what to use to seal acrylic?

[saltyESQ]

I have a 100g sump that is actually an old tank that was drilled for a closed loop.

I want to seal the holes, I found that osh sells acrylic sheets and i was wondering what is the best way to seal the holes with the acrylic sheets.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Cut a peice big enough to cover over the hole and glue it inside of the tank. That way the water pressure will help seal it. You can use regulat weldon made for acrylic.

 

[salt e]

Weld-on#4 Solvent Cement or Weld-on #16 Thick Solvent Cement (optional) Aquarium-safe Silicone (preferred)

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Either weld-on should work. As for the silicone, it normally dosent hold well with acrylic. But I have found some at HD that is made to bonds to acrylic. I assume it will work for the aquarium. You just have to make sure it doesn't have any mold inhibotors in it. That's the biggie on buying silicone from HD.

 

[saltyESQ]

weld-on will not kill the fish?

 

[SirLight1337]

Most acrylic tanks and sumps are made with weldon. If it were going to kill fish it would have happened ALOT.

Weld on is like acrylic once it drys. I had an acrylic sump that was drilled for an external pump. I cut 2 peices of acrylic and placed one on the inside of the tank, and one on the outside. Put weldon in a circle on each peice and clamped it down and waited overnight just to be sure. leak tested it and everything was fantastic.

 

[glaudds]

Hey Mike,
I would use weldon 4 to bond pieces of acrylic over the hole. Then for extra security, run a bead of weldon 16 around the periphery of the pieces.

You can get scrap pieces of acrylic (I believe by the pound) and the weldon at Plastic Depot in Burbank (on San Fernando near Buena Vista)