Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Strongest and best way to bond/weld an acrylic fish tank?

Status
Not open for further replies.

acp914

Mechanical
Dec 21, 2005
1
US
Hello, anyone know the best and strongest way to bond/weld a 5 piece rectangular acrylic aquarium. Should i use a solution or is there a process to do this?

thanks
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

There are many ways that would work fine but my immediate suggestion is to look for the special adhesive recommended for such tanks. I believe it's quite common to make tanks of acrylic (polymethylmethacrylate or PMMA for short) and so there are sure to be adhesives recommended for such tanks. Try a Google search.
 
There are commercial solvent cements, basically methylene chloride, that make very good, strong, "solvent-welded" joints in acrylic. The pieces to be joined must have very close-fitting seams. The solvent is "water-thin" and hence has no gap-filling capability. Parts to be joined are first "dry" clamped or taped tightly together, then the solvent is applied, usually via a glass or polyethylene syringe, only to the joint seams. The solvent will "wick" into the joint and fuse the mating acrylic sheets.

To insure water tightness of your tank, I would recommend applying silicone caulk/sealant to all the interior seams. I believe there is a special grade of silicone sealant that is best suited for full immersion in water, and is also formulated to not contain any chemicals that might possibly harm fish.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top