Superglue and only superglue to aquascape?

[Ribo15]

Hey guys, I have made my first section of an Aquascape for my tank. I used the super thick gel to get the initial bond let it dry for 24 hours then went over the thin areas and built them up with either sand and thin or baking soda and thin if it wouldn’t be visible. My question is does anyone have any real world experience of using this to bond and having it sit in the saltwater or am I bound to have this fall apart? It seems incredibly strong but I’m just not sure yet. Going to start it cycling tonight.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I would 100% reenforce it with emarco. It might hold until water soaks up in the rock. Looks cool though.

 

[Ribo15]

Will the water break down the glue? Is that what you mean? And thanks! Better view here

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

The rocks just tend to take on water and swell a tad. The outside can become more brittle which is where the glue factures. I have a few pieces that after they broke off I just reglued but not large branches.

 

[ying yang]

New to reefs but i made my aquascape few months ago and my research i did from watching brs and tidal gardens youtube videos on nsa aquascaping was to use ultra thin superglue with a low viscosity ( like water) rather than using gel superglue as get a stronger bond.and with large rocks or overhangs and etc etc it better.i did think superglue ( ultra thin) be strong enough but i decided to get aqua forest mortar to go over the joints to be extra sure and was only £9.99 for 1.5 kg bag so needed 2 for 2 large aquascapes. And one the structures did fall apart in my hands when just had glue on it,but think this was due to 1 extra piece of finger branching coral ( had gritty stuff on outside of if like sand) so dont think the glue made good contact with it and i glued it in centre of one my structures so ended up in 30 pieces on the floor lol.
So no actual experience with rocks with only glue in saltwater tank but because you used gel superglue and not ultra thin if i was you i would get some cheap aquarium safe mortar and go over the joints for extra piece of mind but your choice off course ^_^

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

New to reefs but i made my aquascape few months ago and my research i did from watching brs and tidal gardens youtube videos on nsa aquascaping was to use ultra thin superglue with a low viscosity ( like water) rather than using gel superglue as get a stronger bond.and with large rocks or overhangs and etc etc it better.i did think superglue ( ultra thin) be strong enough but i decided to get aqua forest mortar to go over the joints to be extra sure and was only £9.99 for 1.5 kg bag so needed 2 for 2 large aquascapes. And one the structures did fall apart in my hands when just had glue on it,but think this was due to 1 extra piece of finger branching coral ( had gritty stuff on outside of if like sand) so dont think the glue made good contact with it and i glued it in centre of one my structures so ended up in 30 pieces on the floor lol.
So no actual experience with rocks with only glue in saltwater tank but because you used gel superglue and not ultra thin if i was you i would get some cheap aquarium safe mortar and go over the joints for extra piece of mind but your choice off course ^_^

Interesting to hear someone pro ultra thin as I have always used ultra thick... Any source as I know BRS was recommending ultra thick in the NSA video.

 

[Ribo15]

I did both. I used the thick to get the initial hold then the thin over top to finish it off. It’s so strong I can pick it up from either wing on the ends of it. And it’s about 30lbs. Really was hoping to get away from using ugly macro but maybe I’ll just start it cycling now and then add some Nyos cement after to beef it up

 

[Ribo15]

I can’t say enough good things about the thick super glue and the insta set. Made that structure in maybe hour and half.

 

[ying yang]

Just bare in mind till your corals grow into bigger colonies ( prezume you be adding corals) that fish like hiding spaces to chill out or hide from more dominant/ agressive fish and places for sleep time etc.
Personally i made a nsa but as bought my dry rock 5 years ago and it so hard to get rock thats ideal to make nsa aquascapes i did best i could with what i had.could smashed the rock i had which was big roundish boulders into straight bits to make extended arms/ overhangs if makes sense but would of had to much waste so decided anyway fish need swim throughs and caves so put caves in mune at the base and lots swim throughs.i think mine more of what they call a " bommie" rather than a nsa.but just a thought for you to think about if you making more structures or can add a cave on somewhere if decided thats what you want to do and what you done so far looks cool btw

 

[Ribo15]

Yeah it’s going into an 8’ tank and that structure is about 28” wide. The tank right now has a lot of shelf rock and isn’t “scaped” so it’s full of hiding spots. I’m going to add this section of more NSA style and see how I and the inhabitants like it. Then will decide where I go from there.

 

[KStatefan]

Tidal Gardens used the @Glue Masters ultra thin which is what I used also but i did reinforce with emarco on the under side.

 

[ying yang]

Yeah i watched the brs nsa aquascaping video and think ryan used/ recommended the gel type glue just to get the rocks to hold as then after he going to mortar it.but in video above from tidal gardens after about 3 minutes into video i think it is they mention about they found best to use ultra thin glue as holds better and one manufacturers ultra thin is different to another manufacturers ultra thin so try find out the viscosity of the glue.im in england and looked all over websites trying find viscosity rating of glues but couldnt find anywhere so just bought 2 x 50 ml pots as a tester but it did the job but couldn't find a b8g bottle anywhere.was like a world shortage on superglue with lots places out of stock which gets mentioned in video above also

 

[ying yang]

Couldnt bloody get 1 large glue anywhere so had to buy 8 smaller ones at £ 6.99 a pot and p and p so a £16 for 2 then £31 then £ 31 so spent £ 78 in glue lol which is about $70 roughly which wasnt happy about but 4 of them glue was wasted as structure fell apart in my hands because one certain rock that was gritty and glue just didnt take at all

 

[N3mo]

I used superglue and baking soda for the main bond and then used aquaforest stonefix to fill in the gaps.

 

[ying yang]

If you watch from 22 minutes and onwards for minute or so he says doesnt think glue will hold on its own so glue just to get structures made quick then mortar afterwards so as he more experienced than me so did it how he did but didnt use the accelerator as knew with buying small 50ml pots glue would be expensive enough then took tidal gardens tip of ultra thin then mortared after and as mortar so cheap i thought dont want risk some rocks falling off after few months or a year and possible smashing glass etc so thought best play it safe ha ha ^_^

 

[ReefBeta]

I built my main structure with super glue then reinforce with cement. But I also built several smaller structures like fish caves with just super glue because I was too lazy to bring out the cement. They're still pretty strong. I moved them around couple times and they seem to hold pretty well. They have been in the tank for like 6 months, haven't seen the super glue only bound break by itself yet.

If I what to break super glue only bound, I can use a hammer to gently knock on it and the bound will break. If you cement it, you will more likely to break the rock than the bound.

 

[JonCherba]

Tidal Gardens also used fine sand in the joints with the thin CA, they would add sand to the joint and soaked the sand with the tin CA. it built up a good looking joint. I was planning on using this method to do my scaping.

 

[sawdonkey]

I built my aquascape completely underwater and I’ve done it three times. I plumbers epoxy with superglue on both sides to make it stick. It ain’t easy, but it works and has held up for years.

 

[Proteus Meep]

We have known in the aquatic hobby for a long time that superglue becomes brittle over time underwater, yet it seems that some things in the hobby have to be re learned over and over, an Aquascape stuck entirely with superglue with no other form of reinforcement at some point will begin to crack apart this is because super glue degrades in water as it is only water resistant and not water proof, there are even certain specialist superglue's that have things like Phthalic Anhydride added to reduce and slow the degrading effect water has on it (easily googled to verify)

I read that super glue in testing reduces in strength underwater to 80% after just a few hundred hours so as the weeks and months go by it gets weaker and more brittle

Using this method is useful for quickly building an Aquascape but it must be reinforced with putty or cement, the more gravity defying the scape is, the sooner it will have a disastrous failure

A lot of Reefers dont run a tank long enough for it to become of concern before upgrading, rescaping etc...it would be more the type of reefer who sets a tank up and is happy with it for a couple of years or longer that would need to be very wary of this technique

The problem is a few of the bigger names in the hobby make videos of this quick assembly technique so the newer generation of Reefers think it is perfectly safe, but the bigger names themselves sadly have fallen into the trap of "those that fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it"

 

[Ribo15]

Thank you for the very insightful reply! I will heed the warning and be sure to brace it up with cement. I plan on keeping my aqua scape for years to come and don’t want it to fall apart one day with some nice colonies on it.