DryLok Fast Plug for aquascaping

[mmittlesteadt]

I have read every single thing that has come up doing extensive searches (here and on Google) and I have yet to find a definitive answer to using DryLok Fast Plug hydraulic cement to glue rock sections together for my aquascaping.

Lots of people point to Marco Rock and their cement, but since there is no MSDS sheet I can find on their product, I do not know what the difference is between their product and other hydraulic cements.

Some swear by the DryLok and others say don't use it. My friend at my LFS said he uses it on his tanks all the time and has never had a problem with it contaminating any of his many tank builds over the years, nor affecting pH to any noticeable degree.

What is the general consensus on it here? I'm not going to make rock work out of it, only connect rocks together so it's use will be minimal.

 

[Reef Frog]

I've used it FO non aquarium uses. It's quite caustic when new and is a skin irritant. Not sure after it cures.

If you're leery, how about using the fiberglass rod method? No chance of contamination and you can take it apart easily if you want to or have to (like when you have to catch a fish)?

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I've used it FO non aquarium uses. It's quite caustic when new and is a skin irritant. Not sure after it cures.

If you're leery, how about using the fiberglass rod method? No chance of contamination and you can take it apart easily if you want to or have to (like when you have to catch a fish)?

I'm going to use rods, but because of how I want to aquascape I need certain rocks to stay where I put them because rods alone will not suffice.

This is only for a 40GBrdr tank and the rockwork will not be extensive nor bulky, but rather open with shelves. I'm still planning it out and the rods are part of the plan.

Everything I've read and heard from people who have actually used it is that after it cures it poses no problems in a tank. The only thing I've read where someone said not to, was from people who did NOT actually use it and were speculating as to potential problems from it's use.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has used it in reef tanks and found that it caused issues. That I have yet to read about.

Which is why I brought up the Marco Rock stuff. What is it they are using in their product that makes it cure so quick but is reef safe that the DryLok does not? Just curious. I want to do this the right way and make sure it is safe for my future inhabitants, but unless there is something to back up that it is not reef safe (from real world use) or someone can explain the Marco mix that differentiates it, I'm inclined to use it.

 

[Reef Frog]

Hope you hear from someone with first hand experience. The threads I've read of successful artificial rock used standard cement and sometimes rubble & was cured in SW, not hydraulic cement. Just curious - why wouldn't a good epoxy (not the putty for mounting frags) work for your application?

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Hope you hear from someone with first hand experience. The threads I've read of successful artificial rock used standard cement and sometimes rubble & was cured in SW, not hydraulic cement. Just curious - why wouldn't a good epoxy (not the putty for mounting frags) work for your application?

Well yeah the epoxy might. But everything I've found comes in such small quantities. I'm not just looking to put a dab on one rock and just "glue" it to another. I want some flow to the rockwork so it looks more natural. Not a lot, but enough that just kind of rules out epoxy.

I have one friend who has used DryLok for years doing exactly what I want to do and he's been keeping reefs for years and it has never caused any issues of any kind. That isn't proof, but more anectdotal evidence. I've read of countless others using it for the same reasons and they also have not had any issues.

I've only read warnings from people who are worried, but have never actually used it.

And I still have not read one single thing about this Marco product, specifically the E Marco 400. Do they use some secret magic formula nobody else knows about? Or is it basically the same stuff, but rebranded because they know for certain it causes no problems in reef tanks? I don't know, so I'm hoping with all the resources of this forum that someone/anyone knows for sure.

It's not like I'm trying to sidestep using the Marco product, but it seems odd that it is the ONLY commercially available product that is like quick set cement yet reef safe. I'm sure it's a proprietary secret, otherwise everyone would just use DryLok as it's far cheaper and more readily available.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Here's the same stuff being used that I found in another thread, Reef Ceramics...

Here's one of the posts by Mr. Wilson from that thread...

"Even if you stick with ceramic prefab panels, shotcrete is a useful tool to join the seams.

I use a polymer modified, quick-setting concrete product by Quikrete, called "Quikwall". King cement products makes a similar one called "Plugtite", and Thora makes one called "Thorite". It's certified for use in wells and cisterns, so it's safe for aquarium use. It sets up in 2-5 minutes so you have to work fast and do small areas at a time. It cures rapidly, so there's no significant PH shift.

You can make larger "shelves" for corals if you do a second coat. I use lag bolts to make faux fossils and a machine screw to make holes for attaching corals. You can have pressure fit plug and play coral anchors with 1/8" acrylic rods, or you can imbed plastic nuts in the cement and affix a corresponding bolt to the coral. Once you get a feel for it, you can let your imagination take over.

I use a 50/50 mix of crushed oyster shell and cement mix. The oyster shell gives it more texture and strength, with less shrinkage/cracking. I find that aragonite isn't cost effective and gives a speckled white look. Oyster shell is nice medium grey. You can pick up crushed oyster shell cheap from a farm supply store as a calcium supplement for birds.

Here's a full tank shot of the tank in the previous post."

This is a 600 gallon tank I recently completed. I use the shotcrete mix to bond live rock together as well. I get diatoms on the wall for about 6 weeks.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I purchased a bunch of dry rock (actually reef safe skeleton, not "rock" as it were). I bought a masonry blade for my table saw as I cut one piece with my regular wood saw blade and it went through it like nothing, but I don't want to dull the blade.

I also bought some DryLok Fast Plug and will be putting together my rockscape with it. Since I do not have my tank set up yet and it will need to cycle anyway (so I have plenty of time) I will do some testing as to the effectiveness and safety of the DryLok and report back.

 

[orly20]

I purchased a bunch of dry rock (actually reef safe skeleton, not "rock" as it were). I bought a masonry blade for my table saw as I cut one piece with my regular wood saw blade and it went through it like nothing, but I don't want to dull the blade.

I also bought some DryLok Fast Plug and will be putting together my rockscape with it. Since I do not have my tank set up yet and it will need to cycle anyway (so I have plenty of time) I will do some testing as to the effectiveness and safety of the DryLok and report back.

So how did this work for you?

 

[ScienceRulez]

Dry Lock is a hydraulic cement, meaning it hardens in water. I have personally used the stuff and it gets quite warm and is caustic when it's wet.

The tank tech before me used it to make some "living rock" and before I realized it and eventually eliminated it, I was having huge problems with nitrate and phosphorus levels.

 

[CStrickland]

hyrdolic cement is just a special kind of cement with extra stuff to make it set really fast even when it's in a wet place like if you have a leaking crack in a basement wall. Since those functions aren't required for most aquascaping applications (you are going to let it cure before you get it wet, obvi) the reluctance to use it is a "better safe than sorry" type of thing.

It's also a confusing term. I'm not a profesh cementer or anything, but here's how I understand it. It's better to think in terms of concrete. The "cement" is the glue that holds the crete together, but it isn't very strong, it's kind of brittle. Also in the crete is sand to give it body, and gravel to give it structure. You use different ratios of the three for diff jobs. To make a piece of sidewalk, or a boulder, you need more structure and body so it's higher in gravel and sand with just enough cement to hold those together. That makes the strongest boulder. For in between bricks on a hous you use a mortar mix with no gravel, more sand. That makes a mix that fits well between brick (which give the body of the wall) but it's still just enough cement to hold it together.

For a fish tank, I would think you want something in between, since the gaps are more than you would use between bricks, but you don't need the full structure of having large gravel. The more gravel the more weight the thing can bear, and the less brittle the joint is.

Hydraulic cement isn't really "cement" in the sense that it does have sand mixed in already, it's more like a premixed mortar-type patching product. Also, regular (Portland) cement is hydraulic in the sense that it doesn't set because it dries out, rather it has a reaction with the water to get hard. But it doesn't have the sand mixed in ahead of time so it's cheaper, and you can mix it to the consistency you need using aragonite sand instead of (presumably) silica.

 

[MondoBongo]

i used quikrete hydraulic cement to do my aquascape.

no issues with the reef, but less than 6 months in and a lot of it has just turned to mush and is falling apart. i almost lost one side of my aquascape due to it crumbling.

i would use something different.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I'm going on close to a year and everything is perfect, and all the life is thriving. I don't see any issues with it at all.