Acrylic baffles and Silicone

[miked78231]

does anyone have any exp with acrylic baffles and silcone? if you do would you mind explaining this too me and the best way to set this up for a 55g? thanks

[Shark_Bait]

Where are you mike? If your down here in Corpus talk to reefone. He does great acrylic work.

[miked78231]

im here in san antonio. well i wanted to learn more about it before i started looking around for prices.

[GaryP]

If you can wait, we're going to be covering this at the Apr. meeting.

[miked78231]

so knowbody in here knows anything about this.

[GaryP]

I have just heard that bonding acrylic to glass with silicone is difficult. Glass with glass, yes.

[matt]

Here we go again; I hope this thread doesn't turn into another argument about silicone and acrylic. Basically, silicone will not bond to acrylic, but you can use it to fasten and seal baffles in a glass sump. If there's a lot of pressure, like full on one side of the baffle and empty on the other, with enough water pushing on it, the baffle might not hold for long. Since most baffles aren't really holding a lot of water, just redirecting it, it's usually okay. You can rough up the plastic a little to help the silicone grab, but if you really want it strong you need to use glass. Another option would be to get thin strips of glass placed vertically, making a slot for the acrylic, then use silicone to seal it in place. The reason acrylic corner overflows hold in place so well is that A) there is a very long joint in relation to the area of acrylic, and B) since there's more water outside the overflow than inside, water pressure is actually pushing the joint together, not pulling it apart.

BTW, is there an acrylic workshop for the april meeting? Who's giving it?

[GaryP]

Matt,

Hobogato (Ace) is going to do a demo of basic cutting and bonding techniques and do a small sump or fuge. If you want to jump in, please let me know. We would love to have you participate as an instructor. We could break it up into two groups if you would like to do another project.

[Ram_Puppy]

This, I think, is REALLY good stuff. Gary, maybe we can do this at the april meeting as well?

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_3/cav3i1/Baffles/baffles.htm

[satx-94integraLS]

oooo im planning on building a sump! guess since a problem preventing me from attending the meetings has been solved, i will come to this, complete with the tank i want to turn into a sump :P

[Bug_Power]

search reefcentral....I talked with a guy who did his research in college and now works in the field with silicone. He agrees it will bond to both surfaces however the mechanical bond with acylic is less then with glass, but for most purposes aquarium related it works fine. I'm sure if it will hold 180 and 150 gallon centerbraces, your baffles should have no problem. If you take a bit of 200 grit os so sand paper and go over your edges it will stick even better. Just don't try flame polishing your edges of your baffels then siliconing them on. It may only hold 60or so pounds then.

[ReefOne]

I'm going with a YES, it works. "But How..." you ask! Easy, you just have to leave about a 1/8" on each side and make sure to silicone both sides. For the middle baffle it is difficult but as long as you make sure the silicone fills in the sides you are set. I did it to a 30 gallon AGA and a 10 gallon AGA when I first started in the hobby. When I tried to pry off the acrylic baffles later on i ended up cracking the 10 gallon because I was putting in so much force to try to pull the acrylic away but it wouldnt budge. It works! I dont care who says it doesnt, it does because I did it. I used the DAP Aquarium Silicone they sell at HD, worked to perfection. Any questions feel free to shoot me a PM. HTH

Ram

[gjuarez]

I have 1/4 inch plexi glass baffles and the bond is pretty strong. Probably not as strong as glass to glass but strong none the less. There is now way the baffle would detach itself unless someone actually did it manually and with force. I dont know if its the same with acrylic but plexi worked fine.

[jroescher]

Most of my baffles are glass. I got them cut to size (12"x12" for my 55g sump/fuge) for about a $1.00 each at the local Ace Hardware store. It's the thin glass, maybe 1/8", but it works fine in the sump as there's not a lot of water pressure like Matt pointed out.