Home made refugium.

[team2jndd]

I was going to convert a 10g tank into a refugium. Has anybody done this successfully. I have made a few and within a month I always have a seam break at the baffle before the return pump which causes the water to be sucked from the bottom of the fuge and lets sand through. Does anybody use a different adhesive than silicone? Is there something I could use that would sink into the cracks and hold the plexi in place so that I can silicon it afterwards? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[trainfever]

I cut strips of plexiglass 1/2" wide and siliconed them flat against the walls of the tank wherever I wanted to put the baffles. I then siliconed the baffles against them. This gave extra support for the baffles.

 

[team2jndd]

I was thinking about that but silicone is a terrible adhesive its primarily a sealant so what do you use to hold the plexi flush against the glass?

 

[symon]

you need to cut the plexi close, then you use the silicone to hold it inplace!

 

[hot883]

Good advice posted above. If you don't mind; what size is the maintank? A 10 gallon fuge will equal to about what 3-4 gallons extra water? Is that really enough benefit? I would go as large as you could just because you cannot fill them to the top due to back flow in a power loss etc. HTH

 

[squidd]

What are you using for baffles in the 10..?
If it's Plexiglas and probably too thin at that, it will bow under water pressure and pull loose from the silicone..Silicone and Plexiglas are not a great combo...
Use glass baffles with glass tanks and silicone as an adhesive sealant (yes silicone is an "excellent" adhesive...what do you think is holding your tank together..?) and acrylic baffles in an acrylic tank with the proper weld on cements...to insure proper adhesion...

 

[laddy]

I agree w/ Squidd (as if he needs any validating), glass-to-glass, and acrylic-to-acrylic

 

[laddy]

I agree w/ Squidd (as if he needs any validating), glass-to-glass, and acrylic-to-acrylic

 

[team2jndd]

I use a table saw though. Will the table saw be able to cut the glass cleanly without chipping. I have a blade that is used for acrylics which is why I use plexi. Is a sheet of glass alot more expensive then plexi? Oh and I use a ten because it is a corner tank and that is all I can fit underneath the tank.

 

[team2jndd]

Oh and squid, as to the question for what I thought was holding my tank together I thought it was the hard plastic molding that kept the pieces together while the silicone sealed it.

 

[threed240]

I would have your local hardware store cut the glass for you. Its very inexpensive. A table saw would just shatter it into thousands of flying glass shards.

 

[team2jndd]

Will home depot do it for me? If i give them the exact sizes i need will they cut them? If i want holes in a few of the pieces can they do that as well?