Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I posted in the cage design forum too, but Im having trouble with keeping the partition in my young caiman's enclosure sealed. It first sprang a bad leak and I re-did the entire seal and it has a small leak along one of the sides again, allowing water to fill underneath the land portion of the cage. Does anyone have a suggestion for a way to seal it without slicing off the 70 bucks in aquarium sealant I applied, digging out all the cyprus mulch and live plants and doing it over? I was thinking of something like the rhino lining or something similar that maybe I could paint on both sides of the plexiglass and sealant that would plug whatever small holes exist. Any ideas? Thanks

Hello.. I have become very skilled at re-sealing aquarium silicone over the years. All you should have to do is completely scrape off all of the existing silicone on the water side only and re-silicone it. Get a nice new razor blade and start by slicing out the thick beads you'd have along the corners, and once it's out, turn the blade so the sharp edge runs parallel to the glass and scrape away. You have to make sure to get it ALL off or you won't get a proper seal with the new silicone. Once it's all off and the corners have been cleaned and dried with paper towel, run a new bead, around 1/4 of an inch or more along the corners and try to do it so it comes out evenly distributed and at a steady pace for each edge. Once you have applied what you feel is enough, run your finger along each bead of silicone in one motion which will help push the sealant into the corners and also give it a nice look. All you need for silicone is a tube that says 100% silicone on it somewhere, go with clear stuff. I've done as large as 100 gallon aquariums with no leaks and the stuff I get costs $10 canadian for 3 industrial sized tubes. A 100 gallon aquarium wouldn't take half a tube.

Acrylic (Plexiglass) should be chemically welded to itself with a solvent made for that specific purpose. Silicone will usually start to leak, as is is not designed to bond to acrylic. A permanent solution would be to go to a glass shop and get a piece of plate glass cut to replace the acrylic divider, then install it with another $5 of silicone. (I'm assuming the tank is glass--If the tank is also acrylic, then buy some Weld-On acrylic cement from a local plastics shop and use that, again, a permanent solution.

How did you get $70 in silicone onto a single divider? Were you using stacks of one-ounce tubes? Even a name-brand aquarium cement should cost less than $15 for a caulking tube, enough to build an entire 100 gallon tank.

Oops.. Missed the whole part about plexiglass..