Reef safe epoxy - local sources?

[EricGRIT]

Hey all, I'm in the process of making a foam wall background and wasn't able to get the sand to stick to the foam as well as I would have liked without epoxy. So, now I have to find some epoxy to use on the foam.

I've looked through threads and there are many opinions and many are old, so I thought I would ask here. Anyone know of a good epoxy I can find locally (HD, Lowes, etc) that is reef safe?

Thanks!

 

[m0nkie]

I used HD Epoxy stick.. Worked fine. Make sure you let it cure dry for awhile. I didn't.. it made my skimmer go nuts. Had to do large WC for skimmer to work again

 

[EricGRIT]

Thanks for the input, though I should have been more specific. I'm looking for a liquid epoxy that you could spread out over the exposed foam and then sprinkle sand over top of that.

 

[EricGRIT]

In case anyone was following along, I finished up my rock wall. Since a confirmed reef-safe 2-part epoxy was hard to come by locally, I opted to use standard Gorilla Glue to attach the sand to the foam.

Overall, it worked very well. The only bad thing was that the Gorilla glue expanded quite a bit - it was expected but still would have liked a non-expanding glue. In any case, it looks absolutely amazing. I made sure to put the Gorilla glue on very thin so as to minimize the expansion, which worked pretty well. Then, I just poured sand over the whole thing, like 1/4" of it. Checked on it every 20 mins or so and added sand to any parts that may have expanded.

I was afraid of the orange tint from Gorilla glue, but since I absolutely covered it in sand it looks pretty much like actual rock/sand. Also, I left the panels out in the sun all day Sat and they continued to cure Sunday - so probably ~36 hours of curing total. Fish seem unaffected, so I think I let it cure long enough (bottle states 24 hours for full cure).

Pics to come in a build thread for my 180gal upgrade.

 

[Pife]

Are you sure gorilla glue is reef safe? I would have just used reef safe silicone.

 

[rustyjames]

I used regular Gorilla Glue for my back wall. Once cured it's safe.

 

[EricGRIT]

I used regular Gorilla Glue for my back wall. Once cured it's safe.

Edit*: This one is more pointed at Pife, I'm agreeing with you and I think I even used one of your old posts in my decision making if I remember correctly.



I spent too much time (only because I'm in the middle of moving and other projects - can never spend too much time being safe) researching different glues/epoxies. Multiple examples of Gorilla Glue being reef safe *once cured* and someone even said they contacted the manufacturer and they confirmed that it is inert once fully cured. Seeing as how I was using a very thin, brushed on coat of glue... I went for it.

I would definitely recommend going with a confirmed reef-safe 2-part epoxy for anyone else just because it will dry clear and not expand, but I was on a time crunch. I had been told that the sand would stick to the waterfall foam if I applied when the foam was drying (this is incorrect, only a little bit of the sand actually stuck).

In the end, I'm very happy with the results!

 

[Reefenstein]

really, any epoxy, once cured is reef safe. 2 part or stick.