240 restoration project

[lemcc]

the old stuff was actual wood siliconed on
i striped everything off inside and out (i wish i had taken a pic of the silicone i stripped out from the inside it was 2 inches thick)
the only silicone i left was the stuff directly bonding the glass
i resiliconed the inside with a thin seam
the aluminum angle is not welded but is cut on a 45 at the corners so it ties everything together

90% of the old seams where still holding after i stripped it
the reaplication of a thin silicone seam inside was mostly for waterproofing
the strength of the seam comes from the aluminum angle the glass is 5/8 thick

so a new tank with 5/8 thick glass will have a total bonding area of about 1 inch
including the inside seam

the aluminum angle provides 3 inches of bonding area

 

[Vince]

And you will sleep better thank you for the great info on restoration. that is a great project accomplished. i bet you are feeling proud eh? you should, it is very impressive. what dimensions do you have on that tank? very beatiful tank.

 

[lemcc]

yes iam very happy with it
i enjoy keeping fish but without projects like this i would loose interest quickly

72x24x31
stand is 36 tall

 

[gomezladdams]

Very cool retro looking tank. I still have some old metal frame tanks cause I like the look

 

[joeytoe]

Tank Looks Awesome, You did a great job with the Aluminum. Id kill to find that size tank (even in that condition). Plus a friend of mine is a kick @ss welder so Id have him weld up the the 45% seems before I Siliconed the top an bottom frames on. But even with the seems butted together it still looks great.

 

[repair]

This will keep you awake at night.

The frame needs to be welded at all the seams because that is what holds the tank together. IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL HAVE A MAJOR FAILURE!!!

The sealer only stops the water from getting out but does little to hold it together.

Learned the hard way

Have you noticed that the new tanks use one piece top and bottom frames... iot is to stop the failures that they used to have.

 

[JnASabo]

Nice tank.
The Aluminum Trim is sweet looking.

 

[Vince]

This will keep you awake at night.

The frame needs to be welded at all the seams because that is what holds the tank together. IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL HAVE A MAJOR FAILURE!!!

The sealer only stops the water from getting out but does little to hold it together.

Learned the hard way

Have you noticed that the new tanks use one piece top and bottom frames... iot is to stop the failures that they used to have.

Well, that 330 gallon that I bought last year was in the same condition, but had all the vinyl pieces (frame) in separated sections. I did the same thing, took out all the silicone inside, and resealed it with Silicone from home depot. Worked great for me. But the frame, since there were all separated, I had to silicone back together to the tank, and ready for this, "STAPLED" the corners together, via staple gun (not your typical staple in the office). It has held them together, but I was pretty worried about the integrity. Well since it has been that long ( one year), I am sleeping better. Plus it is in the garage!

yes iam very happy with it
i enjoy keeping fish but without projects like this i would loose interest quickly

72x24x31
stand is 36 tall.

If you need more projects, I have several I needed done, but distance might be a problem!

Welcome to MFK and great contribution to the site!!

 

[repair]

The 135 that rallysman picked up from me on sunday did great for 14 months and then a couple of weeks ago the glued frame let go on one of the corners and we lost 70 gal onto the floor.

Your tank looks GREAT but I'm just trying to let you learn from my pain.

The staples may work fine for your other tank but you really need to do something to hold the top and bottom frames together at the corners on the aluminum frame.... we only lost some water and carpet but we could have lost the fish inside.

 

[lemcc]

I would like to weld the corners but aluminum welding isn’t cheap and the temp required is too much for silicone and glass

I think there’s a misconception about the strength of silicone
When properly bonded to clean surfaces its very strong (300 psi tensile strength)
so in a perfect world each inch of seam on my tank should hold about 1000 psi
I am pretty confidant that the tank will hold its had water in it for about a month

This is not to say that I was 100% confident that it would hold water the 1st time I filled it and iam not 100% sure it wont bust open today
It is to say the chance that it will is within my comfort zone
If my tank busted a seam at 14 months I would probably attribute it to something else

Thanks for the advice and if you have an idea of how to tie in the corners lmk