Temporary acrylic/glass sump?

Ilovefish · 09-27-2005, 11:36 AM

Hi All!
In the process of building my sump. I read alot of archives saying it will not work trying to silicone acrylic baffles in a glass tank. Will this work short term?---I am moving in a little over a year, in which we will have an inwall---So its kind of a temporary thing. I am not worried about appearance, so if it takes 12 tubes of silicone--so be it. Do you think acrylic baffles will last that long?----Thanks-----Tracy

Loverotties · 09-27-2005, 11:45 AM

not shure but for the price of 12 tubes ,you could get one tube of the right tube of epoxy.

Ilovefish · 09-27-2005, 12:02 PM

Would it be better to epoxy the silicone?

wharyat · 09-27-2005, 12:02 PM

The best rout to go with a glas sump is glass baffles, check out a local glass, they can cut any size that you could need, and for a pretty decent price.

Or you can get a tube of marine grade epoxy then silicone around it for water tightness.

LiquidLunch · 09-28-2005, 10:47 AM

I needed to remove a siliconed piece of acrylic in my glass sump. I had to undo both contact areas w/ a razor blade before it started to budge. I then pull on it and I could have busted the glass tank if I wanted to. I'm not sure what silicone was used in other posts but silicone/glass is more than a "temporary" situation. I used DAP aquarium silicone which I purchased at HD. Ideally, I'd rather have glass on glass, but I had some nice thick acrylic laying around.

Ilovefish · 09-28-2005, 12:27 PM

Same thing here. I have tons of acrylic laying around. Would rather use it then buy glass.

reefBoyDc · 03-16-2006, 03:34 PM

SO what's the right type of epoxy? I need to put acrylic baffles in a glass tank... what's the best way? i love digging up old threads

reefBoyDc · 03-17-2006, 04:50 PM

bump, i really need to know how to stick acrylic baffles in a glass tank. if there's a way... anybody?

LiquidLunch · 03-17-2006, 07:02 PM

http://www.dap.com/media/product_photos/Aquarium.aspx

reefBoyDc · 03-17-2006, 07:03 PM

will that stick to acrylic?

Geoff · 03-17-2006, 07:12 PM

any 100% sillycone will "stick" to acrylic. it will not bond with it, but it will stick enough to get the job done. it is more of a technique than anything else. you want to capture the acrylic within the sillycone. place the acrylic baffle where you want it. run a bead along both sides. then run your finger along the bead to seal it against both the glass and the acrylic. it has to be done on both sides. this is how the acrylic overflows are done on tanks. as long as there is not a lot of flexing in the tank than it will stick just fine. this is how i mounted my coast to coast overflow.

G~

reefBoyDc · 03-17-2006, 07:16 PM

Thanks a lot guys. much appreciated. i am building an addition on my sump. it's a huge 5 baffle 30 gallon bubble trap to counteract the fact that my sump has too much flow. i'm also gonna put a big fan over it to act as a cooling box. fun weekend project.

Geoff · 03-17-2006, 10:43 PM

do not add to many baffles i the flow is high through a sump. this will keep the bubbles from evacuating the water column. water velocity is your enemy here. you might want to do a graduating baffle system each set of baffles is further apart than the one before it. you will also want to increase the gaps at the bottom and top of the baffles accordingly. that way the water keeps slowing down untill the return pump. allowing more and more bubbles to be removed.

G~

reefBoyDc · 03-18-2006, 09:36 AM

i was going to have the baffles 3" apart, but i like the graduating baffle system. smart idea. i also already have 2 3-baffle traps in the sump, which are taking care of 90% of the bubbles. the point of this huge bubble trap is to remove the last 10% of the bubbles. thank you for the good suggestion geoff