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How often should you reseal a tank?


Donny Brasco

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Hey guys I just bought an 8ft x 2ft x 2ft tank now this is the kind of rig you want to set up once and not touch for a very long time.

It is second hand and I'm not 100% on its age but how often should an aquarium be resealed? Is it an age thing or should I just pay attention to the silicon and see if it's starting to lift or cloud up?

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Lots of intangibles Donny, silicon can deteriorate more quickly if a second hand tank is left empty for some time and/or moved.

With a big tank like that, my advice would be "if in doubt reseal", particularly if you don't know the history of the tank and it is going into an area where water damage would be concerning (eg your loungeroom) as around 900 litres of water can cause some damage.

Cheers, Doug

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It will be in one of my workshops Doug which is all concrete floor no carpet or floor boards just pure concrete so not to concerned of water damage it's more so filling an 8ft tank cycling it and stocking it and then 2 months later notice a slight leak from a corner or something.

I still haven't picked it up so not sure on condition of the silicon I guess I'll check it out first but if it looks a bit ratty I'll be resealing it.

I have watched a fee videos of resealing I'm guessing it's as easy as using a blade to get the old silicon off, clean with prepsol and then run a thick need around it all again and leave a few days to dry

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Resealing isn't a hard job Donny, just fiddly, just make sure you use a sharp blade and get it all.

Since it is going into an area where water damage isn't an issue, you can probably have a look at the silicon when you get it and if it looks ok do a leak check by filling it and leaving for a few days.

If you do decide to reseal it, keep in mind that there is silicon and there is silicon. You need to use a good quality silicon that is aquarium safe. I'm sure somebody on here can point you in the right direction regarding which silicon to use and where to get it.

Cheers, Doug

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I have bought a heap of second hand tanks over the years and only ever resealed one. The one I resealed always leaked.

I wouldnt touch if it looks ok.

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yeah i have selleys 100% aquarium safe silicon that i have used for some other jobs Doug thats no issue, i guess for now ill just chec it all over and if its not to bad ill just run with it.

another question though, it came with an fx5 filter which ill run on it as well, but im not sure if its going to be enough filtration as its a fairly large tank i was thinking either chucking 2 or 3 sponge filter in there as well or i could use my nautlis 1100lph canister filter which i wont be using shortly as well.
what is everyone's thoughts?

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yeah i have selleys 100% aquarium safe silicon that i have used for some other jobs Doug thats no issue, i guess for now ill just chec it all over and if its not to bad ill just run with it.

another question though, it came with an fx5 filter which ill run on it as well, but im not sure if its going to be enough filtration as its a fairly large tank i was thinking either chucking 2 or 3 sponge filter in there as well or i could use my nautlis 1100lph canister filter which i wont be using shortly as well.

what is everyone's thoughts?

I don't think a single FX5 would be enough to adequately filter a 8 x 2 x 2. Having a second filter running would give you some redundancy and give you much more flexibility with what sort of media you are running e.g. you could run all mechanical filtration in the FX5 and then mostly bio-media in the other canister.

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ok so i have the fx5 which is rated to 3500lph, a spare nautilus 1500 which is rated to 1500lph, and 2 sponge filters on a 1500lph air pump so thats roughly 6500 of rated lph.
the tank holds around 900lt, minus a few inches at the top, minus the substrate and a bunch of rocks etc im estimating a bit less than 800lt so looking at around 8 times an hour which should be enough

Considering my Nautilus is cycled and currently running another tank as are a bunch of sponge filters, do you think i could get away with transferring the nautilus over and the sponge filters onto the tank and then filling the fx5 with new media, should the whole tank have to go through a full cycle again or will the old canister and sponges (already being cycled) help to kick start it all working straight away and the fx5 should seed it self quickly and not kill any of the fish i put in it.
Mind you im talking about 800lts of water with about 15 small mbuna so its not like a massive bio load

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Water turnover and air throughput can't just be lumped together IMO.

25lpm is way too much air for 2 sponge filters. Way way way too much. A basic single outlet pump is generally less than 2 or a bit less lpm. You would go more powerful for a deeper tank but 25lpm would run 10 sponge filters. Are you sure you got that rating right?

Having said that - I think you'll be fine for a long while. Then you should probably look to upgrade the Nautilus 6-12 months down the track once you have a lot more stock and it's starting to grow in to the tank.

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na it is a 1500lph its a big air pump, but i have plenty of other smaller ones so maybe ill just run one of the small 2 outlet haileas to run a couple of sponges.
To be honest for now the tanks going to be quite "underloaded" with about 10-15 mbuna and about 10-5 haps and there all around the 6-7cm mark but as my stock grow and i work out exactly what i want to keep and what i want to move on ill end up with some more even numbers.
I think what i have for now will do the job but ill just keep an eye on things and if it looks like its not good enough ill upgrade the 1100 nautalis to maybe a 2700uv which i run on my 4ft peacock tank

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