Cyanoacrylate Gel Harmful to invertibrates?

[BigRedSpecial]

Last night I was attaching some frags to my rockwork using superglue gel; I'd put a few dabs on the frag then place it on the rock in the tank. I've always read this was harmless, but just after I finished I noticed one of my peppermint shrimp kicked the bucket suddenly. I also noticed my turbo snails were a little sluggish (but were back to normal an hour later), but all my trochus/astrea/cerith snails and hermits were all fine, as were all fish and coral. My skimmer did go nuts however, filling half the cup in an hour.

Putting two and two together I also realized that I lost another peppermint suddenly last month, the last time I had glue in the tank.

So, is cyanoacrylate not as safe as I've been led to believe? Should it be kept out of the tank prior to curing?

Edit: I also moved my palythoa colony around a bit causing it to slime up a lot. Could that be the culprit instead?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

While I've never been especially comfortable with cyanoacrylate monomers being assumed safe, there has not been much evidence that it is a problem in reefs. I don't know what caused your issue.

The skimmer and GAC will help reduce amounts in the water, if that is part of the problem.

 

[billw]

Last night I was attaching some frags to my rockwork using superglue gel; I'd put a few dabs on the frag then place it on the rock in the tank. I've always read this was harmless, but just after I finished I noticed one of my peppermint shrimp kicked the bucket suddenly. I also noticed my turbo snails were a little sluggish (but were back to normal an hour later), but all my trochus/astrea/cerith snails and hermits were all fine, as were all fish and coral. My skimmer did go nuts however, filling half the cup in an hour.

Putting two and two together I also realized that I lost another peppermint suddenly last month, the last time I had glue in the tank.

So, is cyanoacrylate not as safe as I've been led to believe? Should it be kept out of the tank prior to curing?

Edit: I also moved my palythoa colony around a bit causing it to slime up a lot. Could that be the culprit instead?

I hope your shrimp didn't get a mouthful of uncured glue. I've heard of instances where fish have got into it before it has cured.

 

[BigRedSpecial]

Thanks for the replies. I don't know for certain what the culprit is, but it seems suspicious that the only thing linking two shrimp deaths is the glue.

billw, I don't think that's the case; i had my hands in the tank the whole time and they were on opposite sides.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I know when I use the cheap stuff from the dollar store some of my corals will close up a little for a few hours. When I use gorilla glue super gel it doesn't affect them at all. Might be a quality issue or something.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I do try to limit the amount I use and the number of frags or aqua scape I do at one time.
It is after all off gassing as it cures and will make your eyes water. I'd guess in a small water vol that would cause problems.

 

[rkpetersen]

I sometimes use absurdly large amounts of IC-Gel in my dt, with no discernible effects. In particular, no deaths of peppermint, scarlet skunk or fire shrimp. The only parameter in my tank that seems to be off is a persistently elevated potassium. I've been unable to find the cause of that, but some ridiculous experiments wasting frag glue have convinced me that, whatever else it's doing, the frag glue is not leaching potassium.