Stacking Live Rock

When I first got my live rock, I just stacked the three pieces on top of each other without using any glue or putty to stick them together. I recently got a lot more and it seems a little unstable. How can it stick them together without taking them out of the tank? I don't want to stress out my fish.

Is there a certain putty I can get that will stick underwater?

 

Hey Britt;

There are marine epoxy/putty things that you can use. I attached a link to one type here:Coralline Purple Reef Epoxy - Oceans Wonders - English

Some folks use this with mixed success. Others used gel based superglue (do some research on this though as it needs to be a certain type for saltwater equariums. It will cure in saltwater and lots of folks use it for frags, etc.).

The downside to either of these two options if you can get them to work for you, is that it can be more difficult to take down your rock later if you need too because everything is stuck together.

Other alternatives folks often use are zip ties (make sure they are the all plastic kind). They will be covered shortly in corailline algae and will not be noticeable after a while.

One other alternative, and I just saw a post on this recently, is to use a masonry drill bit and drill your rock. You then can insert acrylic or other type rods between the two and it will help solidify your structure, but can still be taken apart.

There are other options out there, but those are the main ones that come to mind.

Hope that helps!

Thor

 

What Thor said. I can't think of anything else to offer honestly.

 

I have used this and it works well even under water:

Coraffix gel

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18325


The best way however is as mentioned by Thor and in the long run time saving is pegging:

http://www.reefvideos.com/videos/66/coral_pegging_system/

E