Maco aquascape bonding, I have my planned method, what's your

[ShakeyGizzard]

Building my marco rock aquascape, Have my design ideas in hand. I have already broken up some of the large pieces of rock to more manageable pieces. my plan is to use E marco mortar as main bonding. Minimal super glue between pieces as necessary. what i mean by that is, from the first few pieces off of the foundation i will use mortar between them with minimal super glue and small pieces (real small) that help blend the joints as one, held in place with supper glue as the mortar dries. I know it will be a hassle over just using the gel supper glue then adding the mortar around the edges. But I want the best bond possible. On a last thought, If you have read my thread this far. I have the confidence that I can build what ever style aquascape I can imagine or want to duplicate. But it still leaves me undecided on what I want to do. Even after looking at hundreds of aquascapes.

 

[Johnd651]

Build it dry and rebuild if you don't like it.

 

[JNalley]

Umm, there's a better method using just superglue, not sure if you've seen it, but the bond is crazy strong:



If you want to then put a thin layer of mortar over the joints, you can, but it's up to you...

 

[RockRash]

I just finished my aquascape using the thick BRS glue and E Marco 400. It came out nice but next time I'm going to use the thin glue and sand method to hide my joints. I wasn't a fan of the Marco 400 its plenty strong, just hard to work with. I had best results mixing wet and giving it 3 or 4 days to dry before moving the rock work.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I just finished my aquascape using the thick BRS glue and E Marco 400. It came out nice but next time I'm going to use the thin glue and sand method to hide my joints. I wasn't a fan of the Marco 400 its plenty strong, just hard to work with. I had best results mixing wet and giving it 3 or 4 days to dry before moving the rock work.

saving all the powder you produce when breaking up and working with the rock is a must, all joints look best when covered with the watery glue and powder. I'm used to working with mortars for tile and mud for sheet rock. I use the 45 min. "hot" mud for sheet rock, it chemically hardens so your wait time for drying is minimal.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Umm, there's a better method using just superglue, not sure if you've seen it, but the bond is crazy strong:



If you want to then put a thin layer of mortar over the joints, you can, but it's up to you...

I'm not a big fan of using the super glue as the main bond for the joints. The mortar will fill the obvious voids where the rock sections come together, the mortar can be textured before it dries and then after drying watery glue and powder will make it seamless.

 

[JNalley]

I'm not a big fan of using the super glue as the main bond for the joints. The mortar will fill the obvious voids where the rock sections come together, the mortar can be textured before it dries and then after drying watery glue and powder will make it seamless.

Yep, there are just different ways of achieving the same thing. The second video shows you just how strong that method is, though; he lifts an entire ~40lb section by 1 rock (it's a chain of 6 or more) about 10 minutes after he finishes gluing in the last piece... But to each their own, if you're more comfortable this way, do it up

 

[exnisstech]

I used super glue with accelerator to get a quick bond then filled the joints in with e Marco 400. They gave a new 400 out now that matches their rock pretty darn good. I started with some left over grey mortar that doesn't look so well. I don't worry about trying to hide all of the joints. If all goes according to plans the rock will get covered with coral and algae and not be visible for too long.

 

[exnisstech]

Sorry if your already aware of this. This is an example of the old grey Marco 400 joints

I wasn't aware they had a new natural color mortar or I wouldn't have even used the grey. This is caribsea rock not Marco but the mortar is still a pretty close match I think.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Sorry if your already aware of this. This is an example of the old grey Marco 400 joints

I wasn't aware they had a new natural color mortar or I wouldn't have even used the grey. This is caribsea rock not Marco but the mortar is still a pretty close match I think.

I use the natural E marco

 

[exnisstech]

I use the natural E marco

Ya I didn't even know the natural was available until I ran out of the grey that I already had lol.

 

[Ziggy17]

I used Marco and then ultra thin super glue with Marco dust and accelerator spray , and can’t see a single joint and was fast and strong. If I was going to use PVC, then I would use mortar or epoxy, but for rock on rock mending, the sand thin glue method is perfect.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I used Marco and then ultra thin super glue with Marco dust and accelerator spray , and can’t see a single joint and was fast and strong. If I was going to use PVC, then I would use mortar or epoxy, but for rock on rock mending, the sand thin glue method is perfect.

probably so, but since we don't have tests that show durability after 2 to 3 years, I'm sticking with the mortar