100 gallon acrylic leaking on side

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H

HugeGhost

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 28, 2006
375
4
48
California
My 100 gallon acrylic is leaking. I always thought they could not leak, after i dried out tank i noticed some silicone where the acrylic meets coming down 1 side so i pulled it all off.
Now can i after it tries to buy some sealant and fix this tank again, it lasted 10 years with that sealant, i was thinking i can double up the sealant and fix the scratches and buff the tank out!

anybody knwo any tricks on doing this correctly thanks in advance
 
Silicone will NOT adhere to acrylic. The first patch probably worked from mostly luck. As the seam wears, the silicone will work less and less. Go to rplastics.com (RidOut plastics) and order a tube of weld-on acrylic bond.
As far as buffing out scratches, go to the latest sticky thread on a beautiful restoration project by tongue33 . He wrote up the procedure he used to restore finish of his acrylic tank.
 
I had a tube of cement in the gargae and just put a nice fat coat on the side of the tank. is the weld stuff toxic a few drops went into the gravel, there is still a tiny bit of water on the bottom.
Really in 24 hours i can actually fill this tank with water and this stuff will work??
 
HugeGhost;654333; said:
I had a tube of cement in the gargae and just put a nice fat coat on the side of the tank. is the weld stuff toxic a few drops went into the gravel, there is still a tiny bit of water on the bottom.
Really in 24 hours i can actually fill this tank with water and this stuff will work??
Click to expand...
.

What kind of cement are you using??
 
The weld on will work in 24 hours in most cases but I wait 48 hours. Siphon the water and gravel out with a shop vac or use a ton of paper towels. The weld on will harden when it hits acrylic but will will stilll be present in liquid form in water I believe and the gravel. Just clean it out and you should be good to go, I hope the area where you repaired was dry of water and debris.
 
yes i dried everything good, i just took out the gravel from the bad side and put weld all the way up and down the seal.
Never did this before i would be devasted if it actually did not work, since i was able to catch this leak after a water change and the floor was saved with only 10 gallons getting on my carpet.
If i wait 48 hours whats the percentage this will work, if the whole 100 gallons breaks i could be in big trouble. should i test the tank outside for a few days!!!!!!
 
When dripped into water, Weld-on or pvc glue will almost instantly skin across the surface and harden. The solvents are absorbed into the water rather quickly. Add like ten or twenty gallons of water and then drain it again. That will get the solvents out.

Also, I wouldn't worry about the strength of the tank being compromised. The Weld-on bonds much stronger than the silicone ever did. It absorbs into small voids by capillary action, so it does a great job of strengthening the tank.
 
I just hope you had the forethought to clean the area well with alcohol to remove organic debris and allow a clean surface on the acrylic for the weld-on to work with.
 
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