Patching bulk head hole and repairing chipped bulkhead...

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Orthopod

Orthopod

Dovii
MFK Member
Feb 22, 2010
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Seattle
2 separate questions

1. To patch a bulkhead on a large glass aquarium, can I use an acrylic patch? Will it stick?

2. What suggestions do you have for dealing with chips on the water side of a bulkhead?

- It has been suggested to use silicone but this makes me nervous as I have heard horror stories of failure.
- a second option that has been suggested is flipping the bulkhead so the baffle (rubber piece) is on the outside - anyone have any experience with this?
- finally, it was suggested to me to take a second piece of glass or acrylic and redrill through it and seal it over the previous hole and connect the bulkhead through both holes - any thoughts?


Thanks in advance for your suggestions, experience and advice.
 
Acrylic doesn't really ever stick to glass.
Your best bet for a permanent solution would be to remove the bulkhead and silicone a similar thickness pane of glass over the hole on the inside of the tank. The pane would need to be a few inches larger than the hole all around.
sort of like this below, where I used a pane of glass siliconed over, to repair a crack.

an easier way would be to leave the bulkhead in, and add an L shaped PVC fitting pointed up ward, instead of down, and have the open end piece of PVC above the water line.
Just the opposite of the tank below. It has an elbow pointed down, you just point it up, and above the water line
 
Bulkheads aren't that expensive. Why not just remove and replace? As for silicone, it is stronger than some may realize. Just make sure it is 100% silicone with no anti-fungal or other. When I installed my bulkhead, I gave both sides of the rubber gasket a coat of silicone and installed. I then allowed it to cure for more than 48 hours before setting up the tank. If the glass itself is cracked, that is another story. A tank failure = big mess, bigger headaches. I would be inclined to replace the entire panel. Expensive perhaps, but not as much as a catastrophic self destruct. Please be aware that silicone and acrylic do not work well together.
 
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I saw something on you tube not long ago where a guy repaired a chip very much like yours. He used some transparent liquid, god knows what it was, some kind of epoxy or something. He poured it around the damaged area, smoothed it down and then got some kind of ultra violet light, shone it on the material and it cured and hardened this epoxy stuff in seconds. The finshed repair was just like glass.
 
Found it. Type in "repairing chipped aquarium glass with bondic" on you tube and there's a video just what i described. Looks a good repair. How good this bondic stuff is i don't know, somebody else might chip in who's actually used it. Good luck.
 
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esoxlucius said:
Found it. Type in "repairing chipped aquarium glass with bondic" on you tube and there's a video just what i described. Looks a good repair. How good this bondic stuff is i don't know, somebody else might chip in who's actually used it. Good luck.
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Thanks. That was really helpful. I'm going to give it a try. Anyone else tried this?
 
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