Resealing Tank

I have a tank that was given to me by a friend. It originally held snakes (she rescued the snakes and the tank came with it) From measurements I found it was around 30 gallons. The sealant is all scrapped off and is peeling away. I have not checked it for cracks yet. I'm pretty sure it was sold as a reptile tank, but I'm curious to know if it can be used as an aquarium if re-sealed. If so, how do I go about re-sealing it?

I can get pictures of it to better show you what I'm talking about.

found this on another site:


If the tank was manufactured for a reptile the glass is thinner. Otherwise cleaning with bleach and rinse, rinse, rinse then letting it set for a bit with heavily chlorinated water sure so the bleach is gone.
When I use rocks in my tanks I put silicone feet on them to protect the glass. Gravel I pour in directly on the glass.

Hope it helps

Scrape off that silicone on the inside of the tank. Wipe it down very well with denatured alcohol and reseal it with GE I clear silicone. Same concept as caulking a bath tub. Let dry for 48 hrs then leak test.

What are the dimensions of the tank and thickness of the glass? Yes some reptile tanks have thinner glass and they wont hold up to the water pressure. Get the dimensions and thickness and we can tell you if it is a fish or snake tank

The tank is 36" long, 12" wide and 16" tall. The glass thickness is about 1/2 a centimeter.

It will be cleaned several times before being used as an aquarium, if it gets used for fish at all. I might have to use it as a reptile tank.

You are good to go! Its fish thickness

Yay!!!!!

Now I just need to look over it carefully to make sure I see no cracks and re-seal it!

Thanks so much!.....(now I'll have a bigger tank for my comet! And I can use the 14 for something else.)

Small chips in the corners that don't extend through are fine, most of my tanks have those and I just add a little glob of silicone over it..... not sure if it does anything but it makes me feel better.
Don't get too frustrated if it looks a little sloppy, my first reseal was an absolute mess

Ran into a problem. While inspecting the tank for cracks I found this

If it is bad, you can always patch it on the inside with another piece of glass.

Just clean it up and glob silicone on it. That should hold just fine.