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Silicon dry time... in water.


nemonlizzy

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Searched for this but couldn't find it.

 

I need to make an alteration to a Pico tank, installing an all in one in the back corner. The problem is, it's been up and running for about 8 months more or less. What can I seal the acrylic to the glass with? I hAve 5 min epoxy, cyanoacrylate, and aquarium silicone. Which is best? What method should I use?

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You can't do it without moving the livestock and draining the tank. Aquarium silicone is your best bet, but the surface needs to be completely dry before its applied, and it could take 10-14 days at least before you're ready to move everything back after doing leak tests and fixing any issues

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I'm sure you've done this many times before. Why 10-14 days?

 

I'm not terribly concerned about leaks in this case. There will be no excessive water on the inside to push the overflow away from the glass. Water level will always be higher on the outside to reinforce the acrylic overflow to the glass.

 

I can keep the water level down low enough for the aquarium silicone to dry overnight as it says without water touching it. Only inhabitants at this point are a few zoas and a crab.

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Silicone is your best bet...

 

5 min epoxy won't look very good and it would take a lot and I don't think it would stick very well to glass. I use it on rocks to attach frags sometimes and even on a super porous surface it doesnt "stick" that great - I can always pull it apart after curing.

 

Superglue will harden as soon as it hits the water so that not a good idea

 

Silicone is your best bet. If you use the GE 1 all purpose stuff it should cure in more like 3-5 days but every silicone I've looked at indicates that it should NOT be applied wet and kept free from moisture for 3-24 hours after application. Reef-safe silicone is acetic acid cure - it smells a lot like vinegar. I don't think you would want your water touching that until it's completely cured for fear of causing a massive drop in pH.

 

If you're dead set on not cleaning out the tank (why not? It shouldn't be very hard if it's a pico!) then why don't you make the overflow into a watertight box and then use magnets (encapsulated in acrylic/epoxy) or suction cups to hold it in place in the corner? This would have the added benefit of being removeable.

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yeah, you don't want uncured silicone in your tank.

 

do you have a temporary holding bucket or something you can keep everything in for a week or so?

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So the general concensus is more than just the curing time, 24 hours? But instead more like a few days?

 

I totally agree with keeping the area dry for 24 hours, I can do this by partially draining the tank.

 

I think the portable/temporary overflow idea was kinda good. I might entertain this more.

 

I'll post some before and after shots once I do this. Thanks everyone for the input!

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So the general concensus is more than just the curing time, 24 hours? But instead more like a few days?

 

I totally agree with keeping the area dry for 24 hours, I can do this by partially draining the tank.

 

I think the portable/temporary overflow idea was kinda good. I might entertain this more.

 

I'll post some before and after shots once I do this. Thanks everyone for the input!

 

IMO its not worth the risk... even if you managed to do a partial drain and seal, there's always a risk of it not curing correctly and getting a bad seal. Also, you risk exposing your livestock to the uncured silicon. I said 10-14 days because you want to give it 4-5 days to dry before water testing... and unless your an expert at working with silicone, you most likely will not be happy with the seal that you achieved and will want to touch up/re-do, which makes it another 4-5 days.

 

If it is a pico tank, should be fairly easy to setup a couple of temporary 5 gallon buckets while you do this

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SpencerShepard

What are you trying to do exactly? Is this a complete box that you need to secure in the tank? Or do you need to seal an "open" box to the tank, via the edges?

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I can do either. I have thought about just doing a sealed box and securing it somehow to the edges. Otherwise I was planning on cutting a singe sides overflow to go into the corner. Creating a triangle with the hypotenuse being the acrylic overflow and the two sides of the glass being the legs of the triangle. I would heat and bend the bottom of the acrylic to form the base of the overflow. I have enough acrylic to play around with.

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SpencerShepard

There is an underwater aquarium glue, called Orca Glue. It has a similar consistency to silicone, but if I remember correctly it is not easy to tool. Check it out. It might be hard to find, I don't think it's distributed in North America any longer. I have a few big tubes of it.

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I'll check it out thanks, I still haven't done the install. I am about to do a water change today but I decided to hold off till tomorrow. Maybe I'll start the swap then. Thank you everyone for your input. Any other helpful tips are welcome!

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