To silicone or not my starboard?

K

kwl1763

Premium Member
Well since I unfortunatly have a little more time to wait on my tank I went ahead and did some things like order starboard, order some more LR, rtc.

My question with the starboard is to silicone or not. I'm leaning toward not just becaue it doesn't bond well anyway.

The only problem is that it floats and so what should I weigh it down with until I put my live rock in there? I'm going to fill with RODI first to test then mix salt in the tank. So I can't just put it down then put some rock then fill it up.

I guess I could just leave the starboard out until I'm ready to transfer the rock and PVC support and put it in then but I really would like to have the PVC supports first to make it easier. Will that be enough weight to hold down the starboard?
 
Keith,

I would silicone it but not in the way you are probably thinking. I would not seal it around the edges but maybe put in 2 or 3 puddles of silicone in the middle of the tank, say under the lights from a spacing point of view. The puddle should provide for a solid barrier between the tank and starboard, thus not trapping any bad things inside the silicon. I think this would help hold the starboard down.
 
don't seal it - imo, i wouldn't even glue it down, but i like to think of long term maintenance and would want to be able to remove it for cleaning

Pete
 
Silicone won't bond but it will do a decent job of sticking in the short term. I could do something like sand in a bucket. That's not a bad idea. Maybe I'll use several smaller tupperware containers so I can move them around as I get my PVC support in there.

I might put 4 small blobs on the corners just to hold it short term. I'm not worried about removal. If I ever have to remove it it would require taking all the rock out, etc. so something major would have to happen.
 
As you know, the only thing that the silicone will do is make aquascaping easier. If you did silicone the HDPE down, the boyancy may pop up the board and frustrate the hell out of you anyway, wasting your time and $$. I do not have mine bonded. Because of the eight foot length of the tank and the cross bracing, I needed to cut the board into 4 pieces. That actually made the AS easier. I just placed a rock on the board and aquascaped. An extra set of hands definetly will help a ton. (I'd love to help but........... :wink: ) My overflows kept the board in a "stable" position on the bottom of the tank w/o it slipping one way or the other. I just placed the boards on the bottom with a big rock on each and went to town. You only need about 5 pounds to keep a 3X4 piece down.

Good Luck.
 
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