Longevity of liquid rubber or Pond Shield

[maks]

Thank you my friend. So I waited the 24 hours between coats. I also waited an extra 30 days after the final coat was put in to ensure all glues and everything was fully cured. I know its crazy but I thought better safe than sorry.

Hello T TinoL , first of all merry xmas time... Since I finally decided to go with liquid rubber for my 1st aquarium (full aquarium this time, not a paludarium) I wanted to ask you a detail about the 3M 5200 application. Did you glue the glass/acrylic before coating the tank with LR and did you apply LR over the 3M 5200? Did you use fiberglass resin as well? I read in other posts and saw in the Rubberizeit instructional video that one way to glue the glass is to use silicone but after the inside of the front panel has been coated with resin. LR will adhere to the (sanded) resin as well. About the coating timeline, the european/italian company confirmed what you did (as explained in my prev. message). Kind regards.

 

[h2so4hurts]

5200's adhesion without framing material to glass and acrylic is not great. I'm sure in some circumstances it works great but even in the tech specs it says it's not recommended for glazing applications without a properly engineered support structure ie bolting it in with a frame or some other method. My acrylic build with 5200 and pond shield leaked after 3 days. I added a stainless metal frame carriage bolted every 6 inches and encapsulated in 5200 (304 stainless will rust in the presence of chloride...). Torqued the frame down to 2ft/lbs and hasn't leaked once since. I'm not saying 5200 can't work in unsupported applications, but I'm definitely following the tech specs in the future over the "wisdom" of the internet.

 

[maks]

5200's adhesion without framing material to glass and acrylic is not great. I'm sure in some circumstances it works great but ...

I checked the TinoL' s build details and I noticed that he only used 3M 5200 to keep the glass attached to the rubber, with just a frame for the glass to sit in. Maybe 3M-5200 sticks better to rubber than to epoxy?
The other suggested solution (from rubberizeit) is explained in the youtube video with id Kli-bNye6_s (I still cannot post links so just append /watch?v=Kli-bNye6_s to the youtube.com website address). But it would be nice to use less products for the goal.
kind regards

 

[maks]

Anyway... H h2so4hurts , you are right about the specs. Quoting them:

3MTM Marine Adhesive/Sealant 5200 is not recommended for the installation of glass, polycarbonate or acrylic windows that are not also mechanically fastened with a system designed by the manufacturer. Inconsistent adhesion of these unprimed substrates, specific design of the window, and movement due to thermal expansion and flexing, may cause application failure. It is strongly recommended that the customer contact the window/port light/hatch manufacturer for recommendations on proper sealing procedures.

So I guess I will have to find another solution to be on the safe side. My idea was to use just an inside frame for the glass, as T TinoL did, but the tech specs clearly suggest that it could be not enough.