My 2ft, use to have fish in it, but was converted to a gerbil tank 5 years ago, the sealent has been scratch away slightly but the seam in between the class is sound, my last gerbil in the 2ft passed on and I wondering if it is posable to fix the tank up for fish again.

If it can I may have a tank back up and running if not, then it looks like my pond fish will have to do.

thanks

Any chance of a pic of it where the silicone has been scratched? You can buy aquarium silicone, might be an idea to redo the scratched seals to be on the safe side.

Hi Vixen,

I wouldn't advise using the tank now as the silicone has been weakened by not just the scratching but also by the presence of neat ammonia from the Gerbils urine and faeces. In order for the tank and silicone to have maximum stregth they must be totally intact.

In order to repair the silicone you would have to strip out all the old silicone in the tank and replace it completely. Silicone will not bond with silicone once it has set, so even cutting out a section will not work as this area will just leak.

You can try and put water in the tank and leave it stand for a week or so and see if it does spring a leak anywhere. But as the silicone has unknown amounts of damage it is not a case of will it leak, it is just a case of when. I would err to side of caution and not chance it. 2 foot tanks are pretty cheap these days but carpets and flooring seem to just get more expensive.

Just moving on slightly, what are the other dimensions of your tank, Height and Width, as this will help us work out its volume? If it is anything less than 24"x10.5"x11" (45litres) then it is not big enough for any fish. So that would solve the problem anyway. What fish did you used to have in it.?

Jag

ive got a fluval set up for sale if you want it for £60

its 60 w 35d 40h

comes with 2 lights filter and some accesories

collection only thou

Quote:

Oops - didn't know that, thought you could just redo it over the top - catastrophe averted there thank goodness!

its a 24" 15" 15" about 17G Jewel, cost about £95 new, use to have mostly livebearers in it and 2 filters as it was always over stocked but a few inchs.

I haven't cleaned it out yet as gerbil only passed yesterday so haven't felt like it yet, I starting to think that maybe it not worth going back to fish I use to find the water changes hard work and my heakth has deteriated since then as well.

Just wondered if it was ever posable realy.

Not meaning to sound belittling, but the use of calculating inchs-of-fish/gallon is an outdated way of calculating fish quantities for a tank. Fish are so very different and there are so many different species that it makes that way of calculating an outdated means of calculation. Fish should be chosen by the bioload they will put on the filter and the water, i.e. How much waste do they create per fish. A one inch Goldfish will create about 10 times more waste than a one inch neon and although the Neon will not grow much more than 2 inches the goldfish will grow to more than 12 inches. Thats not meant as criticism, just as advice.

In a tank of that size water volume will only be 24x14x14 as you never fill it to the rim. then you need to deduct for substrate of about an inch depth the tank now becomes 24x13x13, water volume is about 66 litres, just enough for a shoal of 6 maybe 8 neons. Anymore than this and the load on the filter will become to great.

I hope this helps in your decision making.

I am sorry to hear about little Gerbil friend, they are such wonderful little creatures.

Jag

I not suprised things have changed its been 5 years since I had my last fish.

Thanks for the adivce I desided to keep the tanks as they are and iver get another couple of gerbils or maybe a couple of dwaf hamsters.