Bleaching an aquarium and replacing a broken bottom...

[the Undone guy]

Hey guys, I just inherited a 65 gallon rectangular aquarium and it was
filthy. I used a whole bottle of Lime-Away to rid it of its stains
and such, and now its sitting on my porch filled with a water/bleach
solution. My question is how long should it sit like that? My next
course of action is to empty the tank, then fill it with water and a
de-chlor and let that sit for a few days. But i'm not quite sure how
long to let it bleach, and exactly how long to let it de-chlor.

One last thing, my dad gave me his old aquarium he got from the
phillipines that is surrounded in bamboo, its only 15 gallons but its
old and i'm rather fond of it. The problem is the bottom of the
aquarium has cracks in the glass. My dad said that this had happened
a few years back to the original glass, and all he did to get it fixed
was have someone put a piece of glass over the broken bottom and
re-seal it up. Now the second peice of glass (on top of the original
cracked glass) is cracked from the move, someone put things in the
aquarium that shouldnt have been in there. Now i have a few options
to get this repaired. I can either

A: put a 3rd peice of glass on top of the other 2 and re-seal it.
But i'd be afraid that the pressure of the water/sand/rock would crack
it.

B: remove the broken second peice and put a new peice over the
original broken bottom.

or i'm not sure if this would work or be better/stronger:

C: get a peice of lexan or strong plastic such as acrylic and remove
the second peice and replace it with the hard plastic, its only a 15
gallon so i dont think it will crack. I'm not worried about looks but
i'm not sure if this would be a wise decision.

Thanks for everyone's time. Any help is greatly appritiated.

-Robert Thompson

[George Pontis]

In article >,
says...
> Hey guys, I just inherited a 65 gallon rectangular aquarium and it was
> filthy. I used a whole bottle of Lime-Away to rid it of its stains
> and such, and now its sitting on my porch filled with a water/bleach
> solution. My question is how long should it sit like that? My next
> course of action is to empty the tank, then fill it with water and a
> de-chlor and let that sit for a few days. But i'm not quite sure how
> long to let it bleach, and exactly how long to let it de-chlor.


The dechlor action will happen very quickly, like a few minutes if the water
contacts all the surfaces of the tank. You need to use a large amount of dechlor
(like 10x the usual dosage) or what you put in will be instantly consumed and no
further dechlorination will take place. If you have a sensitive nose, you can use
that to sense if you need to repeat the process. Plan on doing a final dechlor
rinse after you can't smell any more chlorine.

> ... Now i have a few options
> to get this repaired. I can either
>
> A: put a 3rd peice of glass on top of the other 2 and re-seal it.
> But i'd be afraid that the pressure of the water/sand/rock would crack
> it.
>
> B: remove the broken second peice and put a new peice over the
> original broken bottom.
>
> or i'm not sure if this would work or be better/stronger:
>
> C: get a peice of lexan or strong plastic such as acrylic and remove
> the second peice and replace it with the hard plastic, its only a 15
> gallon so i dont think it will crack. I'm not worried about looks but
> i'm not sure if this would be a wise decision.
>

Option C is not good because it is difficult to bond acrylic to glass. The
silicone aquarium sealant has a good molecular attraction to glass but not to
acrylic. Whether you go with A or B depends on how easy it is to get out the
second piece of glass. Perhaps option D, remove both pieces of broken glass and
refit a new bottom. That might be easiest to prepare since you would just have to
clean the edges of the original walls. You need to make sure the glass is very
clean before bonding for best strength.