[wantsome]

My local pet shop had marineland aquariums on sale 2 years ago so I picked up a 75 gallon.

I decided to change my substrate today and it's a good thing I did. After removing the substrate I discovered that the sealant had a few hundred bubbles in it. Some were 1/2" in size.They weren't there when I purchased it because I inspect ever aquarium I buy.

They used a black sealant on the aquarium. So I'm just giving a heads up to anyone that may have purchased a marineland aquarium.

As of right now all of my fish are in a 5 gallon bucket with a air pump and heater. I discovered this at 8 pm and now I have to buy an aquarium first thing in the morning.

 

[Rakaal]

Ouch man, thats not a good sign. I have two marineland aquariums. My first developed a crack/scratch. I promptly notified Marineland customer service. They requested pics and proof of purchase. I provided. They promptly offered to replace the tank.

I very soon discovered that it had not been a defect but carelessness by another much smaller member of my family. I could not in good conscious take Marineland up on their offer. Long story shorter, their customer service was pretty good. Id give them a ring.

 

[Nordic]

Honestly, it is not that hard resealing a tank. I would check the joints where the glass butts against each other, as long as that is clear (hard to see with black I guess) the tank is structurally fine. Simply use one of those flat razor blades and cut all the silicone that is inside the tank out. Use masking tape and tape off about 1/8th from the corners so you don't smear silicone everywhere. Then apply a small bead to replace the removed silicone. Smooth it over with your finger. Work deliberately so you don't have to smear the stuff around. You want to just wipe it once or twice with your finger to make it smooth and pretty. Wait 5 minutes then peel away your masking tape, to prevent the silicone drying and attaching to it.

If you feel this is more than you can bite off, at least put the tank up for ROAK, so someone more adventurous can fix it..... see it as recycling

 

[roadmaster]

Plus one^
I have re-sealed a couple tank's and it was easy.
Plenty of videos depicting how to on the Web.
Surgical gloves keep's the silicone off your finger's and alcohol can remove any silicone from accidental coverage.
Let the repair dry for 24 to 48 hour's ,and all fixed.

 

[Nlewis]

Plus one^
I have re-sealed a couple tank's and it was easy.
Plenty of videos depicting how to on the Web.
Surgical gloves keep's the silicone off your finger's and alcohol can remove any silicone from accidental coverage.
Let the repair dry for 24 to 48 hour's ,and all fixed.

You got it. I've re-sealed 5 tanks and it's super easy, just make sure you get the correct silicone.

 

[roadmaster]

GE I Silicone at Lowe's was what I used .
Do one end ,or one corner at a time.

 

[wantsome]

I'm going to reseal it and use it for a emersed set up to grow plants. I don't trust it otherwise. If the silicone has bubbles in it whats to say the seams aren't weak also since they used the same stuff.

In 20 years I've never had a tank brake. I did have a top fin aquarium start leaking after a month of use. I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy a new one.

 

[Nordic]

No need for gloves, baby wipes do a good enough job.

As I said, that is the downside to black silicone, you cant see if there are bubbles between the glass faces.
I suspect someone didn't clean the glass before glueing it up originally. The silicone you see inside the tank, is the seal bit. But between the glass faces is a very thin layer of silicone. As the tank is clamped during construction, there should be no bubbles unless the silicone was faulty. I'll take a picture later of how I brace and seal tanks with suspect glued faces (visible bubbles) with a tiny strip of glass.
Using that technique you don't even have to drain the tank to affix it.
Watching Houdini and Doyle now.

Ok here we go. See, the external piece forms a new clear seal with the side of the face of the tank, which is surplus to the failing seal on the inside.
The overlap is to hold that in place with resistance to sheering force, that face is never going anywhere it isn't supposed to again.

Its not pretty I guess but it is thinking outside of the box and tested. That tank still needs cleaning up. I just repaired it and put it down for when I'll need it.
I'm rotating a bunch of fish today to do half siter/brother crosses with my rainbow platys and green neons. For some reason the one female produced no offspring with the red in the caudal area that makes a rainbow, but on the other hand, her offspring doesn't carry the two dark stripes on the side common to most platys, The goal is to end up with a large rainbow platy without stripes.

 

[AbbeysDad]

It's really easy to reseal - just carefully remove the old silicone with a single edge razor blade taking care not to pierce the seal between the glass panes, then clean with alcohol or acetone, then reseal with 100% Silicone (GE I or II door & window). I generally don't bother with tape, but you can.
But you've decided on another tank (sounds like a good excuse for MTS - lol).

 

[wantsome]

I would like to thank everyone for their advice. I made a really bonehead decision with the tank. The bubbles had to of been there when I bought the tank. How else would air be trapped in them? This is the first time I totally drained the tank in 2 years. The bubbles were along the botton glass.

So after leaving the fish in a bucket for 10 hours. I sat up all night waiting for the petshop to open so I could buy a new tank in the morning. I came to the conclusion about 4 am about the bubbles and just decided to use the tank. I figured it has been fine for 2 years with the bubbles I might as well take my chances with it.

Unfortunately my fish didn't do so well in the bucket. Even though I had a air stone in it I thought they'd be ok. All of my fish had ammonia poisoning. I had a school of 6 fully grown beautiful denisonii roseline sharks. So far only 3 have survived. I think most of the fish will recover but I'm extremely upset about the barbs. I've had them for 2 years.

 

[AbbeysDad]

Oh wow, I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Nordic]

treat with salt immediately. 1g for every 10L
I can only work in metric. but by weight it is 1 gram aquarium salt for every 10000g water.
By all accounts Denison's are very sensitive to low oxygen, that might be the only reason they perished.

 

[wantsome]

treat with salt immediately. 1g for every 10L
I can only work in metric. but by weight it is 1 gram aquarium salt for every 10000g water.
By all accounts Denison's are very sensitive to low oxygen, that might be the only reason they perished.

Thanks for the suggestion I'll keep it in mind for the future. It's been a couple days and the 3 remaining barbs are recovering so are the other fish.