I was told by West system rep that silicone does not bond well to epoxy?
Seems everyone here has success with sealing windows. Any one actually do a test?
Seems everyone here has success with sealing windows. Any one actually do a test?
Silicone to Epoxy
- Thread starter CANAMONSTER
- Start date
A tensile strength test is kinda irrelevant as wood/fiberglass/epoxy tanks are not built on the same premis as typical glass or acrylic tanks. Since the water pressure pushes out smashing the glass into the silicone, the silicone becomes more of just a gasket than a structural element holding sheets of glass together. Say silicone sticks to glass 100%, it may stick to epoxy 50% but that may be more than all you need for a single window application. It may not stick great to epoxy but theres a few builds with wood floors and they work well even without much of a gasket type seal along the bottom panes. Sure, you may be able to physically rip off the glass siliconed to epoxy but it will hold water in if your tank structure supports it and the glass right. Are you planning a single front window or using a wood/epoxy floor with full glass walls? Also look into 3m5200 silicone if ur worried, its used for boats and will adhere better to the epoxy for some extra assurance.
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Yes, I now know it acts more like a gasket.
I'm really surprised more people arnt playing around with 5200.
I'm really surprised more people arnt playing around with 5200.
3m5200 is O.K, im not that impressed with it....Gold Label Aquarium sealer/silicone is far superior but more expensive and hard to aquire in large quantities here in the states.
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Why are you not impressed? I have never used it but it seems to ahere very good to a wide variety of material and has double the strength of GE sc1200!
885 psi tensile strength, but on there info sheet it says not recommended for the installation of glass or acrylic lol.
From all the boat forums I have read that 3m 5200 is well made to stick to glass also and will almost never come off
Like i said before its just a gasket material....i can peel 5200 off pond liner and acrylic with my finger if i wanted to and thats not a great product in my book as my fish could do the same. Its thin and not very sticky. I have a 1400gal with window sealed in 5200 and a 650gal with window sealed in Gold Label. The gold label is leaps and bounds better. Dries harder, actually adheres well to an erray of materials (not just say it does lol) and cannot be peeled off liner or acrylic easily. For my 3200gal build im going back to Gold Label sealer/silicone. Pond liner and acrylic are the two hardest materials to get anything to adhere too so i feel ive put both the products through a good test. Both work but the answer is clear which is better. Not saying 5200 wont work for u im just letting u know for a bit more $$ theres something alot better in Gold Label.
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T
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T
Your the first person on the net that says they peel it off with your finger!
I have never used it so I can't say anything about it. Can't find much info on this Gold seal stuff, what is it, a silicone?
I have never used it so I can't say anything about it. Can't find much info on this Gold seal stuff, what is it, a silicone?
Its funny also as I hear sc1200 is suppose to be very strong but every tank I have resealed and cut apart it has been way more difficult to remove GE silicone 1 off the glass then SC1200. SC1200 peels off clean!