Adding New Rock question

[feeeesh]

I bought some dry rock that I am planning on breaking up and using epoxy to build some new caves and crevices for my fish in the FOWLR tank I have. I heard when I add the rock, my in-tank tunzee 9012 skimmer will overflow like crazy for 2 days and that I should remove the skimmer top. However, what if I put the rock in a bucket of aquarium water for a week or so? Would that prevent my skimmer from overflowing? Tank is well established (75 g) with normal parameters

 

[JNalley]

It would likely be the epoxy causing the skimmer to overflow (more on this in a moment).

So to answer your question, a week or so soaking might not completely do it, you might want to drain and fill 3-4 times as well. You don't have to use salt water, you can use RO/DI so you're not wasting salt.

Onto the epoxy being the cause. You could totally avoid it by using Cyanoacrylate glue and sand instead of epoxy. Get water-thin glue, toss some sand (Or crushed fine powder rock) on the joint, squirt some glue into it, repeat 2-3 times, flip it and get the backside. This will hold exceptionally well for the type of pieces you're describing. Tidal Gardens does a video on this method (watch Part 2, Part 1 is meh), and they show you what has to be 5-6 rocks (maybe 20-ish lbs) glued into a thin but wide crescent shape and holding it up by the first rock in the "chain". This method (if it's the epoxy, I can see nothing else causing a skimmer to go off for Dry rock) will prevent your skimmer from going haywire.

 

[Sean Clark]

+1 @JNalley

 

[feeeesh]

It would likely be the epoxy causing the skimmer to overflow (more on this in a moment).

So to answer your question, a week or so soaking might not completely do it, you might want to drain and fill 3-4 times as well. You don't have to use salt water, you can use RO/DI so you're not wasting salt.

Onto the epoxy being the cause. You could totally avoid it by using Cyanoacrylate glue and sand instead of epoxy. Get water-thin glue, toss some sand (Or crushed fine powder rock) on the joint, squirt some glue into it, repeat 2-3 times, flip it and get the backside. This will hold exceptionally well for the type of pieces you're describing. Tidal Gardens does a video on this method (watch Part 2, Part 1 is meh), and they show you what has to be 5-6 rocks (maybe 20-ish lbs) glued into a thin but wide crescent shape and holding it up by the first rock in the "chain". This method (if it's the epoxy, I can see nothing else causing a skimmer to go off for Dry rock) will prevent your skimmer from going haywire

Thank you for the great advice, JNalley. Is there a brand of glue that you would recommend?

 

[JNalley]

Thank you for the great advice, JNalley. Is there a brand of glue that you would recommend?

StarBond or GlueMasters are my usual go-to brands, but as long as it's Cyanoacrylate glue it should work. Make sure you use the water-like viscosity (They usually say it). BRS has a large bottle of their own house glue that is supposed to work as well: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-general-bonding-super-glue-bulk-reef-supply.html