Aquarium silicone sealant comparisons

[coyote6183]

just curious, can you use a rubber gasket and bolt the glass/acrylic to the front plywood? acrylic you could just drill through and glass you could build a frame that braces it down. you could silicone the holes or i thought of using 2 inch rubber sleeves on the bolts that would expand and seal the holes when you brace them down. seems more secure and you could lay silicone down as well as added percautions. any feedback is apreciated. this would pretty much bypass any bonding to liquid rubber issues

 

[Zardiw]

I've built a few tanks in my time. Biggest 500G. I recommend building the tank where it will live. Especially big tanks. Cause when you move em the stresses will change somewhat.......I had one break cause I built it outside and moved it inside..........z

 

[Zardiw]

As far as silicone. I use SCS1201......lasted 9 years on a 500G so far.........But I started that build with SCS1100.......both seem to have held up well........z

 

[Zardiw]

I meant SCS1001.......not SCS1100

 

[ToolMan78]

The black sealant is just as good. It's a matter of preference, that's all. You will pay a bit more for it though. I had a 47Bow with black sealant, it looked quite neice.

I remember the old guy who showed me how to re-silicon a tank telling me black silicon is actually better than clear performance wise because it blocks light so algae won't work it's way underneath as fast. I don't know if this something to worry about or not, but he had tanks that he built decades ago that were still watertight. He said the more light that gets underneath the silicon the faster that algae will work it's way between the glass and the silicone.

 

[CANAMONSTER]

I remember the old guy who showed me how to re-silicon a tank telling me black silicon is actually better than clear performance wise because it blocks light so algae won't work it's way underneath as fast. I don't know if this something to worry about or not, but he had tanks that he built decades ago that were still watertight. He said the more light that gets underneath the silicon the faster that algae will work it's way between the glass and the silicone.

I reseal Tanks all the time, I find the edge of black rtv silicone once its with in 6 months tends to lift of the glass, GE silicone 1 seems to stick a hell of a lot better! I know this goes against what most say but this is from my experiance. The 100 percent clear silicone seems to be more resilient!

 

[THUNDERCAT]

Hi guys,
Im From Australia. I usually use a product called "V2"by Bostik in most tanks.
My next tank is a 10x3x3. I need to use better silicone this time around. What is the best that i can get here in Australia?

 

[millerkid519]

Dont know if anything t has been brought up but i use GE silicon 1 for all of my tanks with no issues at all

 

[Chaz88]

3m 5200 marine !!! all the way i used it to build two 400 + gallon tank last year and i recently tried to make some mods on the acrylic window and that stuff is never coming off !! and algea is covering every bit of it so it shouldnt have any anti mold chemicals.

If anyone has anymore experience with silicone on acrylic I would like to hear about it. For a long time conventional wisdom was that it will not stick to acrylic long term. I am thinking about building an acrylic tank using glass methods. I will eventually need to take it down and move it. The setup I have in mind would be impossible to move if it was welded together as normal with acrylic. I have not looked into silicone for a long time. Is there stuff out now that would work long term?

 

[veet88]

Does anyone know exactly what added chemicals are a complete no go for aquarium applications? Im a glazer and had a bulkhead on my 180 that would not seal ended up using some silicone from work msds scares me now as i think i may have dropped some into the sump. This was all used on the dry side of the tank. If i did get any contamination in the sump i would think itd be heavily diluted to the point the ppm would be low enough that it shouldnt do harm but heres a model and msds get some opinions Before the fish go back in i plan 1 more water change before the fish go back in.

http://www.tremcosealants.com/products/proglaze.aspx

http://www.tremcosealants.com/fileshare/msds/942800_323_C.PDF