Silicone that cures and holds while wet

[dml931]

does anyone know of a reef friendly silicone that i can apply and will cure while wet from tank water? i need to add a baffle in my sump but its running through a cycle right now. i'm trying to avoid emptying the sump and shutting the flow off for 24hrs while i wait for it to dry. thanks for any opinions and feedback.

-dml

 

[uncleof6]

NO. There is no silicone, that will not poison the water, until after it has cured. There is no silicone that is formulated to be applied underwater either.

 

[Mike Ordner]

Silicone, reef friendly or not, will not work in wet conditions. There are some underwater epoxy that will work when wet. If it is a baffle that you want to never remove, epoxy could be an option. I have never used it for this purpose, only to attach coral frags. Even if it leaked a little, no big deal since it is in the sump. Good luck.

 

[dml931]

i was afraid of that and a google search warranted no results as well.

Mike - i will look into epoxy as unless i drain and wait, that seems to be my only option.

thanks for the feedback.

 

[leveldrummer]

there are a few ways people install baffles without silicone using weather stripping. you just cut the glass a little short, use weather stripping on both ends and wedge it in real tight.

 

[haynesw]

I like the weather stripping method very much but I'm not certain that the weather stripping is safe for the tank. Anyone?

 

[jimmyj7090]

Plenty of people have done the weather stripping thing and not had problems that I have heard of.

That said, especially if you're just cycling now, do it right while you can or you will probably be kicking yourself for not doing so for years. Also, if this is a whole new system you can probably use a bucket or rubbermaid as a temp sump for a few days so that you don't have to shut things down.

If you do silicone the baffle, give it longer than 24 hrs. It may say 24hr cure on the tube, but that's not necessarily safe for reefing applications where we tend to use much thicker beads that cure slower.

 

[Gorgok]

If hes cycling properly (as in without life) then having the silicone continue to release ammonia into the system as it continues to set (after it has 'set') is hardly an issue. Depending on the formulation though it could also/instead be releasing methanol... Which is a bunch worse.

 

[dml931]

So to clear up some things-

It's only 3 days into the cycle, it's a new system with no life. I put some food in the tank to start the bacteria bloom.

The reason for this thread is I have a 3-baffle bubble trap from my skimmer section to the return (over-under-over). The water pouring into the rerun is a little noisier than I'd like so id like to either add a small baffle at 60 degrees that the water can pour onto to quiet it down some, or remove the last baffle completely making it an over-under bubble trap. I should also mention that the last over baffle is allowing the water to create bubbles in the return section causing micro bubbles in the dt.

I'm leaning on removing the last baffle instead of adding the shorter one. What is the purpose of the third baffle? I see designs with both a 2 baffle trap (over-under) and both types of 3 baffle traps (over-under-over & under-over-under) but not too much explanation on the reasons of the purpose, except that they are present to rid bubbles.

Any thoughts?

 

[Azizbehbehani]

Actully there is a germany brand silicone that bonds underwater. And its maid for aquariums so its reef safe
The company is (aquarium menister)
Search in their website

 

[davescrews]

what about dow 795, I have seen several public aquariums use this underwater. I know it is not formulated to do so but it seems to work fine.

 

[redfishblewfish]

I’m at a loss. If you’ve just started the cycle, you’ve got a month or so before you’re ready to go. Why not just take the sump off-line, empty the section you need to add a baffle, and add the baffle. Let it cure a couple days and put the sump back on line. Obviously you will need to move the heater(s) up into the DT, but no big deal.