Reattaching broken scape underwater

[Dave-T]

My maintenance guy accidentally broke off a piece of my aquasape yesterday when working in my tank. My scape is NSA style, that I built with marco cement and superglue. Some of the connections aren't as solid as they should be. This piece is about the size of a fist, and I'd like to put it back where it was. It connects horizontally to the adjacent structure.

Any suggestions for adhesive to do this? I'm thinking I want a fast setting putty. I tried the superglue-putty-superglue thing with some Tunze epoxy I have, but gravity keeps winning and the piece falls before it's set. Maybe I'm not being patient enough, but I'm trying to hold it there for a couple of minutes and it just isn't holding well.

 

[Dave-T]

Anyone?

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

How high up is the piece?

Is there a way you can prop the rock up on something until the putty cures? This could be a rock, or even those cheap wooden skewers I could see working.

 

[crazyfishmom]

The green and white reef safe epoxy works well and should hold if you blend the edges with your fingers into the existing aquascape. Depending on the color there’s also one form two little fishies that works well.

 

[Dave-T]

I thought of that, but I don't think it would work, at least with the putty I have. This putty doesn't really adhere to the rock. It's mostly useful to attach uneven surfaces to each other, but the superglue is what's really doing the adhesion. And superglue underwater doesn't seem to create a strong enough bond to hold the rock onto the other rock. Gravity wins. Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I thought of that, but I don't think it would work, at least with the putty I have. This putty doesn't really adhere to the rock. It's mostly useful to attach uneven surfaces to each other, but the superglue is what's really doing the adhesion. And superglue underwater doesn't seem to create a strong enough bond to hold the rock onto the other rock. Gravity wins. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Yeah, haha. I have tried superglue under water, and it never ends well. The thing it glues best is my fingers!!!

 

[Dave-T]

The green and white reef safe epoxy works well and should hold if you blend the edges with your fingers into the existing aquascape. Depending on the color there’s also one form two little fishies that works well.

I checked the reviews on the two little fishies, which I've used before on frags. The reviews on BRS indicate that it wouldn't work well for what I'm trying to do. One person says

This epoxy is fairly easy to work with. It doesn't adhere the best, but a combination of this with super glue works well for mounting frags or small colonies.

If using for aquascaping it doesn't have enough immediate strength to hold overhanging pieces like you would see in a branching aquascape, but it is sufficient for stacking pieces on top of a foundation rock.".

What is the green and white stuff? That's better? You've used it to glue rocks horizontally?

 

[JGT]

Piece can’t be removed from the tank?

 

[Dave-T]

No, it's a very large structure covered in coral. The smaller piece I'm trying to attach to it can be removed although it does have a couple hammers on it.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I checked the reviews on the two little fishies, which I've used before on frags. The reviews on BRS indicate that it wouldn't work well for what I'm trying to do. One person says



What is the green and white stuff? That's better? You've used it to glue rocks horizontally?

The white and green stuff is from instant ocean. I’ve used it to put stuff together that I would’ve sworn would fall apart and as long as I really made sure to spread it onto both surfaces on every edge it worked very well but I can’t see what you’re trying to put together so it might be a bad suggestion. Best of luck!