Aquarium silicone to glue acrylic?

[jonthefb]

Ok guys a quick question for you all...i am building my sump for my 65 and am wondering if you can use regular aquarium silicone (for glass) to glue acrylics panes together? i need to glue two baffles and a trickle box to the sump, and was just wonderign if you can use this stufff as i have some laying around...any ideas?
thanks in advance
jon

 

[daytonight]

from what i have heard silicone will not stick to acrylic good and comes off easy i glued acrylic to a glass tank to make dividers and when it was time to straighten the glue,cut off the extra stuff the stuff came right off the acrylic with ease

 

[jonthefb]

allright that was kinda wha i was looking for...anyone had any good experiences mixing these two?
jon

 

[broncofish]

Hey jon I have a little experiance with this. You can glue acrylic baffles in a glass aquariums with silicon, and it works pretty well, but as far as acryilc to acrylic use weld-on.

 

[jonthefb]

is weld-on safe for a sump bronco?
jon

 

[broncofish]

Yeah thats all I use in mine. I think I paid like $14 for a can of #4 & #16. It is an epoxy so it actually melts you acrylic together. It leaves a little bit of a seem line if you get sloppy, here is a pic of 2 tanks I built, the top one is a bunch of scrap I had laying around, and the bottom one just was not up to my standard so I won't sell it.

 

[thomas712]

Jon - Just so you know true acrylic cement is [methylene chloride] I was looking into the IPS weld on stuff before I came accross a chem-lab tech that got me some of the real deal. You have to use this stuff quickly as it will evaporate right in the bottle in time, I think within a month the remaining 4 or 5 oz. dissapeared.
Thomas

 

[jonthefb]

now im debating wether to go to the glas sho and get some acrylic cement or to get the weld on stuff at Home Depot....does depot have the stuff?
jon
any suggestions guys?
ive used the acrylic cement before, but its super pricey, and like you said tom, is kinda had to work with!

 

[broncofish]

Originally posted by Thomas712
Jon - Just so you know true acrylic cement is [methylene chloride] I was looking into the IPS weld on stuff before I came accross a chem-lab tech that got me some of the real deal. You have to use this stuff quickly as it will evaporate right in the bottle in time, I think within a month the remaining 4 or 5 oz. dissapeared.
Thomas
What is the difference? What exactly do you mean by real deal? I'm just curiose, will I see a difference in quality if I switch from weld-on to "The Real Deal". I'm not being, sarcastic I would love to learn about this stuff.

 

[thomas712]

Well I am not sure now what is in the weld on stuff but would be willing to bet my old crushed coral that you will find the methylene chloride in there, this is what bonds or fuses the mating surfaces.
By real deal I meant the methylene chloride itself which is true acrylic cement or solvent. I used it with some syringes that I picked up at a

[hr]
. It is water thin and just wicked into the seems and worked great.
Later I found that my own LFS could have sold me some of the IPS 16 that he had. He used the long clamps and thin nails to build his wet/dry's, he would clamp it with the nails between the acrylic panes and apply the IPS 16 then tighten the clamps and start to remove the nails, doing any adjusting that is was needed before permanant bonding occured.
He said that he would build me one for the low low price of 400.00 dollars. Thats when I decided to build my own.
Methylene Chloride may not be the only acrylic slovent out there but it sure worked for me.
Thomas