Repair scape while submerged

[User]

Hi guys

I’m in the process of setting up my 180.

I’ve had the rocks and sand in the tank for about 2 months, Tank is cycled, I’m putting my first fish in in 5 weeks after they complete QT.

I have a complex arch I made out of gluing a number of pieces of BRS reef saver using Jurassic gel. I’m happy with it and it appears to be holding

My other set piece is made of pukani- a tower, a large base rock, and a 13” x22” shelf piece. To create a more stable base fir the shelf, I used hydraulic cement to attach 4 ‘leveling blocks’ also made out of pukani . This raised the shelf a little bit creating a few nice small swim throughs. The shelf itself just rests on these- it isn’t glued down

The problem is, the hydraulic cement is crumbling and the pukani is cracking...

I need to repair this before it really fails and puts that shelf rock through my glass.

I’m thinking of draining the water into a 55 gal barrel, removing the shelf, and using *something* to smother the leveling rocks to prevent further crumbling and stabilize them. Then refill in the space of a couple hours

I’m thinking a big tube of Jurassic gel, but I don’t know how well that does while submerged, or how my skimmer will react.

Epoxy- I know this’ll make my slimmer go crazy- but I don’t know how it’ll affect my biofilter.

Heat-pliable plastic granules - Sugru variants- are attractive, but have no idea if it’s suitable for a repair job

Anyone have any pointers or advice? I just got done with my cycle and did a 165 gallon water change, so not lookingvto do something that’ll kill my biofikter and make me have to re-cycle the tank

Thanks!

Build thread is here if anyone want to look at it in more detail
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/neil’s-in-wall-180-with-basement-fishroom.390436/

 

[Labridaedicted]

Pick up some loctite 2 part marine epoxy putty or a specialized coral adhesion epoxy (essentially the same thing). Knead and make a nice ring around it then work into the connection area. Should be pretty secure once it cures. FWIW, I use this method to secure any new rocks in the tank and it's held up well

 

[User]

Pick up some loctite 2 part marine epoxy putty or a specialized coral adhesion epoxy (essentially the same thing). Knead and make a nice ring around it then work into the connection area. Should be pretty secure once it cures. FWIW, I use this method to secure any new rocks in the tank and it's held up well

How does the skimmer react?

This method was going to be my plan- thank you for validating the approach!

 

[Labridaedicted]

Skimmer will go a little nuts for a bit until it hardens, but then you're good. Usually mine only acts up a half hour or so

 

[User]

And you’ve used it then immediately submerged it?

 

[Labridaedicted]

Yeah, it takes a few minutes to set but once it does it's tough. Make sure it's well kneaded before it goes in the tank. If it's kneaded with any water it will get crumbly once it's cured. If it's well mixed before it hits the water, you're all good.

You can also use gel superglue on the epoxy surface before pushing it into the nooks to give it better adhesion. Both are reef safe in smallish quantities. I've used a whole tube of coral epoxy (bigger than loctite) in one go and saw no negative effects other than some skimmer overflow for a few minutes.

 

[User]

Perfect.

Appreciate the info

 

[User]

I picked up 3 tubes of jb waterweld, and 6 tubes of gel superglue.

Repair scheduled for Friday morning.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Good luck! Should go well!

 

[User]

I hope so. I’m so psyched by the scape and the amount of time I put into it is crazy. I hope I can repair it

 

[jonnyeatworld]

Looks great! good luck on the repair

 

[User]

So, I did the scape repair with 3 sticks of JB waterweld, 6 tubes of gel superglue and my FIL who I had to bribe with tacomac and free access to cable news.

When we started moving stuff, he thought we were throwing out the old rock and tossed it into s bucket, where the fragile pukani bust into 4 pieces. So I had to use some left over pieces and done brs reef saver instead of what was there originally

I dropped the water level, saving the 100g in two blue barrels, then draped the scape in wet paper towels to help preserve the bacterial colony as much as possible. Then placed the new ‘leveling rocks’ until I thought we had something that would work, then FIL got to kneading the epoxy putty while I coated the base rock with superglue, placed a dollop of putty, more glue, then rock on top. Then I worked it into the cracks and voids and tried to ‘enclose’ the rock in it for attachment.

We did this fur 4 contact points, let it cure for an hour then filled the tank back up just above where the plate sits. Fit the plate back on top, checked for stability — as stable as before, maybe a hair of space so it rocks slightly side to side— then finished the refill

Tank currently has a heater and the fire going at 30% to keep things suspended. I’m hoping to get the sump online this evening and get the skimmer going to remove any nasties from the water.

It now sits an inch higher than before, is more level and has a nicer more substantial swimthrough, as well as a bit more separation from the column, giving what I think is a pretty cool looking ‘fissure’

Hopefully it’ll hold and I won’t have to do that again...

 

[1WildBill]

Looks sweet. I’ getting ready to rescape my tank. Following for reference.