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Acrylic & Greatstuff

4744 Views 25 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Scott, 
G
Has anyone used the greatstuff, black silicone, and co-co bedding method of making a background in an acrylic tank? I'm a little worried that I won't get a good seal between the sides and the silicone, letting water contact the foam. Will greatstuff dissolve under longterm exposure to water?

Thanks,
Joe
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kyle1745
I have not had a issue with silicone drying, but have always used it on glass. I use weldbond and water and ecoearth to cover the backgrounds. Here are examples, and most are stryfoam, and or greatstuff. I do let these dry for at least 7 days if not longer. Even the weldbond takes a good time to dry.

Rough construction pics here:
http://www.kylesphotos.com/album21

Rough final picture, I will have to take one now after it has grown in, it looks much better:


Also all of these have the same background:
http://www.kylesphotos.com/photos/album23/aam.jpg

I have tested the silicon ecoearth method while I think it would work fine it seemed to peel off the foam very easy. I'm sure both are great solutions, and will look great in the right hands.
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kyle1745
If you put it on in layers, it should not be a issues.

Also sanding and cleaning should both help the silicone adhear to the acrylic. I've used acrylic hinges on some of my tanks and they are siliconed on. I used Rubbing alcohol to clean both the glass and the acrylic hinge before I put it all together. I can say that silicone II will stick to just about anything and is very strong, when dry.

hicksonj said:
Now here is the thing with greatstuff and acrylic. The highly expanding greatstuff creates a lot of force when it expands, which could cause a joint to blow, but makes great looking features. The reduced expansion greatstuff won't blow out the joints, but will take forever to form anything. Scott and Mark clued me in on a double layer approach using both products to carefully sculpt.
Click to expand...
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