Glass and silicon question

[Calayvie]

So I'm putting a glass divider in my tank and in my tank already there is silicon along the inside edges. I've read that silicon doesn't really stick to silicon, so is there something I can paint/stick onto the 5mm or so of silicon, each side of the glass, that will help the silicon I put on, to create a seal with the silicon already present, if that makes sense?
Water safe paint? Glue?
What will stick to silicon, that silicon will stick to, that is safe in vivs? [emoji3]

Thanks!!


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[privet01]

Not many adhesives of any sort stick to their dried or cured brethren. That's why you should always clean them off, or at least give the next best thing which is a good cleaning and/or roughing up.

In the case of silicone adhesive, I'd just make sure it's clean. Maybe wipe it with some alcohol. Possibly rubbing a little bit of the new silicone on the old prior to laying your bead of silicone will help ensure a good bond and that your bead is not just laying on top the old.

But......... I've never liked the idea of dividers for separating water and dry... if that's what you are using it for.
It is likely to eventually leak from what I've read. And when it does, you will have a mess on what should have been your dry side. Which will require a complete redo. It also prevents any live plants on the dry side from helping to maintain your water quality. Plants can remove the ammonia and some other "bad" stuff if their roots are allowed to get down to the water.

[Calayvie]

Not many adhesives of any sort stick to their dried or cured brethren. That's why you should always clean them off, or at least give the next best thing which is a good cleaning and/or roughing up.

In the case of silicone adhesive, I'd just make sure it's clean. Maybe wipe it with some alcohol. Possibly rubbing a little bit of the new silicone on the old prior to laying your bead of silicone will help ensure a good bond and that your bead is not just laying on top the old.

But......... I've never liked the idea of dividers for separating water and dry... if that's what you are using it for.
It is likely to eventually leak from what I've read. And when it does, you will have a mess on what should have been your dry side. Which will require a complete redo. It also prevents any live plants on the dry side from helping to maintain your water quality. Plants can remove the ammonia and some other "bad" stuff if their roots are allowed to get down to the water.

OK would it help if I scored the silicon before rubbing a little on it before doing the bead?

I'm trying to prevent failure of the barrier by ensuring a good bond of the silicon. I have read of many failing, and many not failing. If it'll help to put something between the bits of silicon I'm willing to. [emoji3]

My "dry" side will still have its drainage layer. It will likely be more damp on that side, because of splashing and humidity increase from the water section, than a viv with no water section. I do expect I may need to drain excess water off more regularly.
But with a burrowing frog it just seems like the best way to go. I want it to have a pool of water to swim in, and it needs deep enough soil to burrow. So if I used the drainage layer for the pond supply, it'd have to be a high drainage layer to accommodate the water level I'd like, then the height of soil and trying to stop that from tipping into the water! And then jumping room on top of the soil? It'd be running out of room! So this to me seems like the best way to go. If I had a tank that was 3ft high it might work differently but then soil would still keep tipping into the water from what I can imagine.

I hope I've understood you about the plants. I'm still expecting that my plants will assist with processing wastes on the 'dry' side. I will also have plants in the water section, and I'm thinking of buying a couple of nice ones for that. [emoji3]
In my couple of 'natural' aquariums I have river/pond plants, I've not bought water plants before.

Thanks privet01 for the reply!



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[privet01]

I wouldn't score or cut the existing silicone in any way. There is a lot of stress going on in that joint already..... the two intersecting planes running perpendicular, uneven thermal expansion... that kind of stress. At most I might scuff it lightly with a scotch-brite pad or very fine sandpaper, 400 grit or better.

Cutting into it seems only dooming the original seam to failure. I'd much rather have to redo the divider at a later date as opposed to having the tank leak at some later date and have to redo everything. And remember on the divider failure thing, that's just from post's I've read. It might be that there are million people that didn't have any problems with their divider leaking and it's only the 0.05% that failed that I'm seeing in the posts. After all, people seldom complain about their successes! <<grin>>

I do agree that vertical space can be an issue if you don't use a divider. Especially with a burrowing frog.

[Calayvie]

I wouldn't score or cut the existing silicone in any way. There is a lot of stress going on in that joint already..... the two intersecting planes running perpendicular, uneven thermal expansion... that kind of stress. At most I might scuff it lightly with a scotch-brite pad or very fine sandpaper, 400 grit or better.

Cutting into it seems only dooming the original seam to failure. I'd much rather have to redo the divider at a later date as opposed to having the tank leak at some later date and have to redo everything. And remember on the divider failure thing, that's just from post's I've read. It might be that there are million people that didn't have any problems with their divider leaking and it's only the 0.05% that failed that I'm seeing in the posts. After all, people seldom complain about their successes! <<grin>>

I do agree that vertical space can be an issue if you don't use a divider. Especially with a burrowing frog.

OK. It was suggested elsewhere that I just cut away the silicon to prevent the failure of bonding silicon on silicon! I didn't like that idea, I do not want to compromise the original seal of the WHOLE tank. Losing the water barrier seal is more acceptable than the whole tank seal to me.
But the silicon does bulge from the seal about 7mm x 4mm, and the glazier has cut out a notch to fit that in the piece of glass, but checking its fit yesterday, I was thinking I would have to trim the silicon just slightly on one side to prevent trying to squash the silicon, which is really only going to put pressure back on the barrier glass and its seals, so either way reduce the seal efficiency. So I either trim the top edge of the silicon, (definitely not down to the glass) or take my glass back to glazier for a tiny increase in the notch size (which I think could be tricky?).
I thought trimming the top slightly would be OK. Do you think not? The silicon bulge is about 7x4mm. I can have a play with positioning to see if there is a slightly thinner part of silicon on that side that it will fit nicely, but then I don't want to change my dimensions too much either.

I think I have some fine sandpaper I can use to rough up the top of the silicon.

Exactly, people don't complain about their successes! [emoji1]

So I'm being optimistic that this will hold! Just want to give it the best shot!

Thanks for all of your help!


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[Calayvie]

Well, today I measured out the line for 10, 11 and 12 inch water width and practiced positioning the piece of glass. It fit best at 11 inch, at 12 the left side was buoyed by the silicon edge and at 10 inch the right side was buoyed. Although after sitting for a bit the silicon at 11inch was indented, it didn't give any bounce to the glass so I think its safe to stick it there.
I scrubbed the tank today with a microfiber cleaning block/sponge, and flushed it with water. I'll clean again tmr and flush some more and then let it dry before rechecking the 11 inch vertical line, checking its still good to use on the silicon, and then siliconing it in! Pretty exciting! I'm still blown away I'm actually at this point of doing and not still dreaming!
I will sandpaper lightly the silicon before I start the fixing. Need to find a way to support the glass so the silicon can set without any pull. Although the piece of glass fits snug and probably won't move, I just want to be sure

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