Glueing Live rock together

[351winsor]

I went out and bought 6lbs of pukani live rock rubble, i was planning on doing a lagoon style aquascape for my new mantis tank. Its only a 12 gallon aquapod, so i want a very open looking aquascaping. I have tried to super glue the pieces together, that didnt work, i can do the large pieces with aquamend, but i still need to get a few of the pillars to stick together with out the use of aquamend. Any ideas? I was thinking about trying a gell superglue this weekend. I have heard that gorilla glue will also work, but to only try that after you sure that the glue is 100% dry. I have also rinsed and scrubbed the rock down as well as bake it in the oven to dry it out and make it easier to glue. Any suggestions or thoughts?

[micstarz]

Don't bake the live rock. All the "valuable" organisms in it will die.

[reef2]

i used zip ties and hydraulic cement to bond my lr togather.

[Thurge]

Super glue gel is probably your best bet. The more you use, the easier it is to get a bond. When you put it into water it forms a skin that makes it difficult to get it to stick to stuff. To get around this kind of dry fit your pieces together, the tighter they fit together the easier things will be. Place a BIG glop of glue on one piece or LR (it can be wet or even submurged) then take the second piece of LR and mash it together with the first piece and twist it and grind it together with the first piece. You are breaking the skin and spreading the glue around on the two pieces of rock so that they get a good, wide bonding surface. Then hold them together for a minute or two, or prop them so that they stay atached while the glue cures. Voila rock glued together.
Dainty dolops of glue are a PITA to work with under water, but bigger glops take longer to cure.

[351winsor]

micstarz- I baked it to dry it out.. It had been sitting in a live rock box for about 3 months so it had alot of black dead matter and stunk! I am concentration more on aquascaping then i will let formation sit in a live rock vat a LFS for a few weeks to re seed it.
I was thinking about trying the gel superglue this weekend. thanks all!

[Guygettnby]

the gel superglue should work pretty well for what you want to use it for. another thing you could do if you really wanted to get into it would be to drill holes in the rock and glue plastic rods in it. i have done that in the past and the rock never came apart after that :lol: the rods can be bought at the craft store and the glue is just some super glue gel. takes alittle more time and effort but the final product should be great if you do it right. you can even add some dried substrate in with the glue around the contact areas to make it look alittle more real.

[DanInSD]

Epoxy for wet environments -- available as a paste or a liquid -- will work just fine, too.

Dan