125-150g aquarium for $100 on craigslist.. Would a upper level hold this ?

[Pompadour Discus]

You caught a heck of a deal on Craigslist, I am almost jealous and the stand looks great after you cleaned it up. I wouldn't believe it was the same stand from the first picture. I am not and expert but I would be afraid to have that on the third floor, but if you have your heart set on it and feel good about the weight factor. Then go for it, I really hope it works out!

[Candydiscus]

You are correct in thinking it looks bigger than a 125......according to your measurements,it is actually a 135 gallon tank! Regarding the bowing,if you look carefully,do you see any evidence of a previous center brace being there? Look for silicone remnants,water stained lines,etc that would be telltales.

No there is no evidence it had a brace, tanks back then never had center braces. and its 1/2 thick glass. 125's these days are all 3/8th, the owner i bought it from was the original owner too, and he said it never had one

[Candydiscus]

You caught a heck of a deal on Craigslist, I am almost jealous and the stand looks great after you cleaned it up. I wouldn't believe it was the same stand from the first picture. I am not and expert but I would be afraid to have that on the third floor, but if you have your heart set on it and feel good about the weight factor. Then go for it, I really hope it works out!

Thanks, yea the first pic i posted its hard to tell, but it was rusty !!!! nothing structural but surface rust everywhere.. all over it.. I hated the stand and was going to put a drape over it.. But after i cleaned it and painted it with the flat black rust reformer. it looked amazing. I just wish the new silicone i put on would dry !! its like 70% dry, the bottom slabs of silicone are still wet deep inside because its mushy when i push on em..

Itll be 48 hours in 3 hours.. so looks like ill have to wait another 24 hours.

And yes $100, i jumped on this tank as fast as i could. I drive an old Jeep grand wagoneer, which is before the grand cherokee's.. its the wood panel Jeep and it has a tailgate like a pickup.. I actually was able to fit the 6 foot tank and stand in the Jeep with the tailgate up lol everyone was suprised.. I doubt any other SUV woulda been able to do that with the hatch closed. And the owner is the original owner he said he was about to sell it to someone else but when i called and mentioned i would re-seal it and clean up the stand he called the other guy back and asked if he would re-seal the tank and the guy said no he would just fill up the 34 year old tank lol.

So the original owner sold it to me instead.

[Candydiscus]

Hmmm okay the tanks been setup for 2 days now, and i let the silicone on the tank dry for 4 days exactly after i resealed the inside. I sware while it was drying i used a flash light to slook at the seams of the glass and they all seemed fine no bubbles. (Fyi i didnt take the tank apart and redo the seams just the inner seal

Now that its been setup for 2 days i noticed today when randomly watching my fish the seams.. all 4 corner have hundreds of bubbles in the seam. All on the inside closest to the water and they all go from top to bottom of the glass.

should I be worried about these bubbles ? I never saw em before but now that its filled i seem them. They are small little micro bubbles nothing big so far. what do you guys think ? Also yes i i know one pic the silicone job i did looks ugly lol. This section is where my caulk gun broke and i had to push it out manually which was really hard so i didnt care how it looked. just as long as it seals lol

[atlantadiscus]

Yikes,that would concern me too,especially with a tank that large! Did you end up putting it on the 3rd floor? At the least,I would closely monitor it and be ready to do a quick drain if you see evidence of seeping-hopefully,if it goes it will be by seeping vs a seam blowout.Only other option is to totally dismantle tank,take all panels apart and rebuild entire tank-difficult process with that size tank.

[Candydiscus]

Yea its in my bedroom right now. here is a picture hehe. Sadly my stupid discus keep hiding in the corner on the left.. GRR i think its going to take them awhile to get used to it. Btw before anyone says yes i know my silicone seal i did on that one pic is ugly.. thats where my caulk gun broke and i had to push it out by hand with alot of strength on the caulk gun metal arm thingy. So it looks ugly right there and i dont feel like cutting it to make it look pretty in fear of messing it up. As you can see i laid the silicone pretty damn thick though lol took 96 hours to dry

i carried it up stairs by myself too.. up 2 landings my stairs go in a U shape.. and to get over the railing had to lay the tank on the stairs then push it up and then grab it and lift one end over my head and then twist the tank and set it on the next set of stairs. With the newer 125g tanks with 3/8 thick glass that wouldnt be too hard but this 1/2 thick glass tank is heavy as hell. Its funny with no center brace and this thick *** glass, it only bows about 3 mm out. Btw doesnt the tank look bigger then a 125g ? I went to petsmart today and i sware my tank looks taller lol. i forgot to bring my measuring tape for the tanks. but again mine is 24 1/2 inches tall, i sware its a 135g tank or so tank

I contacted the previous owner and showed him.. He had the tank for 32 years so he must know if it had these bubbles with him.. He said it did and he didnt know what they were. So these bubbles might just be from when it was made. I have a 44g pentagon with seams like this too. So im just going to monitor them.. I marked where they go out too, and i marked where they stop in certain areas. and i took 20 or so pics.. Ima keep an eye on them if they spread or get bigger.

I love this tank though.. having it right by my bed.. i can just lay in bed and watch my fish swim in my 6 foot tank. Need to work on a top and lighting, for now i have to mix the lights i have to fit it, and im using a glass table top for a whicker table i threw away along time ago and a plexi top for my 27g hex in storage as lids to rest my lights and stuff on

[two utes]

Wow. You didn't waste any time. Looks great! Hope it all works out.

[Candydiscus]

Yea well i did wait 96 hours for the silicone to dry completetly, that was the worst part lol.. minus lifting it upstairs.


Question.. Im noticing one corner of the tank keeps building up a wet crust that creeps from the trim and pushes up. I keep wiping the crust off and it so far has comes back two days ina row.. I decided to put my mouth on the corner and blow hard and water blows out.. A few drops.. i wipe em off blow again and again and keep repeating and it so far keeps blowing water out. Could this be a leak ?? Or could this simply be water that ran down the glass into the trim when was filling it up and decorating it and so forth ? You know how when you pull your arms out and water gets all over the glass and runs down ? I know the tank is unlevel on this side when i use a level the tank is level but when i drain the water to till its showing low on the top trim you can see the water pools on this side and more so on the corner i need to shim the legs more on this side, so maybe all thew water in the trim just trickles to the lowest corner ?

My 92g freaked me out when i was moving it out of my bedroom. I drained it and when i was under the tank i noticed crust on the bottom trim and it was moist but when i poured a bottle of water on the front trim i noticed it ran to the corner and i think it was just water that ran on the glass in the trim and went to the lowest point of the tank that was unlevel. Make sense ?

Maybe this is whats going on with my tank. Because i dont see how it could possibly be leaking.. I used 1/2 inch thick layer of silicone on the walls, and on the bottom corners there is probly like a 1 inch thick layer of silicone, same with the entire bottom.. Thats why it took so long to cure.

[Ryan925]

I would be concerned. It is a possibility that water could be between the rim and the glass but how much could really have gotten in there. I imagine it would dry fairly quickly as well. Can you try using a blow dryer or something and then don't do anything with the tank that could cause you to drip water there and see if it reappears.

[Neptune]

I would be concerned. It is a possibility that water could be between the rim and the glass but how much could really have gotten in there. I imagine it would dry fairly quickly as well. Can you try using a blow dryer or something and then don't do anything with the tank that could cause you to drip water there and see if it reappears.

That is troublesome. If you keep wiping it and it keeps coming back you have a leak.

[atlantadiscus]

Get a couple cans of computer keyboard "air duster" and blow the compressed air between the glass and trim all the way around the tank following with a paper towel to catch the water drops- if water returns the next day,you may indeed have a leak.

[LizStreithorst]

I'll bet you a nickle it's leaking. I had a leak just like that on one of my 100's not long ago. I figured that the leak was just coming from that one 4" part so I removed the silicone from the entire front panel and put in new. I filled it with water 24 hrs later and let the tank sit on the fish room floor for 48 hrs to make sure that it didn't decide to leak anywhere. Then I drained it and called the wife of a big strong guy and ask if he would come and help me put it back on the upper rack.

I know that I should have posted this earlier, but you really should have started over after the caulk gun failure. Some of the silicone was forming a skin before you were able to work it. That's not good. Now you have an even more difficult job on your hands.

BTW, your messy job looks better than my tidy jobs. I've gotten better at making it look good, but I still suck at that. Also, GE Silicone #1 works great. GE #2 has a fungicide. Don't buy it. No need to buy expensive stuff. You must be young and strong to have moved that tank in place yourself. I thought that I could do everything by myself once, too. It always involved a lot of thinking and a hard physical work out. My hat is off to you.

[Candydiscus]

I used the aqueon silicone. my lfs sells it.

I just dont see how it could be leaking if i re-sealed the inner seal with a thick layer like i did, and waited 96 hours for it to cure. Even if a seam was bad in one little spot.. how the f could it get passed a 1 inch thick layer on the inner seal that i did you know what i mean ?

Im going to wait a week and be careful not to get any water in the trim and see what happens before i tear it down. I refuse to believe its leaking
Here are pics of my re-seal job.. It looks pretty good, and i i used over an inch layer on all 4 corners, and almost an inch thick on the whole bottom, as well 1/2 inch thick on the walls.. I dont see how it could leak past this... and have 4 days 96 hours cure time. Odd thing is it isnt leaking on the floor, i see no water on my stand, or water on the floor. Its just in that corner of the trim which is the lowest spot of the tank

[LizStreithorst]

Mine didn't leak on the floor either. It was just seeping out under the trim. If you don't have a leak I'll grovel at your feet. I'd rather grovel that be right in this case. Good luck.

[Candydiscus]

You sure yours was a leak though ? If it was leaking wouldnt it eventually fill the trim and overflow ?