JRunyon21

I am currently in the process of converting my old 29g into a sump. The DIY styrofoam background was in place with a ton of silicone. The long annoying way would be to scrape/peel it all off. It there anything out there that would help me out and make the process a little easier?

pepetj

There has to be a safe solvent for that. I don't know the answer but I will be back to learn how to do this.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Nick G

Any strong solvent will remove silicone, and solvent evaporates to nothing without leaving residue, so although it is poisonous in liquid form it is safe to use in empty aquariums. Just let it evaporate once all the silicones gone and then rinse with clean water.

Tavel

acetone is probably a good choice. It's very cheap and you can apply it without gloves, depending on your tolerance.

It's a very good solvent, it dissolves vinyl gloves within minutes. (That's why i stopped wearing gloves with it, but I do have very thick skin from work...lol).

another tidbit, it can cool whatever it's touching to more than 20F below ambient by evaporation...so you're hands will get pretty cold. hahaha

the57man

I saw a product at Lowes that was for removing silicone caulking. I didn't think much about it since I use a razor blade scraper but you might check it out. If you have a lowes nearby

≈ D ≈

kojen

so a little piece of advice from someone that has used acetone. while people here are saying you can use it without gloves that is not suggested. acetone will soak into the bed of your nails and can cause slow brain damage. it is part of what leads to the stereotype of blondes being stupid. nail polish contains acetone and actually kills brain damage. my girlfriend is a pre med major and yelled at me for using acetone for around the house repairs. just buy a good pair of gloves and hopefully they will hold out long enough for what you need them for

griffin

just be sure not to use nitrile or plastic gloves. latex works well