Securing Rockscape

[Grimreaperz]

If the rock is dry its no problem.

But if you try to use putty with wet/live rock you are going to have a tough time unless you use lots of superglue gel in addition to the putty.

Most aquarium putty has a very very hard time sticking to wet rock.

I bought some JB weld quick curing friction putty to kill some vermitid snails (have them spreading need to keep them in check as I have no live stock) and it seems to work for that but I haven't actually tried it for rocks yet. Thanks for the heads up. Might need to make some minor adjustments then.

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[BigEZ77]

I only did the large pieces for height.

View attachment 352279

Very nice scape!

I didn't secure any rock, I did spend days moving every piece around until they all fit like a jigsaw puzzle...but I definitely think my scape could have been more creative if I had used some putty. Especially after seeing some of those big beautiful arches that some have.

 

[Flippers4pups]

i was surprised with how fast it set. couple times i added a little more water to loosen it up a bit so i could continue working with it.

maybe that was my problem? perhaps i should have thrown it out and mixed a new batch rather than trying to re-wet the mix.

as a general fyi, i didn't secure my entire rock structure together. rather i affixed small groups of rock to each other to make stable building blocks, then stacked them as i wanted in a more secure manner.

i basically just used to cement to bind together 2 - 4 rocks in to a cluster that would stack evenly/securely in the configuration i wanted.

Using the fiberglass rod and the cement is most likely why it worked so well for me. The consistency I was after was almost runny, but just firm enough to fill the gaps. I let it set overnight before going into the tank.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Very nice scape!

I didn't secure any rock, I did spend days moving every piece around until they all fit like a jigsaw puzzle...but I definitely think my scape could have been more creative if I had used some putty. Especially after seeing some of those big beautiful arches that some have.

Thanks. I understand the reason everyone has for being able to change their scapes by not gluing/cementing rock together. But over the years of rock collapses and damage to coral, I was determined to not have that happen again.

I knew that I would change my scape depending on coral and their needs at some point, so I only made the towers on each side permanent.

 

[CStrickland]

Fiberglass and rods is probably the most secure and tank-safe. If I were more confident I would have done that but I was too nervous. I even bought the rods then chickened out lol