Skimmer cracked in the mail!!

[hawaiiguy]

Generally I have faith in the mail system. I have always trusted that things will make it to me in one piece but recently, I ordered a prizm protein skimmer and it arrived cracked. Unfortunately I didn't spring for the two dollar insurance charge so I'm pretty much out of luck. Yes I am one cheap ##%#$ . Oh yeah, and ironically (and tragically), it was sent from a town that's about 20 minutes outside of New Orleans so I don't think I'd be able to contact the seller for a refund even if I had insurance. That's ok though; I'm certainly not going to bother him with my petty problem as I'm sure he's got much bigger things to deal with right now.
Anyways, now that I have this cracked skimmer I'm wondering if there is some way to patch it without worrying about it failing. It's not big, it looks more like a small bullet hole than a crack. It is at the bottom of the main chamber where the bubbles mix with the water. Will regular silicone work? Do I need special tank-safe silicone? Will a water-bed patch work? Will the crack extend over time?
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Len]

If it's really small hole, silicone could hold up. If it's a crack, I'd bond it back up with some Weldon 4 acrylic glue. Best/safest thing to do is to plug it up with some acrylic and use the Weldon to bond it.

I'm not sure water-bed patches will hold up or are reefsafe.

 

[Anonymous]

It may be a blessing that it cracked. My prism leaked when I was on vacation and destroyed my stand. 8O I was not a happy camper.

Buy the best, cry once. Especially with skimmers.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Depends on the size of the hole, you maybe able to patch it up with a scrap piece of acrylic with Weldon cement. Using silicone to patch up is not going to be reliable, since it can drain a lot of water from your tank if it fails.


If I have time, I will post some pics about patching hole in acrylic tank, but time is a luxury for me right now. Do a search on GRD or the DIY forum and see if someone had the procedure already.

Water bed patch kit is of PVC plastic, I think, and it may not work well for acrylic.

(I mailed a $200 skimmer via UPS, and the train it was on derailed. The buyer was able to get $100 + some courtesy refund from me.)

 

[hawaiiguy]

Thanks for the help, sounds like Weldon glue is the way to go. Is it hard to find?