# Silicone II NOT curing - help!



## Guest (Oct 21, 2005)

I've got my tanks ready to be set up - false bottom stuff all ready, gravel, soil, moss, plants, pump, etc... I have the great stuff background done. I have a few slate pieces siliconed in. However, I'm trying to build up the rocks on the wall, to form a stone waterfall/seep. The silicone is not curign -at all. It's been 3 days, and it's just as soft and sticky as it was when it came out of the tube. 

I have it in a large garage, and temps have been above 40 degrees. Only thing I can think of is there needs to be vetter ventilation - should i stick a fan on it? I wonder if this is a defective batch - some very thinly applied sections are still sticky and squishy - even the peat moss I applied nearly one WEEK ago still runs off, and the silicone underneath, though VERY thinly applied, is still not dry.

I may have to cut out everything, and start over, as the entire backlground is covered in uncured silicone II. It's a freaking mess.


Any ideas?


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## _Enix_ (Jul 31, 2005)

wow, thats crappy! sorry to hear about this. ive never had this happen. granted ive only used it once on vivariums, but ive used silicon II in other applications. 

i have my 2nd tank curing right now. it dries very quickly. it sets up [enough] to continue work within hours. i live in an apartment and the only air flow is what my a/c is circulating.

perhaps it is a bad batch.

doesnt look hopeful if its been days and weeks since you applied it and its still runny. 

sorry about your bad luck this time around. maybe someone here has a special secret to get it to cure after so long...


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## Cindy Dicken (Feb 29, 2004)

* Did you check the expiration date on the tube of silicone? Sounds like you may have an old tube, or one that has been exposed to temperature extremes. You also might try to get some heat in your garage, 40 degrees is a little too cool to try to cure anything.

Cindy Dicken
Vivarium Concepts
http://www.vivariumconcepts.com
http://www.texasdartfrogs.org
*


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## Auhsoj27 (Jun 3, 2005)

You most likely had an old tube. I went through this same scenario when I built my tank. I covered three walls with silicone and left it for several days. No apparent change in its texture. I then checked the tube and it was in-fact expired, even though I had purchased it that day. Must have been old stock. I got tired of waiting, scrapped it all off, bought new silicone and reapplied. By the end of the day, it was fully cured. Sorry to hear you'll have to tear out so much stuff, but it's probably your only option at this point.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2005)

Cindy Dicken said:


> * Did you check the expiration date on the tube of silicone? Sounds like you may have an old tube, or one that has been exposed to temperature extremes. You also might try to get some heat in your garage, 40 degrees is a little too cool to try to cure anything.
> 
> Cindy Dicken
> Vivarium Concepts
> ...


No, it's been well above 40. It says it should be above 40 on the label - it's been in the 60-80's.


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## Guest (Oct 24, 2005)

I had thought that I must have done something wrong - but nope, 
just bad silicone. I got a new tube (I made Home Depot refud me 
for the two bad tubes), stuck two small rocks together, in an hour, 
they were fused. The expiration date on the brown stuff was 
11/05 - next month. The black stuff that I got (that worked) 
doesn't expire until 7/07. Oh well. 

A good thing to note is the difference in texture of the bad stuff - it 
was much MUCH thicker, and very hard to apply. It did not 
appear smooth, like pudding when it canme out - it was kinda 
grainy, and rubbery, not smooth at all. It seemed more like slightly 
cured caulk, not silicone. Heads up - it it don't look right, test it 
first.

I tested my pump and waterfall - they work perfectly. I just need 
to silicone some more pieces of slate in the way of the water, so 
it's a more diffuse flow, then I'll be golden. 

Silicone II is notorious for this. My father repairs submersible 
sewer lasers, that need to be sealed with silicone. One was return, 
as it leaked. after he opened it, he noticed the silicone II was just 
as wet as when he applied it a month ago! It was not expired, 
either. I


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Some of the varieties of the different silicones also have different curing times. Make sure to read the fine print on the tube for the curing time. Justin Yeager did this and the curing time on the tube was listed as two weeks. He had a group over to hang out while he planted up a big tank. He was complaining about the silicone not setting up on the cocos panels he was glueing into the back of the tank so he could start planting. After a little while, I read the back of the tube whereupon I burst out laughing as the tube he was using and if I remember correctly it had a cure time of two week......
Justin was not pleased......

Ed


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

The first tube i every bought of ge 1 silicon did this to me...scared me away from it for over a year..but buying aqurium stuff in 5oz tube just became to expensive for as much as i was using  is the ge 1 stuff ok? the 2 looked like it had alot more chemicals in it so i went for the 1.


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## Guest (Oct 24, 2005)

Silicone I is stronger, and cures with acetic acid, that's why it's got 
a vinegar smell to it. Silicone II has ammonia in it, and lacks the 
acidic smell. 

Everyone says to use silicone II , but I've yet to find any reason 
that silicone I is bad. I played it safe, and used silicone II.

Silicone I is dangerous for electronics, the acid can attack parts of 
electronics, and destroy them over time. Silicone II is sometimes 
called electronics grade. 

The brown stuff I have is definatly bad - it's supposed to cure fully 
in 24 hours. It's no more cured than it was right out of the tube - 
and I used the first tube on the 15th - 9 days ago. 

The black stuff (same stuff, only black) had cured completly in 
only a few hours. 

I got black, because home depot only had one other tube of 
the brown stuff - and it was from the same batch, with the same 
expiration date ( it's old stuff). 

So, what's the reason we don't want to use silicone I? Is the acid 
dangerous? Even after it's cured, it can release small amoutns.


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

I have a brown tube that I used last night to set up a tank for my Lepidodactylus lugubris. It hasn't had any problems with curing.


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## Guest (Oct 25, 2005)

Wow, what a difference non-defenctive silicone makes... LAst 
night, I added all the slate I wanted to, fixed the spillway rocks, 
and covered everything in silicone and peat moss. It took me 
about 4 hours of total work, over the past week to cover as much 
areas as I did in less than one hour last night. 

While I was using the bad stuff, I thought something was wrong 
with me, my caulk gun, and everything else. My hands still hurt 
from squeezing the freaking thing. I feel like such an idiot.

The defective silicone II was obviously bad compared to the new 
stuff. The bad stuff was hard, literally. It was nearly impossible to 
squeeze out, and did not speard well. I was thinking that you guys 
were nuts to do this often, as spreading the stuff on the uneven 
surface of the foam background was KILLING me. 
As I learned last night, it's actually very easy, and spreads easily 
with a rubber glove for protection. The moss was cured on the 
background within an hour, even on the parts I had to re-cover. 

To give you an idea, the defective/expired silicone II was the 
thickness and consistency of slightly wet play dough, holding 
together, not flowing like a liquid. 

I'll be working at the Greenville SC reptile show this weekend, so 
I'll get a few plants and supplies to finish the tank when I get 
back.


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