Wet rock scape help

[BContos]

Planning to upgrade my 70 to a 150 and I am obsessed with KP Aquacultered Rock. I’ve used it in 3 tanks and I just can’t seem to get it glued together where it’s strong enough to hold long term. How has anyone successfully done this? I’ve looked all over YouTube but everyone seems to use dry rock to cement together. I’d love to create awesome designs as I want it to be a focal point in the living room. This tank will be a FOWLR predator tank so I love being able to get the encrusting sponges and colors that only LR gets.

There has got to be a way to get the rocks to hold together sturdy enough I don’t have to worry about having a rock slide, leave it out of water with misting for hours or just settling for a basic pile of rocks.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Use reef two part putty, put glue on both sides of putty for immediate sticky and the the putty will harden and it will be very secure. Ive done it with wet rock exactly like that. Just make sure you like it when it hardens bc it is not coming off lol.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Planning to upgrade my 70 to a 150 and I am obsessed with KP Aquacultered Rock. I’ve used it in 3 tanks and I just can’t seem to get it glued together where it’s strong enough to hold long term. How has anyone successfully done this? I’ve looked all over YouTube but everyone seems to use dry rock to cement together. I’d love to create awesome designs as I want it to be a focal point in the living room. This tank will be a FOWLR predator tank so I love being able to get the encrusting sponges and colors that only LR gets.

There has got to be a way to get the rocks to hold together sturdy enough I don’t have to worry about having a rock slide, leave it out of water with misting for hours or just settling for a basic pile of rocks.

With KP rock, here is what I have done.

I stack the rocks how I want them, mark off where the rocks meet with an ice pic (just scrape it so you can see the marks), I then take a really rough bristle brush (not metal, but hard plastic bristles) and scrub that area. From there I place the rock back in a tub of SW and rinse that area. I then remove the rocks, use @Glue Masters thick glue and some thin glue and some finer sand (the dry caribsea smaller grain works great) to bond the rock. First I take the thick glue and make an intial bond in the area, smush fine sand all over that and set back in the tub of watrer. After about 5 minutes, I remove the rock and apply the thin glue and more sand. I keep doing this until I have a nice "mortared" area bonding the 2 rocks together. I just keep doing that until I have a scape.

Another thing I do, is to drill some of the scape section and use some short pieces of acrylic rods to hold the section together. This allows me to remove a section if needed and to assemble the sections easily in the tanks.

Trick is to keep the rock wet for the most part. The glue will set just fine underwater. I try to not let the rocks stay out of the water for more than 10 minutes and have had no issues doing that.

 

[flyingscampi]

Like Eagle_Steve suggested, I used 8 mm (5/16") round acrylic rod to join rocks.

 

[BrittneyC]

Use reef two part putty, put glue on both sides of putty for immediate sticky and the the putty will harden and it will be very secure. Ive done it with wet rock exactly like that. Just make sure you like it when it hardens bc it is not coming off lol.

I have done that on 2/3 other tanks and it was a mess that ended up not working

 

[BrittneyC]

With KP rock, here is what I have done.

I stack the rocks how I want them, mark off where the rocks meet with an ice pic (just scrape it so you can see the marks), I then take a really rough bristle brush (not metal, but hard plastic bristles) and scrub that area. From there I place the rock back in a tub of SW and rinse that area. I then remove the rocks, use @Glue Masters thick glue and some thin glue and some finer sand (the dry caribsea smaller grain works great) to bond the rock. First I take the thick glue and make an intial bond in the area, smush fine sand all over that and set back in the tub of watrer. After about 5 minutes, I remove the rock and apply the thin glue and more sand. I keep doing this until I have a nice "mortared" area bonding the 2 rocks together. I just keep doing that until I have a scape.

Another thing I do, is to drill some of the scape section and use some short pieces of acrylic rods to hold the section together. This allows me to remove a section if needed and to assemble the sections easily in the tanks.

Trick is to keep the rock wet for the most part. The glue will set just fine underwater. I try to not let the rocks stay out of the water for more than 10 minutes and have had no issues doing that.

I will give this a try! I don't feel comfortable with the acrylic rods but the glue and sand seems like a great idea. Have you ever tried the BRS mortar?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I will give this a try! I don't feel comfortable with the acrylic rods but the glue and sand seems like a great idea. Have you ever tried the BRS mortar?

I have not used any mortar from BRS. I used to use E-Marco, but after watching some NSA scape videos, I decided to try it with real ocean rock. I found that scrubbing the area where I would be bonding the 2 rocks was what ended up making it work well.

I also suggest watching some videos of the NSA scape stuff to see how they do it with sand/glue. The only thing different is scrubbing the area you are bonding and to put the rock back into a tub of SW. It does take longer to do with live rock, but in the end, I think it is worth it.

 

[RedoubtReef]

I've used acrylic rod and 2 part putty as well in the past. It can work really well once you get the hang of it. I like the idea about scrubbing the rock that was suggested.