Direct Silicon Injection method, low iron 12mm glass tank build/My DIY aquarium build, the good the bad and the ugly! (Anoxic Filtration)

[Rockfella]

My DIY aquarium build, the good the bad and the ugly! (Anoxic Filtration)

OK finally..! This madness started in mid april 2021 after an old school friend of mine gave me her small aquarium as she was fed up cleaning it regularly and burying dead fish. It looks like a 30/35 liter small tank. It had everything so I added Seachem Matrix (popular biomedia) and bought 5...

techenclave.com

I used 3mm tile spacers, pinched the nozzle and injected silicon in between the glass panes. All 3 tanks, 3 sumps done the same way. Neat and almost zero bubbles. No leak test needed as the seams are 2-4mm thick. Worked fine for me.

Hope it helps.
Regards,
Vivek.

 

[Koh23]

Very neat and precise....

Gap is a bit on big side, way bigger tanks with injection method are buildt with 1-2mm gap, or course its lot harder to achieve, 4mm is too much, but it will work great....

 

[NickHolmes]

As silicone doesn't bond to cured silicone, when do you remove the spacers to fill in the gaps

 

[Rockfella]

As silicone doesn't bond to cured silicone, when do you remove the spacers to fill in the gaps

I use spacers just to ensure equal gaps between panes. Once I set everything up with clamps I remove all spacers and then inject silicon. It's a floating bottom design. The bottom pane sits in between the vertical ones/vertical panes are not siliconed on top of bottom pane. ADA style lol.

 

[Rockfella]

Very neat and precise....

Gap is a bit on big side, way bigger tanks with injection method are buildt with 1-2mm gap, or course its lot harder to achieve, 4mm is too much, but it will work great....

Thanks. I've seen thicker seams online. I use 3mm spacers. I've tried 2mm but it gets difficult to inject. 3mm seems perfect to me. Some gaps are 2mm some could be 4mm. It's a bit hard for glass cutters to cut glass with extreme precision.

 

[NickHolmes]

I use spacers just to ensure equal gaps between panes. Once I set everything up with clamps I remove all spacers and then inject silicon. It's a floating bottom design. The bottom pane sits in between the vertical ones/vertical panes are not siliconed on top of bottom pane. ADA style lol.

Thanks

 

[Koh23]

Know what u mean, tighter the gap, harder to fill with silicone, personaly dont like this method, i built mine same way, but with "toothpick" gaps..... Very tricky and hard, but i did it somehow..

Cutting glass, yes, practice to perfection, for everything else, there is glass sander

 

[Rockfella]

Know what u mean, tighter the gap, harder to fill with silicone, personaly dont like this method, i built mine same way, but with "toothpick" gaps..... Very tricky and hard, but i did it somehow..

Cutting glass, yes, practice to perfection, for everything else, there is glass sander

I tried toothpick gap/zip tie gap, did not work, too much silicon got wasted and the whole process was very stressful. This was not my first attempt, I failed 2/3 times. Found out 3mm is best IMO. Least silicon wastage and I enjoyed the process too

 

[Rockfella]

Thanks

You're welcome

 

[Rockfella]

Very neat and precise....

Gap is a bit on big side, way bigger tanks with injection method are buildt with 1-2mm gap, or course its lot harder to achieve, 4mm is too much, but it will work great....

Thanks. Very pleased with the builds.

 

[Rockfella]

Silicon was injected from inside. I taped it like this from out to ensure silicon does not ooze out. Removed tape after 48 hours, perfect matt finish on silicon lol. Silicon does not bond with masking tape.