repair an acrylic tank

[fhmama]

Does anyone know what we need to do in order to repair an acrylic tank? We have a 100 gallon tank that has some cracks at the bottom of the front panel. It is not under warranty so we want to know if we can repair it. Any advice would be appreciated as we have never done anything like this before.

 

[coil1002]

How bad is the crack a picture would help? If it is not too bad you could possibly use some Weld on

http://www.delviesplastics.com/dyes and glues.htm

Or another type of acrylic cement. The trick would be to get it between the cracks and then clamp the tank together to squeeze the crack together. Acrylic cements work as a solvent softening the acrylic causing it to bond to each side of the crack. Might work might not? worth a try?

I would definitely stress test the repair before putting any fish back in the tank.

Hope this helped

Coil1002

 

[tattooedfish1]

one crack ,two cracks ,size of crack?I patched my 180 ,but my crack was near the top one the left side,i used a really thick acrylic glue and a piece of clear acrylic ,so far no problems.i laid a thick bead directly on the crack and was pretty generous around the crack then placed my plexi on it and set some weight on it over night ,24 hrs just to be sure it all set.make sure you water test it ,good luck.....

 

[PhullTank57]

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one crack ,two cracks ,size of crack?I patched my 180 ,but my crack was near the top one the left side,i used a really thick acrylic glue and a piece of clear acrylic ,so far no problems.i laid a thick bead directly on the crack and was pretty generous around the crack then placed my plexi on it and set some weight on it over night ,24 hrs just to be sure it all set.make sure you water test it ,good luck.....

Good stuff, J!
Hope this helps you out a bit, or at least get ab idea in how to fix it, Ffmama! Let me know when your ready to stock up that 180 of yours, TatooedFish1

 

[fhmama]

Thanks for the advice. There are six cracks in total. They arc up from the base of the tank about 18 inches from each corner. This is one of the tanks where the front and sides are one piece with the front two corners curved, so replacing the panel is not an option.

Here is a picture of the left side that my husband took:

The cracks are about three or four inches long. We marked the cracks and dropped the water level down to half and they haven't grown any more (we have no palce to put the fish in the tank so we couldn't empty it ). We think it's defective manufacture but we had all kinds of hassles with the manufacturer about warranty as it would cost almost as much as a new tank to ship them the broken one so that they can look at it and tell us if they think they really did do defective work. We ended up having to buy a replacement tank. We want to repair the cracked tank so maybe we can use it as a growout tank or something like that.

Anyway, thanks for the tips. What kind of acrylic cement is the best? And with a long front panel, is a single long piece of patch acrylic the way to go or should we use two smaller ones?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[coil1002]

Damn !!! That is bad I would try to get a 1/2 piece of acrylic and heat it with a heat gun the shape it to the corner then patch with it. The gravel will cover the fix so it should not look too bad.

Good luck

 

[fhmama]

Thanks, actually the cracks are 8 inches from the corners, not 18, my bad, but either way they are not at the corners, but on the front facing. Unfortunately the tank is bare bottom, the fuzzy stuff in the picture is the carpet it's sitting on. Perhaps after we fix it we will have to rethink the gravel

I think the total length of the cracks, including the seam split and the actual plexi crack is about 8 or 10 inches. So putting a half inch thick by 12 inches long piece of acrylic over the crack should do the trick? What kind of glue is recomended? I think we have a tiny bottle of weldon#4 someplace but I have no idea if it's enough or even how old it is, or if that is even the one to use. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[viciouspisces]

i had a similar problem w/ a tank that fed-ex cracked .Tried using pvc glue (since its safe for drinking water and acryilc peices but still didnt work -ended up fiberglassing the whole back of the tank and then epoxing over it - that worked for me anyways.

 

[Dargath78]

I would try some Weld-on 3. flip the tank up on it's back so the liquid can work it's way in the crack. Let it cure for a long time, like 2-3 weeks if you can, I think it's supposed to get stronger the longer you let it cure. Use a syringe to get the liquid right along the crack. Make sure the liquid goes all the way through the crack. Fixed a acrylic sump this way. If not I would gladly take the tank off your hands for a small fee .

 

[fhmama]

Thanks for the tips. I will post how it goes once we work on it.