General Care Discussion :: new tank

[chefglue]

I came home to find my 75 gallon deep tank leaking. I am thinking of getting a smaller size tank closer to 55gal and shallow will this effect my turtle if I make the change. I have attached picture of tank he has been in for 10 years. it is normally 90% filled.

[Tampa Bay Turtle Fan]

I am so sorry to hear about your tank leaking. That really stinks ! May I ask were it is leaking from? If it is around the glass edges ( were the glass comes together,) they have a fairly nice amount of youtube videos on building tanks in general that may give you ideas on how to re silicone it. It is just a thought that I would consider doing it myself if I was in your shoes however I never built a tank in my life, I would consider it save a lot of money anyhow. How big is your turtle anyhow? I will post some youtube videos in case you wanted to go this route or pay someone with experience to do it for you. My now deceased brother in law for instance , he built all size tanks with believe it or not, his boat fiberglass company. Working on boats he had the skills and experience on how thick glass had to be to work with combining his knowledge to boats. It was interesting how he determined it and he had knowledge on putting the tanks of all sizes and shapes together. So in simple terms, even though you may not have a tank builder in your area, you can have a boat worker combine their experience and they are all over to hire if you feel the need to hire someone, just a thought really. Here is a few links you can check out below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2beOiIgBvUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKIT2OLOYQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui-r2oTfTog

[steve]

A leak midway... likely the turtle was nipping at it. Did it have a lot of algae growth on it?

I don't think the change will bother him much, but if you get a 55 gallon, look at a good brand like Aqueon.

But as stated above... resealing is an option. I resealed my 125 gallon... not fun, not hard... but it takes a lot of time (almost all of it preparation). Are the rims and glass in perfect condition?

[the-turtle-Girl]

Yea if it's in a seam it can be repaired . I had my 55 spring a leak on me . I tore out the WHOLE bottom seal and bought aquarium sealer and resealed it myself . Just make sure you push it in real good into the seams and make sure you make it thick enough that it won't peel off but also make sure it's smooth so the turt doesn't try to take a bite lol and let it set for 24 to 48 hours to make sure it's cured !

[steve]

You don't need to take out the silicone that's between the glass. I mean it's more work and should leave you with a better seal but nice, thick borders will do the trick.

[Tampa Bay Turtle Fan]

Looks like a job that I would not want to do personally. I just never liked working around glass after 2 bad experiences in my life. But it is for sure worth saving if you can.

[steve]

I hope you're OK from those experiences. Resealing is definitely not fun, it's 99% prep work and then you only have about 5-10 minutes to work with the silicone.

[Tampa Bay Turtle Fan]

Fortunately both those experiences happened in my teen age years and the second as a young adult. I am ok now, it just resulted in painful stitches that caused more of a emotional fear for life than anything. Kinda like people who fear dogs or reptiles after being bit and seeing the aggression on the animal during the attack, that is what it is like for me with glass but glass does not attack lol. I look at it simply as my inexperience on working with glass caused the situations with very painful outcome results.

[the-turtle-Girl]

I agree the prep work is horrible ! And we'll I got the seal that I could see and left the rest . But I let my tank dry for a few hours before I even put the silicone on and since my boyfriend works on semi trailers he's always using silicone for ssomething so hhd the one who knows what he's doing do it xD but there was a couple spots I didn't like after he was done so u put more on xD so it was really thick in some spots lolol but hey that was like 5 months ago ? And it's still holding so I guess I did a good job xD

[Tampa Bay Turtle Fan]

hmmmm I am willing to wager that your boyfriend has contemplated on siliconing your mouth shut as I have been tempted to do with my other half and sister at times when they became annoying lolol . See your giving me more ideas , thank you lol. Just joking of course Can I hire your boyfriend for a weekend , to bring him here to do the job for me

[the-turtle-Girl]

Lololol xD that's a funny one but not if I get to you first ahahaha my silicone has wings xD