Can you silicone acrylic into glass? Sump const.

[keqwow]

Just trying to design a sump for my 55 gal tank and I am thinking of using a 20gallong L tank and I was wondering if I could cut acrylic for the partitions and silicone them in? Will that hold up??? I just don't like working with cut pieces of glass.

[wanareef]

Yea, it'll work. Sticks to glass better so just add a little bigger blob on the glass side - both sides of the baffle.

[Geoff]

yes it will work for partitions/baffles. silly cone does not stick to acrylic long term. it will hold fine untill fully cured. at that point you could prolly pull the acrylic sheet out without a whole lot of problem. which can come in handy sometimes. as long as you do not fool with the baffles then it will be fine. you just need to build up the silly cone on the boundaries between the glass and the acylic.

HTH,

G~

[tabwyo]

Yup, these guys are correct. When you put silicone on acrylic and after it cures it just doesn't stick well. Silicone and glass are like two horny kids at an after prom party, You can't seperate them without alot of work. Just make sure you take into account the pressure your baffles have to put up with in a sump and build accordingly. My sump recently fell apart cause I didn't provide enough "backbone" to handle the flow i had going through it.

[RWD]

Yes you can do it. I have found that if you sandwich the acrylic (or even glass) baffles with strips of 1/4" acrylic they will hold much better. For example, if you want a 1-1/2" gap between the baffles, cut a strip of acrylic 1-1/2" wide and glue it (silicone) flat to the sump wall between the baffles. This will lock the baffles in place. My sump has been set up like this for 4 years with no problems. Use thick acrylic, like 1/4" or more for the baffles so they won't bow.
Here's a bad pic. Note that I used black silicone.

[tabwyo]

GOOOODDDD point man.