We and the other citizens of Chicago's far southern 'burgs have reason to be very grateful for a great job of alerting everyone to the danger with the usual sirens and a media saturation of TV and radio. (Never have seen six spiraling images in the same localized radar screen.) The roofs of several nearby apartments were peeled right off and falling wires started a fire at a Dunkin Donuts. (Local cops called that one in, in a hurry.) Taking a slightly different route to church this morning to avoid the devastated apartment complex, we were startled by the considerable debris on another street and a 40-50-year old tree snapped like a match stick. But the storms didn't touch ground much in populated areas, skimming along about 20-30 feet above the earth. The only injured individual was the driver of an 18-wheeler whose rig was flipped on I-57.
Wanna talk about the advantages of wearing one's seat belt? ;)
I have at least one tank, which leaks pretty profusely from one corner. With a little digging a couple more relics will be hosed and bleached. Any tank even suspected of a leak must be checked so that most of the cylinder of sealant can be used before it dries out. If one must stop using the tube, immediately wrap the end of the tube with plastic wrap from the kitchen and gently cap it.
One 10-gallon has a smashed out end panel. That tank will be disassembled with a new box knife blade, held in hands shod with leather work gloves. Then there will be glass tank tops for four different aquariums.
At this moment I don't wish to take any all glass tanks even partially apart in order to reassemble them and glue them while they are held together with duct tape. Such tape is still a good idea outside of an area being worked upon. It is also a good idea to clean the leaky area of any silicone fragments, maybe using a paper towel to remove anything remotely resembling dirt or grease.
Even though it probably will not be completely used, I will look in the hardware stores for a tube of 100% silicone cement. Applied using a caulk gun, then smoothing the bead with a finger, it is relatively easy and a lot cheaper than using the small tubes of 100% silicone available in pet shops.
There is some security in being sure of what one is buying with the sealer from pet shops. Certainly there are a lot of caulks one does NOT want to use. Dow Corning (probably 732 multi-purpose sealant) or sealants by GE or DAP, which say that they are appropriate for repairing aquariums. If it doesn't say anything about aquariums, look to the cylinder that the contents are 100% PURE SILICONE.
Any bathroom caulks should be avoided since they will contain a poison designed to kill off algae in the shower stall or where ever they are used. I still smile when recalling the case of a pet shop owner who used some old aquarium sealant (it does get old and less useful) to seal a shower. They were puzzled by the green hue, which developed under the silicone.
Don't cut the application tube at a very wide diameter. If not enough sealant can be extruded at a time, the tube can be cut a little further up. If too much sealant comes out, there isn't much that can be done to adjust the flow.
What of the hot and humid weather? Guppylog members who have been here for a couple of years may remember the summary of an aquarium club program on fixing aquariums. It was that fish-head chemist's contention that a thin layer of silicone sealed better than a bulky layer. He also noted that silicone interacted with high humidity best at temperatures in the 80s F/27-31 C.
So find a humid summer day and run the caulk gun's bead of sealant down the grove between clean glass panes in the morning. Run one's finger over the sealant to spread it and thin it. Turn the aquarium over on a patio or on an out of the way sidewalk and leave it for a week (assuming that no wind storms will pick it up.)
Setting the silicone in water (or putting water in the aquarium) does nothing positive for the sealing and curing process - the water has to be absorbed as a vapor from the atmosphere. His observation was that, while there would be something of a seal after a day, that the best, strongest seal would take place after the tank was allowed to sit for seven days. Evidently those of us who don't set up a repaired aquarium for a week, will not have a weak seal.
Immediate Help
