Think I made a big mistake?

[Hop2jr]

When my girlfriend and I started our 75 gallon reef tank I was so excited to start the cycling of the live rock I didn’t glue of them together. Now 7 months later with happy fish we started adding coral well been adding for last 3 months slowly. should we take out the rock and glue it or just hope nothing comes crashing down? Only a couple of frags are glued to rock need some advise please. How many reefers glue everything and how many don’t?

 

[Roosterjack]

Kept my rock work loose to allow tweaks, but would likely glue it together if I were to start over.

i don’t have good luck gluing things underwater, frags included. It could be my own incompetence though, lol.

 

[Saltyreef]

Not really any good glue products to use on a reef already setup. Youll have better luck with a drill and some acrylic dowels.
Nothing really reef safe likes to stick underwater.
You could also leave them as suggested above. Mine are just stacked too.

 

[Roosterjack]

Not really any good glue products to use on a reef already setup. Youll have better luck with a drill and some acrylic dowels.
Nothing really reef safe likes to stick underwater.
You could also leave them as suggested above. Mine are just stacked too.

What diameter dowel do you use? Depth of socket hole? Really like this idea.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Easy solution. Get two part epoxy, mix them, apply gel glue to it and apply the epoxy piece at the joints where the rock pieces meet. Ive done it many times. It will dry and the rocks will remain together. No need at all to break the scape

 

[Billldg]

You can use epoxy to fix the rock arches in place. I just did it to a few rocks that I thought were to insecure today. I use seachem super glue and two little fishes epoxy. I add superglue to the epoxy out of the water and then fix epoxy to contact points on the rock and wrap it around the contact points. Coraline algae will cover it and you will not know its there.

 

[Waters]

If it makes you feel any better, I have never glued any aquascape I have ever done. I just use rock that kind of interlocks together. As long as it feels stable, it should be fine.

 

[Saltyreef]

Depends how big and heavy the rocks are. I would use 3/8" most likely if i did it.
Also the two part epoxy is an option but it doesnt play nice underwater. You NEED superglue to adhere anything to it in or out of the water. It does have its place though. Putting too much 2 part epoxy in a closed ecosystem may not be the best option to be honest if trying to aqua scape the whole tank. It gives off a pretty strong odor as it chemically bonds with eachother.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

I wouldn’t glue it. You might need to move rock around some day to catch a sick fish. As long as the rocks are stacked sturdily they won’t come crashing down.

 

[fcmatt]

Two part stick expoy. Super glue where useful. Combine both for fun and glory. Take it out and do what you need. As long as you are only keeping pieces out for an hour or so you will be just fine. You can keep it out longer but you do reach a point of harming the coral attached. Where coral is attached move quicker.

Wont hurt a thing.

When looking at your scape I would do it in sections and then have the heavy bonded pieces lock somehow by weight.

Take more pics to get it back the way you want but that never seems to work out. It is like a jig saw puzzle when looking for places to bind securely.

Rock easily breaks apart with gentle force when the time comes

 

[boacvh]

Do you have any bulldozing CUC? If yes, I would just epoxy the ones that look/feel unstable.

 

[Hop2jr]

Thanks guys and gals for all the input. Another question is do y’all glue your coral to the rock or just try an stick it in a hole? An on or off frag plug?

 

[boacvh]

Thanks guys and gals for all the input. Another question is do y’all glue your coral to the rock or just try an stick it in a hole? An on or off frag plug?

I have been doing both. If I can jam the frag or rock in a crevice I do that. If not, I epoxy those with the purple reef epoxy. Otherwise my snails and my fighting conches leave a trail of frags everywhere

 

[Flippers4pups]

I've drilled my rock and used fiberglass rod to keep rock stable.

1/4 masonry bit and fiberglass driveway markers from the big box hardware stores. Cut the rod to the length you need. Works well and allows you to change your rock structures if needed down the road.
Fiberglass rod works well with tall structures as acrylic rod may bend overtime.

My current tank I did this and used quikrete hydraulic cement to glue them together. Best to do this when using dry rock before getting the tank wet. Sets up rock hard, doesn't effect your water parameters. Rock will break before the cement.

 

[Hop2jr]

I here yah on the trail of frags! I have a turbo snail that is 1.5 inches around an he is a wrecking bal. To night did a water change pulled my rock and made the base stable this is new layout with very little movement nothing will fall now. Here is before and after pictures.

 

[jcricket]

oops, wrong thread, sorry

 

[Txplicit]

If you're talking about aquascape, you can use a putty and ce superglue combination. It isn't extremely strong, but strong enough to prevent toppling over should a blenny, shrimp, go y, or crab shirts too much sand at the base of your structure.

If you're talking about frags, I putty/ce glue them too. Learned my lesson when I fought a jf favia, had the perfect place set just to wake up and see it upside down in the sand because lawn mower blenny was trying to scrap algae under it.

Best thing is, you can move the aquascape for cleaning if you need to. I know I have to remove rocks so I can scrub algae or dinos off of rock once or twice.

 

[Worthy1]

+1 for not worrying about glueing. I never did as you never know what you may need to move/remove. You will also find that rocks will naturally fuse themselves together over time, sure its not a permanent fusing but enough to keep things together.

If i had a bare bottom tank maybe i might be a bit more cautious...