Reef Collapsing

[FRANK GRAZIANO]

Dose anyone know a good reef cement, glue, putty or adhesive that I can use in a established aquarium with fish and corals? I bumped my reef last night cleaning the back glass and all the rocks shifted to a unsafe position. I spent over a hour trying to get it stable it seems ok but want to make it stronger so this doesn't happen again.
I used a glue when putting it together when rocks were dry but that glue did work to good. Was just thick CA glue

 

[TheEngineer]

CA gel works fine. You can use a reef safe epoxy too. You just mush it together like silly putty and then press it onto the rocks.

 

[FRANK GRAZIANO]

Been doing alot of research and most putty / cements get bad reviews for under water use on wet rock. Was hoping someone had tried a specific one out and had good results heard some raise phosphate levels and nitrate levels too

 

[cloak]

I've been using JB WaterWeld epoxy for years and have never had any problems with it. Just knead it up really well and apply it. Piece of cake.

 

[TheEngineer]

I've never had an issue with it.

 

[FRANK GRAZIANO]

I used a good amount of ca glue when building the reef it did not work but dose work on corals for me. Plus I don't want to take the rocks out. I need something that will bound them in place . Might try the JB water weld

 

[Brew12]

I've used both the IO HoldFast epoxy and the Fluval epoxy stick with good success. They just make the skimmer foam hard for a day or so.

 

[DMG Reef]

I struggled with the underwater epoxies as well. The thing that finally worked well for me was Gorilla Super Glue Gel. (It has to be gel, not ordinary super glue). I submerge the tube and squirt the glue between the rocks. It will take a few minutes to harden but when it does, it's very secure. To use the gel the next time, however, you'll have to cut the tip off with scissors since it clogs up from being under water.

 

[andrewkw]

If you are talking about large rocks I would recommend you use a thermoplastic polymer based "glue" or whatever you want to call it. Several brands package this stuff. You heat up water in the microwave and mix it and it works somewhat as glue, somewhat as epoxy. You can use a little super glue gel with it as well. If you're just attaching one or 2 rocks then epoxy will be fine, but other then the fact it has mixed results using large amounts of it in a full blown reef is not recommended. While the long term effects are nothing serious, in the short term you can really deplete your tank of oxygen. Even the thermoplastic polymer stuff will give you mixed results but in larger quantities it is safer imo. The other added bonus to this stuff is it's reusable so you can mix up a large amount and what you don't use can be used next time.