is super glue harmful to acros?

[saltySamurai]

I'm new to hard corals. I had a couple of acro frags, sorry don't know what kind they were other than basic / cheap, and they were at the bottom of my tank (20") under 250w 10k lights for a month. they were doing great, so I decided to mount them permanently on some rock towards the bottom (bottom 5" of tank). I used the basic super glue gel - cut the frag off the plug, put some glue on the bottom, stuck to a rock - probably did about 3 times each to build up enough glue that it would stick. on one of the two frags, i put a little bit of glue on the back side of the tissue half way up the frag to help stabilize the position on the rock. about a day later, they both starting bleaching from the bottom; within 12 hours they were both completely bleached. Ideas on what I did wrong!!!

 

[maharsreef]

maybe due to stress. I have never had a prob w/ superglu gel.

 

[flying53brian]

tagging along,

I just had the same problem with one of my corals that were doing real well till I put some crazy glue onto the base and now also bleaching from the bottom up.

 

[jcal]

You probably stressed it so bad trying to build enough glue to stick that it died. Try cutting the frag plug flat and use aquamend to secure it underwater to rocks.

 

[saltySamurai]

I'm a little new to this - what is aquamend?

 

[Chad Vossen]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=aquamend

 

[returnofsid]

What he's referring to is leaving the frag on the frag plug, cutting the "peg" off of the bottom of the frag plug and affixing the plug to your rock. This is less stressful to the coral. However, superglue gel is used my probably 99.9% of reef hobbyists, to do exactly what you did, with no ill effect. Sometimes it doesn't go well, but most of the time, it's just fine.

 

[seminolecpa]

As long as it is cyno acrylate(sp) it is totally harmless from my experience. I have heard that Aquamend and other epoxys can in potentially fry a coral a bit as some heat up as part of the 2-part chemical reaction but never heard any issues with superglue.

 

[tecsavi]

I have used superglue gel for years and it is pretty common for people to use it. I agree with stress as the most likely culprit. The less you handle the frag the better chances you have.

 

[saltySamurai]

is it usual if part (like the bottom) of the frag starts to bleach rapidly that you'll lose the entire frag, or will the bleaching stop after an amount?

 

[tecsavi]

I have seen the tissue recession stop but very rarely. Hopefully yours will e one of those that pull through. Typically I saw this type of ression more often when my frag was less than an inch.

 

[bogg]

I'm new to hard corals. I had a couple of acro frags, sorry don't know what kind they were other than basic / cheap, and they were at the bottom of my tank (20") under 250w 10k lights for a month. they were doing great, so I decided to mount them permanently on some rock towards the bottom (bottom 5" of tank). I used the basic super glue gel - cut the frag off the plug, put some glue on the bottom, stuck to a rock - probably did about 3 times each to build up enough glue that it would stick. on one of the two frags, i put a little bit of glue on the back side of the tissue half way up the frag to help stabilize the position on the rock. about a day later, they both starting bleaching from the bottom; within 12 hours they were both completely bleached. Ideas on what I did wrong!!!

Yes welcome to the joy of keeping colorfull sticks

 

[werdlone]

I doubt it was the superglue gel. how did you hold the pieces to glue them? If you were holding the coral tissue between your fingers with pressure, sometimes that can irritate the tissue and stress them out. And, gluing 3 times sounds like it was a process that involved a lot of "handling" of the frags. I try to use tweezers to hold the frag when I glue to a plug, then use aquamend or other epoxy to glue the plug to the rocks.

My vote...stressed out coral. Not the glue.

 

[syedjilani]

I just received my order of AquaPharm Rock Bonder (Underwater Epoxy Putty), sorry to say it is wrong what they are claiming for this product. Below are their comments to sale this produce:

Rock Bonder is versatile underwater epoxy putty which adhere to and will seal or bond live rock, stony corals and clams in the aquarium.
It is very responsive to water and will also bond any of the following to itself or to any of the others - wood, brick, metals, concrete, plastics, glass etc, making it an excellent adhesive.

No work at all and melt down in the water. I just spoiled my money on this product.

Any suggestion from anyone about this product.

I saw reefers are using this kind of product very safe and sound. Any suggestions?

 

[redfishsc]

If you mix/knead these putties while under water, they will potentially melt down. You should wet your fingers with tank water, knead them out of the tank until they turn white and are totally mixed, and go from there.


NONE of the underwater epoxy putties I've used were all that good at bonding anything to anything in a tank (ie, wet). They do work work fine on dry rock though.

If you put a dab of superglue onto the putty, it works wonders, works very well as a "free-form frag plug". The superglue tends to stick to live rock better.

 

[saltySamurai]

in answer to werdlone, while I tried to be gentle with the frag, yes, attempting 3 times to glues does mean that I held the frag with between my fingers and was concerned about how this might affect it. sounds likely that this certainly did not help things...

 

[Amphiprion]

If you mix/knead these putties while under water, they will potentially melt down. You should wet your fingers with tank water, knead them out of the tank until they turn white and are totally mixed, and go from there.


NONE of the underwater epoxy putties I've used were all that good at bonding anything to anything in a tank (ie, wet). They do work work fine on dry rock though.

If you put a dab of superglue onto the putty, it works wonders, works very well as a "free-form frag plug". The superglue tends to stick to live rock better.

This is what I do and I consider it to be superior to either option alone, IME. It allow you to use less super glue and epoxy and it gives the epoxy some adhesiveness. In addition, be sure to force the epoxy into crevices as you are mounting anything. It is better suited for anchoring to something after curing than it is adhering to anything.

 

[Phyto]

Been using Superglue gel (cyanoacrylate) for 7 years. Works for me.

 

[saltn07]

I have never had a problem since I started using the gel, the liquid was a pain to use and defiantly stressed some corals to death trying to get them to stick...

 

[usfpaul82]

I find that superglue gel alone will hold a cut off frag plug down. I have cut down numerous ORA plugs to the fatter section of the plug and used a good amount of super glue gel and stuck it straight onto a rock underwater. No epoxy needed. Just need to turn off your flow and hold it there for a few minutes. Holds strong and then the acro encrusts all the way down to the rock.