Hi all,
I'm having what my dad would call a "tuition in the school of life" moment. I found what I thought was a decent (not too good to be true) deal on a 55g tank. $120 for the tank, metal stand, and some accessories. I was told it holds water, saw a picture of it holding water, but did not see it holding water myself. Probably my first mistake.
When I looked at it before buying, the seams looked fine to me, glass was in good condition. But I got it home and realized that I did not check all the seals thoroughly since on the upright corners, there are a number of places where I can get my finger underneath the silicone and "pluck" it up. I haven't leak-tested it because it's drizzling out and I wouldn't be able to tell whether it was leaking. It's on my deck at the moment. Maybe it really did/does hold water, but it's too iffy for me to be comfortable filling it up in my house -- I'm not even sure it's worth doing a leak test. Some of the silicone was so brittle in places that just running my nail underneath it cracked it off. I'm deeply allergic to confrontation, and I think I could have done more due diligence, so I figure I'm going to eat the $120.
My question is whether to reseal it or write it off and pick up a new 55g when they go on sale at PetCo.
While I've seen a lot of people successfully reseal tanks themselves, I'm really worried about accidentally nicking the silicone between the glass when removing the silicone. I also think the bottom inside and upright outside silicone work needs to be redone, so this is a bit of a job. I have solicited a quote from a local aquarium services company that does resealing, so we'll see how much that costs.
Any advice? I don't want to be stubborn about finding a way to fix this tank just because I'm annoyed at myself for not being more thorough, but I also don't want to pull the plug on it too soon.
Any thoughts would be very welcome!
I'm having what my dad would call a "tuition in the school of life" moment. I found what I thought was a decent (not too good to be true) deal on a 55g tank. $120 for the tank, metal stand, and some accessories. I was told it holds water, saw a picture of it holding water, but did not see it holding water myself. Probably my first mistake.
When I looked at it before buying, the seams looked fine to me, glass was in good condition. But I got it home and realized that I did not check all the seals thoroughly since on the upright corners, there are a number of places where I can get my finger underneath the silicone and "pluck" it up. I haven't leak-tested it because it's drizzling out and I wouldn't be able to tell whether it was leaking. It's on my deck at the moment. Maybe it really did/does hold water, but it's too iffy for me to be comfortable filling it up in my house -- I'm not even sure it's worth doing a leak test. Some of the silicone was so brittle in places that just running my nail underneath it cracked it off. I'm deeply allergic to confrontation, and I think I could have done more due diligence, so I figure I'm going to eat the $120.
My question is whether to reseal it or write it off and pick up a new 55g when they go on sale at PetCo.
While I've seen a lot of people successfully reseal tanks themselves, I'm really worried about accidentally nicking the silicone between the glass when removing the silicone. I also think the bottom inside and upright outside silicone work needs to be redone, so this is a bit of a job. I have solicited a quote from a local aquarium services company that does resealing, so we'll see how much that costs.
Any advice? I don't want to be stubborn about finding a way to fix this tank just because I'm annoyed at myself for not being more thorough, but I also don't want to pull the plug on it too soon.
Any thoughts would be very welcome!
