Glue for Refugium?

vkuroczka

Member
What kind of glue have you guys used to glue panels (acrylic) to an acrylic tank to make a refugium? Thanks in advance.
 

bizzmoneyb

Member
glueing acrylic to acrylic? i dont know of anything you can use in a tank to bond acrylic. normally use silicone, but silicone wont bond to acrylic. if your going acrylic to glass you can bead silicone on really heavy to hold the acrylic in place, but it wont bond to it.
 

jackri

Active Member
I use weld on #4.
It chemically bonds it together... evaporates like rubbing alcohol if you spill it. We have a place in town to get it, but online places have a pretty high shipping charge due to the fact it's a hazardous material when shipped. A little goes a long ways, I used 8 oz to make a 36 gallon sump with 4 baffles and a 3 foot x 4 foot x 12 inch deep tank.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/350650/frag-tank-stand-build
 

salt life

Active Member
Originally Posted by BizzMoneyB
http:///forum/post/2972733
glueing acrylic to acrylic? i dont know of anything you can use in a tank to bond acrylic. normally use silicone, but silicone wont bond to acrylic. if your going acrylic to glass you can bead silicone on really heavy to hold the acrylic in place, but it wont bond to it.
I used the aqurarium silicone they sell in fish stores to glue acrylic baffles to a glass tank and it worked fine? why does everyone say it can't work?
 

jackri

Active Member
That's fine for acrylic baffles in a GLASS aquarium where NO STRUCTURAL integrity is needed by the silicone. If you plan using silicone for acrylic to acrylic your looking for a big disaster. It WILL NOT bond to acrylic providing any strength or leak protection.
 

vkuroczka

Member
So what should I use to bond acrylic to acrylic? I have a 40 gal acrylic tank that I wanna make into a refugium, and I have acrylic panels that I want to place in it to create the seperate chambers..... I went to the local hardware store and they have silicone # II??????
 

jackri

Active Member
Again .... weld on # 4
Now as far as finding it locally? unfortunately all I can say is good luck.
Google it and you might find somewhere local, also look in your yellow pages for a plastics shop as they would have it on hand..... I have to go to a custom plastics shop here (actually called Custom Plastics) and just take a small bottle from their big jug. Be sure to get a needle applicator too.
Melev's site is a good one to refer to for acrylic works (google melev)
 

salt life

Active Member
Originally Posted by vkuroczka
http:///forum/post/2973159
didn't know this was gonna be such a pain ..
There's always something in this hobby that doesn't work out as easy as it may seem.

thank you for the clarification Jackri, sorry about that.
 

jackri

Active Member
I've built 2 sumps and a big frag tank out of acrylic -- it's really not hard but I had everything pre-cut to size and some good guidance... happy to pass it on with what works.
Oh, one more tip if you should happen to have a small seeping leak.... my last sump did as I kinda put the baffles in before the second side... you can get really really thin strips (scraps leftover at the plastics shop) and use the weld on #4 with those strips in the seams and makes an awesome leak proof seem. I'll have some new pics in my frag tank build thread early this coming week of how its set up... still filling it with ro/di water :) (day 4 now)
 
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