DIY acrylic 120 gal build

[tepch]

Hellooo! I am building a 120 gallon tank made out of half inch acrylic. Dimensions will be 48 by 24 by 24 inches. I will be using weld on 4

My questions are:

— should I consider brazing?
— Should I silicone on top of the weld on 4?

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Hey @tepch welcome to the club! I haven't done much work with acrylic but I do know that silicone doesn't really adhere to it.

 

[fade2black]

IMO, no to both. Good, clean, and square joints are key. If you glue the joints correctly there is no need for silicon. That will just make it look worse and won't stick anyway. =)

 

[CMMorgan]

I would brace, yes. I have a 72 x 24 x 19 tank being made with 3/4" acrylic and that will be eurobraced.
No to the silicone.
Best of luck!!

 

[csnmusic02]

Yea I built my 120 a year ago I just used weld on 4 and 16. I know 16 bubbles but it was mainly used on all my inner corners but I love acrylic tanks esp building them

 

[parkerb20]

If you need hold getting acrylic shoot me a PM. My family owns a company and we make boat parts out of acrylic and we can custom cut you some for a good price!

 

[csnmusic02]

Really yea mine was a guy on Craigslist who had them pre cut just had to trim them a little bit

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

Never use silicone on acrylic, unless it is used for a AIO false wall, and you later want to scrape the AIO out of your tank to use it as a full size tank, meaning you always sacrifice a good portion of the tank to the AIO area.

But, if you are talking about the silicone on the joints or walls, that is not how to work with acrylic, you need to use Weldon 4 and you also need the PIN method with the 1/2 inch if you want bubble free joints. If you are okay with some bubbles you can ditch the PIN method and use capillary action, wicking. That will be easier than a PIN, because you can do the tank all on your own more or less.

Hope that helps out.