made from a nylon that silicon doesn't stick to (for obvious reasons) so you don't want any residue of that particular plastic abrading onto the glass from dragging the nozzle along.
this is probably the part of building aquaria that takes the most practice.
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