I might take the lunatic route!!! I wanna say I’m attached to this thing cause I convinced my SO to get it for me in the first place that in itself was heck of a battle. I’m gonna continue dismantling it. 3/4 glass seems to be the only thickness close to 5/8 that people keep. I’m using SC1200 construction grade silicone, aquarium safe of course! I pushed a needle through it and it absolutely went through- with some force of course. I was thinking since it’s on the bottom I could silicone a 5” x 5” glass square maybe 1/2 or so into the corner of the inside of the tank after I reseam it. This in theory could redirect the pressure into the square opposed to that corner hole. Now this tank was used and before the move the crazy man had this thing completely full missing both center braces!! BOTH!!!! The silicone on this thing was so brittle. When I pulled the bottom brace it almost seems like Marineland was totally aware of the chip(s). The opposing corner there is also a chip not as bad but definitely a good chunk missing and it appears they just filled the corner with silicone???
I own a 10x Coddington which is a 10x magnification used by laser operators to monitor imperfections in Cuts in sheet metal. Now this isn’t quite a microscope but I use it to look at smaller tank inhabitants when I’m not at work. Do you think I could use that to inspect the glass? I think a tank trial will occur with this in the future! I’m not gonna fill it inside unless it can hold water for an entire month. This thing is gonna spend a lot of time outside... instead of 5”x 5” maybe a 18” x 18” would be better to cover more area. If it is microcracks any sort of pressure such as a 220 gallons of water it would definitely show stress via. Cracking?
