Question about aquascaping

[Nirvana]

I am moving my nano 24g to a Red Sea Max and i want to redo my aquascaping. I heard the best thing to do is to super glue the pieces. Now if i superglue the pieces will it affect the tank and also can i move the aquadscaping around later?

 

[TGBrown]

What I did in my Aquapod 12 was to use superglue gel and Aquamend epoxy (from Home Depot) to join my LR together. I'd take the 2 pieces of rock I wanted to attach, put a ball of epoxy in between them and make note of where the epoxy touched the rocks. I then coated those areas with superglue gel, and pressed the epoxy in place. The point is to have the superglue attach the rock to the epoxy, and to have the epoxy take up the irregular free space. I found that it worked very well.

In my case, I made one base out of 6 or 7 pieces of LR, and placed some other moveable pieces on this base. That way, I can customize as I need. You could also make a 2 or 3 piece base that can be easier to get in and out of the tank.

I don't think this would be so permanent that you wouldn't be able to disassemble it if you wanted to down the road.

The only thing you may want to do is turn off your skimmer if you have one. I don't have a skimmer, but I read that the epoxy will make the skimmer go nuts. Other than that, everything I've read and my own experience shows it to be safe.

 

[Illuminati]

Great advice by TGBrown.

I use aquamend to mount my LPS and it can be broken apart just by your hands down the road.

 

[Nirvana]

How long does the skimmer have to be off for

 

[cherubfish pair]

Never thought of using epoxy in combination with superglue.

What shape are your rocks piled? I read that a pyramid shape is not good.

 

[drjuice28]

when i had fresh epoxy in there, my skimmer foamed like crazy for about 4 hours. I turned it off for a bit, then just emptied the collection cup every 10 minutes like 4 times in a row. After that, it was back to normal. No big deal really.

 

[SugarFox03]

So, using the epoxy in the tank is ok? Would it be safe to use in a tank that holds corals/fish? I'm doing a tank transfer next weekend, and like the idea of having the LR bonded together for more stability. I'm moving everything from my 24g AquaPod to a 26g bowfront. How long does it take to dry, and how soon after can I add the livestock?

Thanks

 

[Illuminati]

It's 100% sagfe on corals and fish.

Aquamend is a 2 part epoxy, found only at Home Depot in the paint department.

It's 2 parts, blue outer ring and white inside, you tear off a clump of both blue and white and mix it with damp fingers and it mixes to pure white.
It cures underwater and takes just a matter of minutes to cure and get fairly hard, hard enough you cannot mold it or change the shape.

You can see it here, I mount my LPS to it. This was recently done, over time algae forms on it and will cover it up

Or you can order some coraline colored epoxy that cures to a brown color for 5 times the cost of this (Aquamend is $3, other is $13ish).

 

[Nirvana]

But will there be a gap between the LR with this stuff showing or will it seal totaly so you just see one rock on top of another without a big clump of epoxy

 

[TGBrown]

You can mold the epoxy, and shape it to make it blend in for a smooth transition from one rock to the next. It will be white until it gets covered with algae, as colinadam stated. If you work it enough, you can get it to blend in texture pretty well. For example, while it's still soft, lightly press a small piece of LR onto the epoxy and it will show that texture. It's basically up to how much time you put into it, but you only have 15 or 20 minutes until it starts to harden too much.