To patch or plug

[Airphotog]

I have a hole in the bottom of my 90 acrylic that I will not be using. My thoughts are to glue a piece of plex down on the bottom. The hole is 1-1/4 or so and I have a piece of plex that is 8 x 8 or so. The other option is to put a thru hole back in it and plug it. Any ideas?

 

[colin779]

I used to build acrylic tanks and i would patch it. Get a square piece that's larger than the hole and use some weld-on to attach it to the bottom of the tank (on the inside). That will be a permanent solution, unless you wanted to use the hole again and you could just re-drill it =)

 

[Airphotog]

Colin, That is what might thought was. I think I am going to do both sides. The bottom I will do smaller so I don't have to do to much to the stand (I will just use my router on iy.

Brian..

 

[eww]

You don't really even need to do the one on the underside of the bottom. It is just creating more unnecessary work for you (IMHO) to modify the stand for the patch. The top one should be plenty strong if you allow enough material around the hole for the weld-on to bond. Your 8" x 8" piece is plenty large for that. Just lay down the weld-on and set your patch piece on top. You can run additional weld-on around the edges if you want. I would probably use 3 or 4 for between the pieces and 16 for around the edges after it is bonded down. I have seen many tanks patched this way. Our current sump is one of them.

 

[Sasquatch]

I just silicone a piece over top, all pressure is down and its not going to leak, easily removed in the future

 

[Airphotog]

Thanks Eric, I will just do the inside then. And Sasquatch, silicone and acrylic don't get along real well.

You don't really even need to do the one on the underside of the bottom. It is just creating more unnecessary work for you (IMHO) to modify the stand for the patch. The top one should be plenty strong if you allow enough material around the hole for the weld-on to bond. Your 8" x 8" piece is plenty large for that. Just lay down the weld-on and set your patch piece on top. You can run additional weld-on around the edges if you want. I would probably use 3 or 4 for between the pieces and 16 for around the edges after it is bonded down. I have seen many tanks patched this way. Our current sump is one of them.

 

[Sasquatch]

Thanks Eric, I will just do the inside then. And Sasquatch, silicone and acrylic don't get along real well.

lol, they get along perfectly, not structurally sound, but this ain't that

 

[TheKraken]

Tap plastics sells round disks and weldon4. I used a disk ~1.5" large so the glued seam is like 3/8". The pin method with solvent needle is great. Just make sure you do not glue the tank to the surface you are working on!

The tank is a 75 for reference.