What is the best method of gluing acrylic baffles to a glass aquarium (sump)Â I have used 100% silicon in the past and it seems to work pretty well, but I'm building a sump out of a 75g aquarium for a massive tank with a whole lot of overturn so I don't want to risk having the baffles break or become unglued from the sump.
The baffles in my 75gal sump for my 200 are done with silicone. I've done many sumps with silicone and never had a failure yet. I've used acrylic to glass with the same results. When I had this 75 under the 400 with a hammerhead for return pump I had no problems either. I wouldn't be afraid to use it.
Norman is correct, while they say that acrylic and glass to not play well together it is true and not true. While glass and acrylic do not form any kind of bond with a solvent that I am aware of the rigidity/flexibility of sylicone will hold a baffle inplace just fine. Keep in mind that this is an application that does not put any stress on the junction of the two materials. I would never expect that something like a sump built with acrylic and glass for the outside walls would hold up long at all. It is my understanding that the problem is more with the sylicone sticking to the acrylic than the glass and it is always so much nicer to use all acrylic and bond with weldon 3 or 16 or both to actually bond the acrylic together witch you can never do with glass. This is one of the arguments for the acrylic tank purists.
Re: Re: Best way to glue acrylic baffles to a glass sump I have heard this aswell.Back when we had a cpr aio Sump it was of course acrylic but it had siliconed filter sock. Then our feeder tank has acrylic dividers that are siliconed in place but they are too big for the system and don't have a good hold. But if you were to get the right size to match the tank it would hold. Raffle grabber
We've used acrylic baffles in glass sumps several times with great results. The trick in my opinion is to cut the acrylic to where you have to gently force it into place with your hand and then silicone heavily all the way around (including over the top) and smoothe. Just don't cut the acrylic too long or too short.Â
this magazine is a very good read if your wanting to build your own sump/refugium..... http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/gt/index.htm its a 3 part read and filled with alot of good information that I was unaware of so it helped me a lot it also has some pretty useful calculators in it as well
I remember reading this article after I built this sump, helped me a bit on my next few projects, but i could never remember where I read it. Glad to have the link documented now, thanks!
