How to adhere acrylic to plywood?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
ITHURTZ;4566544; said:
Id use bolts but thats me. Otherwise I would make a smaller tank, and test a scrap piece of acrylic on that tank with ur selection of sealant. Let it cure then kick the window and see how easily it pops up, and with how much force.

I used 3m 5200 on my 330gallon with SS bolts.


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A little work and you wont see the bolts at all! ( to bad life has taken me away from putting the finishing touches on it as fast as I would like.


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Also, what did you use to seal the wood? Did you seal your wood then attach the acrylic to the sealed wood?

Did you let the silicone cure onto the acyrlic befor screwing on the acrylic?

Sorry for so many questions, just want to get this right.
 
I used the cheapest route, pond liner! Id rather stress less than having to worry about if there is a pin hole somewhere.

No, I put a big ol bead of 5200 onto the acrylic then popped the bolts in and hand tighten it down. Coated the bolts in 5200 then let it cure before I filled. Tanks already been taken apart and moved to another house and still not a drip! Dont want to tighten it to much or the acrylic might crack.
 
CyberPunk;4567070; said:
Hey, that’s not ab ad idea! I could always run another board over the screws to hide them!

Did you get any leaks at all?

How did you drill the acrylic? How far from the edge of it?

Do you happen to know the tork specs you use to tighten the bolts down? Would suck to crack it.

Thanks for the reply by the way, much much appreciated.
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Sorry I missed these questions, on my screen its white so I couldnt see it.

I have zero leaks
I drilled with a regular drill bit. But when you get close to the other side, go VERY SLOW and do not push, let the bit do the final punch through.

Just hand tighten is all I did. You want the sealant to spread inside between the joints (you will see it). I let mine ooze out just a TINY bit, then put a thin bead on the outside and smoothed it out.
 
ITHURTZ;4568682; said:
I used the cheapest route, pond liner! Id rather stress less than having to worry about if there is a pin hole somewhere.

No, I put a big ol bead of 5200 onto the acrylic then popped the bolts in and hand tighten it down. Coated the bolts in 5200 then let it cure before I filled. Tanks already been taken apart and moved to another house and still not a drip! Dont want to tighten it to much or the acrylic might crack.
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Awesome, thanks for reply :)

I wish I could use pond liner but this is going to be a ray tank and rays will chew on the liner or stab their razor sharp stingerd through it. Any other ideas on what could be used to seal the wood off?
 
BadOleRoss;4572110; said:
Liquid Rubber or Zavlar is what I used on my 315G build. If you go that route, make sure you are familar with how to seal the viewing window.
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So I am thinkibng of sealing the plywood with liquid rubber. If I use liquid rubber would using silicone and bolts/screws work ok on the acrylic viewing windows?
 
heres a quote from doing a seach

BadOleRoss-
I covered almost every inch of the plywood with a litte extra in the corners. I am having an issue sealing my viewing window using LR but I "think" I have come up with a solution. The problem I ran in to was that LR does not bond to glass or silicone and silicone does not bond to LR. What I have done is to apply fiberglass resin to the frame where my viewing window is going and ran the resin a couple inches into the tank. Silicone and LR both bond well to the fberglass resin. I will silicone in the window and then apply LR over the resin up to the fiberglass resin. I think this will seal my window. I seem to recall people raising concerns about chemicals being in pools epoxies. You might want to look and Pond Armor if you are looking at expoxies.
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We all know silicone never really liked acrylic anyway. I wonder how the 5200 would bond to LR. It bonds real nice to my pond liner....
 
ITHURTZ;4574529; said:
heres a quote from doing a seach



We all know silicone never really liked acrylic anyway. I wonder how the 5200 would bond to LR. It bonds real nice to my pond liner....
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I think pond liner and liquid rubber are made of the same material??? I could be wrong though. It seems to have worked for you so I am thinking I will try the 3m 5200 you used.

One thing scarry about this build is it will be a 20 foot 5000 gallon + ray tank, if it leaks its not a simple thing to drain and refill.
 
I'm going to build a plywood tank with acrylic windows too. I intend to use Sweetwater epoxy paint to seal the tank. I emailed the support staff at Aquatic Ecosystems to ask if it would stick to acrylic; they said it would as long as the acrylic was sanded first. I'll put up a build thread once I get the tank started.
 
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