I am making a PVC cave for my catfish. I want to make gravel stick to the pipe. I have read ALL of the threads on PVC caves and adhesives. However every time I feel confident enough to use the silicone I bought, someone has to post that silicone will peel off being in warm water and that PVC plastic piping cement is better. I am ready to silicone the pipe all over but will the seal last at least 2 years or will it start peeling soon?
PVC Cave & Silicone
- Thread starter rasa92re
- Start date
Just use aquarium safe silicone. It isn't fantastic at sticking to PVC, but if you rough up the PVC with some sandpaper or a file first it should help.
There's very little stress on the joint so it should hold just fine.
I wouldn't recommend using PVC cement since it's a solvent designed to melt PVC to other PVC, so unless your gravel is made from PVC too, I think it wont work.
There's very little stress on the joint so it should hold just fine.
I wouldn't recommend using PVC cement since it's a solvent designed to melt PVC to other PVC, so unless your gravel is made from PVC too, I think it wont work.
Well played sir. Well played 
In case you're still worried about how strongly silicone can bond to PVC check this out:
I've got halved PVC pipe siliconed to the side of my sump for the drip tray to sit on. They've been holding up really well for the few weeks that this has been set up. I did manage to pop one off today, but that was only becuase I was leaning on the corner of the drip tray while I was messing around with the pump.
It actually stood up to a far bit of force before it let go, so I suppose that's positive.
In case you're still worried about how strongly silicone can bond to PVC check this out:
I've got halved PVC pipe siliconed to the side of my sump for the drip tray to sit on. They've been holding up really well for the few weeks that this has been set up. I did manage to pop one off today, but that was only becuase I was leaning on the corner of the drip tray while I was messing around with the pump.
It actually stood up to a far bit of force before it let go, so I suppose that's positive.Haha. Awesome. I look forward to seeing the pictures!! I'm just about to do something similar to hide my overflow pipe.
I finally have uploaded the pics. I do not think they do the cave justice because it's not inside the tank yet. I am letting the silicone cure for 48 hours and then I'll submerge it. I'll take pics tomorrow night then too. By the way, it's a relatively large piece of PVC. I used my size 12 foot as reference in the pics as well as my long hand. The section of PVC that was not modded is blank because it will rest against the back glass. The PVC is a cave and not a tunnel because I am sealing off the left entrance by putting it against my overflow box. Any questions? Feel free to post.
Ramsey
Ramsey