How to connect rocks together

Jen0221

Member
I would like to make some arches and over hangs with my rock work. What does everyone use to glue or conect the rocks together so they don't fall? The tank is empty and rock is curing in a tub so I can build in or outside of tank.
 
I have used the following:

drill and use acrylic rods
JW marine weld epoxy
pond foam

I liked pond foam best but its messy but removing the excess foam was fun.
 
What brand foam ? Also how did you clean the excess? I want to make a big arch if the center of my tank to rest on two rock towers. Will only glue the arch together and have it rest on the top of the towers
 
I would drill holes through the rock that will be used as an arch. Slide them onto a fiberglass rod like a shish kabob, then simply place the ends of the rod on top of the two pillars and epoxy the ends of the rod down to the pillars.

All you'll need is a drill and long mason bit, a fiberglass rod from Home Depot and some reef epoxy or equivalent.
 
I just built 4 rock formations in my garage out of dry rock. Initially i used an acrylic rod and epoxy putty and super glue. Later, i used only the super glue and rock dust (came from poking at the rocks to clear out some passages etc). I have large overhangs and stuff with pretty small contact points, but the rocks held themselves up within minutes. I built up the contact points with layers of glue/dust to make them a little larger, but nothing like with epoxy putty.

I think there is 4 or 5 large rocks in each formation and a couple of small ones to tie stuff in.
 
I've seen a lot of videos of people using pond foam and it looks like it works very well YouTube is very helpful
 
The emaco or thorite or whatever its called has been good to me. Really strong but you can break the seams with bone shears/frag shears/
 
I plan to drill rocks and use fiberglass rods to pin most of it together. Also I plan to use a little quikrete hydraulic cement and quikrete acrylic fortifier in a few places as needed.
 
My current aquascape is glued together using pond foam. While it was completed about 10 years ago, it's held together perfectly and those larger sections that were glued together look like a single contiguous formation. If memory serves me, I used beckett brand pond foam or Tetra brand but it's been many years so I can't be sure.

I used live rock which I allowed to sit out and air dry slightly for an hour or two before proceeding. That time also allowed me to match pieces so that I could kind of fit them together so that they would look natural. Once I applied the foam between the pieces of live rock, I allowed the foam a little bit of time to expand and set, after which I cut away the excess using a knife. I covered much of that process in the first page of my build thread and included some good photos of the process. The results were and still are amazing. Especially given the size of my aquascape.
You can check that out below. Just scroll down towards the bottom of the page in the build thread below.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
 
Gorilla glue works well. Foaming expansion really fills in the irregularities and makes a strong bond. Let dry completely before return to the tank.
 
Hey I used foam, epoxy, epoxy putty, lowes hyd. cement, etc. For me nothing works as well and looks as good as Marco Rocks reef cement (unlike lowes it the same color a dry rock). Its super strong, join rocks with it and it will actually break the rock when trying to pull it apart. Only way I will go from now on for the initial landscaping.
 
What brand of pond foam are ppl using?

I have used this in the past:

GREAT STUFF 12 oz. Pond and Stone Insulating Foam Sealant

Bought it at Home Depot, although it is probably available anywhere they sell pond stuff. By the way, Great Stuff brand also makes a foam sealant for general use. Make sure you get the pond stuff or it might not be fish safe.
 
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