Would you be worried?

[jasond]

My tank is about 5 months old, and I had it built locally here in Calgary. It is a 60G, rimless tank. The glass is 10mm thick, and shows no signs of bowing or any stress.

Along the one side there are these little air bubbles in the silicone. They are small, but are definately there. Are they reason for concern, or should I just relax?

Thanks,

Jason

[Zylumn]

I just cut about 30+ linear of silicone d glass apart on a new tank and found a lot of it looked exactly like your picture. That is air in the silicone and I would continue to monitor, especially check to see if the inside silicone has air pockets. Also monitor if the air pockets get larger or if the glass ends that are fit together have shifted. It should not be a problem as it looks like a solid bead on the inside of your picture. edit ( ps air pockets are not the reason I cut the back of a tank)
Kevin

[Pan]

Originally Posted by jasond

My tank is about 5 months old, and I had it built locally here in Calgary. It is a 60G, rimless tank. The glass is 10mm thick, and shows no signs of bowing or any stress.

Along the one side there are these little air bubbles in the silicone. They are small, but are definately there. Are they reason for concern, or should I just relax?

Thanks,

Jason

I just re-siliconed my tank for that reason....although in my case it looks like a little worm got in where there was an air pocket and a pinhole leak started...as long as the bead around the edge is not broken you are ok...monitor the air pockets. Trust me, i called every tank manufacturer i could think of and ask them...in my case i cut out a bit and re-siliconed...not very neat but it is hidden. If you want to drain tank and run a bead along it again...but i have seen tanks like this before that have been running for years. Unless you get a worm...or the silicone dries out i think you will be okay. if you tank is warrantied you may complain, if i bought a new tank with airpockets they WOULD be re-doing it.

[Delphinus]

Worried, no. Annoyed, maybe Just because I know I would be fixated on those bubbles and probably obsess over it like I would any imperfection.

But at 10mm thick, that's some serious contact for the glass. It's not coming undone. Actually it's not uncommon to see seams like that with thicker glass, it's hard to get it perfectly uniform. The silicone in between the contact points of the glass is structural, the corner bead outside of the contact points is the leak prevention. If you get a tank resealed for example, (except for maybe in the more extreme cases) usually they don't pull the glass apart and redo the whole thing, usually they just scrape the corner bead out and reapply that.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Worried, no. Annoyed, maybe Just because I know I would be fixated on those bubbles and probably obsess over it like I would any imperfection.

But at 10mm thick, that's some serious contact for the glass. It's not coming undone. Actually it's not uncommon to see seams like that with thicker glass, it's hard to get it perfectly uniform. The silicone in between the contact points of the glass is structural, the corner bead outside of the contact points is the leak prevention. If you get a tank resealed for example, (except for maybe in the more extreme cases) usually they don't pull the glass apart and redo the whole thing, usually they just scrape the corner bead out and reapply that.

Agreed And for perfect silicone jobs and edges...ala..well I will not mention names, but you do pay for perfection.

[jasond]

Great, thanks guys. It is definately going to annoy me, but something to watch for in my next tank. Seeing as this is my first tank of this size, I have learned a fair bit. I have a feeling my next tank I will be paying a good buck, but will expect perfection :-). With that said, besides this, it has been a great tank so far, just things I would have done different, which seems to be the norm with reef tanks!