dap household silicone how long to wait....

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divedeep1689

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Aug 27, 2008
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Location
phenix city alabama
Hey guys i used some dap household silicone from home depot on my return line from my sump on my reef. It says cures in 72 hours i put it on sunday morning about 1 am. If i go ahead and start my pump back up and start using it will it hurt anything.
 
also, I am sure you already did this but make sure their are no leaks in it before you turn on the pump or you could have a nice mess on your hands. What I do is get some red food colouring and mix some water with it and then let it sit for about 15 minutes, that way any slow leaks will show up through the silicone and I don't have to worry about the leaks showing up. But about the curing usually it is fine once you can't smell the silicone anymore.
 
what you could do is mist on some freshwater and that MIGHT help with the curing process, but you would probably be better to just let it sit overnight. Silicone uses humidity in the air to cure if I remember my chemistry class well enough back from when I was in highschool, so if you could increase the humidity that might decrease the cure time. I don't know what the effects would be of leak testing it before it has cured though, if the silicone is still sticky wet, then the weight of the water might move it and create leaks, but if it has already gotten pretty close to being cured than I couldn't see the harm and it might be good to do it before it cures 100% as you will be able to add more silicone to the spots that do leaks without having to worry about whether or not the new silicone will bond with the old stuff. One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be leaks lol, I don't think I have ever got one perfect on the first try, except for an overflow box I did a while back, and there was very little places that needed to be siliconed...
 
cool thanks i will let it sit over night then try it out. It was just a small drip before i decided to add silicone in the first place so maybe there wont be leaks. fingers crossed lol
 
rubber hose with two pvc elbows holding it onto side of tank. I have used it for a while with no leaks as it had a very snug fit but i noticed a small drip the other day.
 
i would definately let it cure for at least 72 hours then... since there will be some pressure trying to push it off the hose, it would be best imo to let it go its full course if not longer. somehow i missed that part and thought it was a seam in the sump, which wouldnt be as big of a deal since the water would be working to push it against the seam instead of out... make sense?
 
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