Sealing Sump Hole In Aquarium? Help

[Emma2938]

Hi guys,
whats the best way with sealing a hole in an aquarium where a sump pipe used to be? Its on the base of the tank in the back corner. 5x2x2.
Any suggestions would be great,
Cheers
Emma.

[GoGuppy]

Hi guys,
whats the best way with sealing a hole in an aquarium where a sump pipe used to be? Its on the base of the tank in the back corner. 5x2x2.
Any suggestions would be great,
Cheers
Emma.[/b]
Hi Emma

I haven't repaired a tank with a hole in it before, but what I would do is go to the local glazier and ask for a small off-cut of glass, probably about 4 or 5mm thick and about 25mm wider than the hole all around. So if the hole is say 25mm diameter, the glass should be about 75mmx75mm square.

Using a silicon sealer that clearly states on the container that it is suitable for aquariums, give the glass patch a good coating of the sealer, at least about 3mm thick (or better still as per the instructions) and place it on top of the tank floor over the hole sealer side down.

If the hole is tight in the corner and you can't get much overlap on the two sides of the corner, build up the silicon in that area, so that you get a nice triangle shaped fill (or the technical term is fillet) on top of the patch to the side and back panel of the aquarium. The two sides of the fillet (the sides against the glass pane of the aquarium and the glass patch) should be about 6 to 8mm long, and the slope of the fillet should be flat or slightly bulging, rather the rounded inward towards the corners.

To finish the job off, run a small fillet of sealer around the remaining two edges of the patch to give it a double seal.

Let the patch it dry and cure for about a week (or again as per the instructions on the pack).

Given that most glass aquariums are glued together with silicon sealer, I don't see any reason why the above wouldn't work and once covered with gravel or other substrate will be invisible to all.

Probably a good idea to partially fill the tank with water (about 75mm, which will give a volume of about 67 litres) and let it stand for about another week, with the sealed hole off the end of the table or stand. That way you can check if there is any weeping of water from the tank.

Good luck with the project and let us know how you go.
Cheers

[joz]

As GG suggested, but I'd use a 10 mm thick peice.Only because I'm sure your tank is already 10mm thick.

Any reason you don't just leave an over flow pipe in and just rising out of the water?
or even use a cannister attched to it as an inlet?
:)

[Emma2938]

I'm a bit challenged technically........ :-)
How would it work to have a cannister attached to it? At the moment it has a corner piece of glass that is attached to the tank in a diagonal manner, sealed at the bottom and sides with a gap just over the top. The hole is on the bottom corner inside this triangle.
thanks for your help, i appreciate it :biggrin:

[GoGuppy]

No worries...

You could still follow the same principle, that is place a triangular piece of glass in the bottom over the hole and fill the gap around the edges with silicon.

Trust me, I'm an engineer, 5mm thickness is more than adequate (the tank panels need to be 10mm or more thick as they span 5x2 feet, that is 1500mmx 600mm, whereas we are only talking about covering a 25mm or there abouts hole!!).

On the other hand, using the triangular cavity as a cannister inlet, as suggested by joz, is not a bad idea. You may be able to get a few fittings from your LFS (or Bunnings) so that you use the hole to pass a fitting through that you connect to the cannister inlet tube. You'd need a bulkhead fitting and matching bits and bobs to make it fit the filter hose. :wacko: Probably a bit too complicated..... when you can just hang a filter intake tube over the tank edge, in stead!! :biggrin: .

But that made me think of another way of sealing the hole. Get a suitable bulkhead fitting from yr LFS and a matching screwed cap fitting. Fit the bulkhead to the tank and using pvc glue, screw the cap onto the bulkhead and... voila....done :biggrin: .

Cheers