Gluing rocks?

seecrabrun

seecrabrun

Active Member
I've just received a shipment of more reef saver dry rock and I'm going to be doing some new aquascaping in both of my tanks.

Currently nothing is glued or attached as all the rocks are large and the formation is small and on the sandbed. Now I want to build up a little.

I'm wondering, how do I attach my dry rock to my live rock without killing my live rock in the process?
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Zip ties and apoxy sculpt,...

Drill holes in the Rock if you need to and then zip tie it together. You could use apoxy to cover the zip ties and texture it to blend it in,...

If you are attaching base rock only and have a week or so for it to cure, you could use aquarium safe silicone and zip ties. Apoxy sculpt though can blend in really nicely over time and silicone is mainly used on dry rock in places where you won't see it. (Such as stacking)

Apoxy will make your skimmer go nuts. Water changes will help it get back to normal.

We just talked a bit about that on a different thread on here.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Oh, some people have been known to drill their rocks and build a base either out of acrylic of PVC and use PVC or acrylic rods to help support it.

Anyways, just throwing around some ideas.
 
seecrabrun

seecrabrun

Active Member
If the pieces I have puzzle together really well, but just need some stability. Can I use the epoxy? Do I have to drill things?
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Epoxy will fill in the gaps and make it even more stable.

If they fit well together, you may not need anything at all,...
 
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
The ones that rock slightly try wiggling them a little and see if they lock in. Just remember that if you use epoxy they're a biotch to get apart if you need to redesign.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
In all the years I have kept tanks, I have never had to glue my rocks.... Silverado is right, work them together until they kind of lock, once you can wiggle them and they don't fall, do the next one and build the rock work mid way up the tank.

If you are using dry rock, and you want to just be creative to make columns or something, black pond foam is great, you can trim and shape it with a knife, and when you want to, just tear it apart (no screwdriver or hammer needed), the coralline algae grows on plastic faster then anything else, it will become invisible in no time.
 
seecrabrun

seecrabrun

Active Member
I thought any wiggle was bad? None of my rocks are going to fall unless something strong pushes them, but everyone keeps saying stacked rocks need to be secured.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Here is a pic of my 90g tank back in 2005-2006. All the rock was stacked and not secured. It just fit well together.

 
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