Does epoxy last in saltwater aquarium?

[Levinson]

What might be the best way to stick some rubble (crushed coral skeleton bits) to an acrylic surface?

I'm thinking of making an upflow algae scrubber and wanted to make my own rough screen instead of the typical plastic screen.
The initial idea was to smash the coral skeletons I have lying around into bits and use two-part epoxy to stick the rubble onto a roughed up acrylic board.
Then I read in some forum that two-part epoxy will break down in saltwater tank over time. Is this true? I did a bit of research but could not find if the epoxy will last in saltwater aquarium or not.

If two-part epoxy is no good, is there anything else I could use?

I thought about super glue but dunno how I would go on about sticking many little things onto a surface.
How about one of those underwater epoxy stick thing for aquarium use? I have no experience with it but it didn't look like it would be for my application.
Another idea was to use frag tiles but again, I need to glue them together to make the size I want and also glue it only the acrylic surface. If epoxy is no good, I dunno what to use to glue them.

 

[Idaho Lone Wolf]

I have used pond foam in my 100 gal (livestock tank) sump and it has lasted for 10 years so far. You can get pond foam on the internet from any place carrying pond supplies.

 

[Spieg]

Won't a rubble surface be difficult to remove algae from? I think that's why plastic screens are so popular.

 

[Scoob]

I use the 2 part epoxy

 

[Levinson]

I have used pond foam in my 100 gal (livestock tank) sump and it has lasted for 10 years so far. You can get pond foam on the internet from any place carrying pond supplies.

Thanks for the input. Pond foam huh? Didn't know there was such a thing! Now I gotta find what it's called locally.

Won't a rubble surface be difficult to remove algae from? I think that's why plastic screens are so popular.

I've used the plastic screen for the waterfall ATS before and it worked well but when I clean it I just pulled some chunk of the algae out with hand instead of scrapping them off clean so I thought it wouldn't really matter.

I use the 2 part epoxy

I presume you've had no issue with the two part epoxy?

 

[The_Skrimp]

For what it’s worth, JB water weld 2 part epoxy is reef safe. I’ve used it to glue parts of my rock scape and glue down frags with no problems.

 

[Levinson]

For what it’s worth, JB water weld 2 part epoxy is reef safe. I’ve used it to glue parts of my rock scape and glue down frags with no problems.

Thanks Skrimp, glad to hear they don't really fall apart.

 

[DSEKULA]

The epoxy won't really fall apart ime it lasts decently but won't support things like gravity defying ledges over time. I understand your thoughts on the screens but am thinking that using rubble will make the ats quite a pain to clean. Here's the ats I built, I used screens and just roughed them up with some sand paper.

 

[theatrus]

Two part epoxy when cured is fine. Some plastics will deteriorate in UV or strong violet light, so depending on the application you may need to select a colored or UV stable product.

 

[Levinson]

Thank you all for the valuable input!

 

[SeaJay]

You could lay it in a bed of silicone.

 

[lagoon360]

You could lay it in a bed of silicone.

I did something similar for my tank. The sand bed is very shallow in front and I didn't want the bottom visible so I smeared silicone down and sprinkled sand over it. It's been 3 years and it seems to be holding up. And sanding/roughing the bottom first (assuming it's plastic) would probably help.