Gap / Air bubbles in Tank silicon

[WARCRAFT]

Finished re sealing this 180gal (72"*24"*24") tank yesterday and found the front right side edge (glass to glass) bond having this silicone air bubbles/gap between the glasses (used Rtv silicone on this) will this be a issue ? Will the tank break when filling water
(The inside silicone seam is well applied without any bubble)

 

[A201]

I've seen functional tanks with similar
bubbles in the silicone before.
Just to be safe, be a good idea to fill the tank outside & let it sit for a few days.

 

[jjohnwm]

The inside bead doesn't contribute much to the strength of the tank; it just provides some insurance by making a continuous watertight seal that prevents leaks. The thin layer of silicone between the two pieces of glass is what holds the tank together, and the odd small bubble here or there is not a concern. But, wow...that is a lot of bubbles. Most of that seam appears to be less than 50% contact area, with the rest of it just airspace.

Maybe that would hold for 30 years. Or maybe it will give way after an hour, or a day, or a week...

I know you don't want to hear this, but...I would never trust that seam to hold long term. Just my opinion.

 

[esoxlucius]

The bond between glass and silicon is that strong that the odd imperfection here and there, where the silicon has a less than perfect contact with the glass, is compensated by the other areas that have a very good bond.

Saying that, I'm talking about the odd imperfection. Yours is a little excessive and, as jjohnwm said, could last forever, or leak slightly, or totally fail tomorrow.

When I got my 180 six years ago I noticed an area of poor contact, not nearly as bad as yours. So I took a close up photo. Once in a while I'd check the photo against the seam to gauge whether it was getting worse. I did this for four years without noticing any difference between the ageing seam and that original photo.

Then I went and mistakenly deleted an album of photos on my tablet, and my original photo got wiped too. But it still looks the same to this day so I don't worry about it now.

Maybe your tank is only fit for a basement or fish room now, whether you risk it in your actual living room is a call only you can make.

I wish you luck.

 

[WARCRAFT]

I've seen functional tanks with similar
bubbles in the silicone before.
Just to be safe, be a good idea to fill the tank outside & let it sit for a few days.

This is in the living room area, we did the re sealing around 2 in the morning and next day only found this. if I carefully remove some silicone (that's in between the glass) without damaging the inside seam and fill it at least will it work?

 

[WARCRAFT]

The inside bead doesn't contribute much to the strength of the tank; it just provides some insurance by making a continuous watertight seal that prevents leaks. The thin layer of silicone between the two pieces of glass is what holds the tank together, and the odd small bubble here or there is not a concern. But, wow...that is a lot of bubbles. Most of that seam appears to be less than 50% contact area, with the rest of it just airspace.

Maybe that would hold for 30 years. Or maybe it will give way after an hour, or a day, or a week...

I know you don't want to hear this, but...I would never trust that seam to hold long term. Just my opinion.

This is in the living room area, we did the re sealing around 2 in the morning and next day only found this. if I carefully remove some silicone (that's in between the glass) without damaging the inside seam and fill it at least will it work?

 

[WARCRAFT]

The bond between glass and silicon is that strong that the odd imperfection here and there, where the silicon has a less than perfect contact with the glass, is compensated by the other areas that have a very good bond.

Saying that, I'm talking about the odd imperfection. Yours is a little excessive and, as jjohnwm said, could last forever, or leak slightly, or totally fail tomorrow.

When I got my 180 six years ago I noticed an area of poor contact, not nearly as bad as yours. So I took a close up photo. Once in a while I'd check the photo against the seam to gauge whether it was getting worse. I did this for four years without noticing any difference between the ageing seam and that original photo.

Then I went and mistakenly deleted an album of photos on my tablet, and my original photo got wiped too. But it still looks the same to this day so I don't worry about it now.

Maybe your tank is only fit for a basement or fish room now, whether you risk it in your actual living room is a call only you can make.

I wish you luck.

This is in the living room area, we did the re sealing around 2 in the morning and next day only found this. if I carefully remove some silicone (that's in between the glass) without damaging the inside seam and fill it at least will it work?

 

[..puSkar..]

Finished re sealing this 180gal (72"*24"*24") tank yesterday and found the front right side edge (glass to glass) bond having this silicone air bubbles/gap between the glasses (used Rtv silicone on this) will this be a issue ? Will the tank break when filling water
(The inside silicone seam is well applied without any bubble)

View attachment 1468778

It's a little more than what id consider safe saying that if the glass is well bonded to the bottom panel then you MIGHT be on the safe side.
One thing could be done but it would be more of a experiment you could run a sharp blade very carefully ,just HALFWAY through the silicone from OUTSIDE (like we do when opening up the pannel) and then you could apply silicone bead from outside and force the silicone into the crevices with your finger gliding across the complete height of the tank. After that's done and silicone's dry. You take a sharp blade and scrape off the extra silicone from outside.
Then you apply a next bead of silicone and stick maybe a 3" Glass piece (6-8mm ) throughout the whole joint from top to bottom.
You could also brace the side in a Euro bracing style like we do for the bottom pannel.(from the inside) making the area of contact double. If it's 12mm glass if you stick another 12mm , the silicone contact is now 24mm .
That would make me trust the tank more than what I'd do now.
You could dismantle the complete tank and rebuild but that's wayyyyy harder than mere reseal and thick glasses are very hard to open.

I know this may seem like a **** idea to fellow members, but why not give it a try, if I were you I'd certainly give it a shot

 

[..puSkar..]

It's a little more than what id consider safe saying that if the glass is well bonded to the bottom panel then you MIGHT be on the safe side.
One thing could be done but it would be more of a experiment you could run a sharp blade very carefully ,just HALFWAY through the silicone from OUTSIDE (like we do when opening up the pannel) and then you could apply silicone bead from outside and force the silicone into the crevices with your finger gliding across the complete height of the tank. After that's done and silicone's dry. You take a sharp blade and scrape off the extra silicone from outside.
Then you apply a next bead of silicone and stick maybe a 3" Glass piece (6-8mm ) throughout the whole joint from top to bottom.
You could also brace the side in a Euro bracing style like we do for the bottom pannel.(from the inside) making the area of contact double. If it's 12mm glass if you stick another 12mm , the silicone contact is now 24mm .
That would make me trust the tank more than what I'd do now.
You could dismantle the complete tank and rebuild but that's wayyyyy harder than mere reseal and thick glasses are very hard to open.

I know this may seem like a **** idea to fellow members, but why not give it a try, if I were you I'd certainly give it a shot

Did you get me?

 

[WARCRAFT]

It's a little more than what id consider safe saying that if the glass is well bonded to the bottom panel then you MIGHT be on the safe side.
One thing could be done but it would be more of a experiment you could run a sharp blade very carefully ,just HALFWAY through the silicone from OUTSIDE (like we do when opening up the pannel) and then you could apply silicone bead from outside and force the silicone into the crevices with your finger gliding across the complete height of the tank. After that's done and silicone's dry. You take a sharp blade and scrape off the extra silicone from outside.
Then you apply a next bead of silicone and stick maybe a 3" Glass piece (6-8mm ) throughout the whole joint from top to bottom.
You could also brace the side in a Euro bracing style like we do for the bottom pannel.
That would make me trust the tank more than what I'd do now.
You could dismantle the complete tank and rebuild but that's wayyyyy harder than mere reseal and thick glasses are very hard to open.

I know this may seem like a **** idea to fellow members, but why not give it a try, if I were you I'd certainly give it a shot

The guy who did this told it won't leak and said these things are normal ?‍ and he said if it does then will remove the side panel and clean the silicone and re-fix this side panel (only this panel)
Will that be ok if remove the panel completely and re apply the seams and seal again from inside also