Silicone odor

[TeenyToad]

Thanks!! I was thinking a few days or so, what do you think? I'm pretty nervous about putting the drainage tube in, and accidentally causing a leak, so I'll keep my fingers crossed!


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[TeenyToad]

Bill, this is the only before picture I could find. I basically just sprayed expanding foam at the bottom to make the island, I then let it dry. After that I turned the tank over, and sprayed the back wall, I then pressed the big chunk of wood into it and let it dry. After that, we dremmeld the whole thing to create ledges, rocks, pots, and the waterfall. I let this cute for months, mainly because I was busy with school. Then I just covered everything with silicone and pressed coco fiber into it and roughed it up a bit bus mixing silicone with the coco fiber in some spots. Later, I siliconed dried moss in various places to give it a natural look. For the dam, we just layered silicone then rocks, and repeated the process til it built up and angled. I'm not sure if you can see, but I also have a small branch in the dam that is lathered in silicone. Any holes or sharp parts of the branch were siliconed with small pebbles. On the each exposed side of the dam I layered more silicone on thick. I also put small pieces of dried moss and leaves in the dam. And now, I am at my planting phase


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[TeenyToad]

Oh, and for the filter I took a long PVC pipe and put a screen on each end. I then put it through the back side and covered it with more foam and silicone. The water runs from the waterfall, over the dam, hits the glass, and is then lead into the tube


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[TeenyToad]

For the gray "rocks" we just dry brushed them with non toxic paint, using gray and white, then covered with clear silicone.


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[deranged chipmunk]

ok. now i see how you did it. a build journal may have saved you a bunch of headache the foam is watertight as long as the outer skin is not broken. once you carved it, you allow water into the nooks and crannies and it will seep through that foam very easily. instead of silicone, you could have covered the island in drylok paint. for $25 or so, you could have had a gallon of paint to use to seal it up and still have a lot left over for another project. it can also be tinted with acrylic craft paints, so color options would are infinite. you guys really did a great job, you should be very proud!!

i would let it run a minimum of a week. no sense in rushing things at this point.

btw, cute toe nails!! LOL

[DigitalPunk]

Bill,

Could she seal up the foam she carved with a small layer of foam? Then she could cover that with silicon and what ever material she wanter to get the texture back...

[TeenyToad]

Paul, you just read my mind!

Could that work Bill?


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[TeenyToad]

Guys, I think I may know what's going wrong with the leak. When I siliconed over the area that was leaking, I did so on a layer of silicone that had coco fiber pressed into it. Perhaps, because of the coco fiber, the silicone did not stick properly. And maybe I should try to scrape it off until I am at the original silicone layer. Thoughts?


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[deranged chipmunk]

That is a possibility. The seams of where the new foam meets the old foam would need to be sealed perfectly, or you are back in the same boat. The other problem is controlling the foam to be a light layer so that you aren't going backwards by having to carve the new foam.

I would let the tank run the way it is for now for a week. If you do have more leakage. There are a few solutions I do have for you. But let's not get ahead of ourselves because those really do involve pulling off the 5 tons of silicone in there, and recovering it with another substance.

I am going to address this in the construction thread when I get to the point, but the thing you have to differentiate between is a sealer and a sealant. A sealant essentially seals the top layer of a material, and a sealer will absorb into a material and truly seal it from the inside out. Once you carve foam, you need to use a sealer. Silicone is a sealant.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[TeenyToad]

Yikes, it just gets more and more complicated. Is the product you mentioned before a sealer?


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[deranged chipmunk]

it is

[TeenyToad]

So, could I just layer that over the existing silicone?


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[deranged chipmunk]

sadly no. since it is a water based product, it won't stick to silicone. in fact, i really cannot think of anything that will effectively adhere to cured silicone.

[TeenyToad]

What about more silicone?


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[deranged chipmunk]

nope. silicone sticks to almost any surface, EXCEPT previously cured silicone. eventually, water WILL seep under it and release the top coat of silicone. it's the one true downside to using silicone. the first application really needs to be perfect.

[TeenyToad]

Ah, how frustrating. So, my best bet, without having to tear down the whole thing, would be to somehow get all layers of silicone out of the pots, and then seal it with the product you had mentioned, right?


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[deranged chipmunk]

That, or use fully sealed plastic pots inside the planters. But then you have to figure out how to remove any excess water from them. If any builds up.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[TeenyToad]

Oh man Perhaps, my best option is to cut out that area and re foam. I wonder if I could cut it out, but leave the outer edge layer that the dam is attached to. Would the new foam seal properly to that?


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[deranged chipmunk]

It may. Hard to know for sure until you actually do it. Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about it until you see that you actually have any leaks. Until then, I would just let the tank run and see how it does.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[TeenyToad]

Unfortunately, I just checked a while ago and I do still have leaks. Ayeayeaye


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