Glue/Epoxy

[FastUno]

What do you guys normally use? The epoxy used to make my skimmer go nutz. It sometimes did not work well either, all depending on how you molded it & how much water got mixed with the epoxy.

With the gel, I just had my first mishap with. I glued down some zoos, the glue did not touch them, but was very close due to small size of zoos. They all disappeared in 2 days.

Also how cheap can you get the zap gels? I heard someone say 99c at one point? If you use these once & come back to it later on it tends to dry out.

 

[FastUno]

This was meant to go in the GD thread, no way to del it?

 

[romain]

I think many of us got zap gels at the fragswap for $1 each.

 

[DEEPWATER]

I use the gel glue from HD ,,,seem to work a bit better ,and i cant find zap gel for $.99 so HD it is ,,1.99 for two tubes ,and oyu can find the 4 or 6 packs as well ,if they still have them .
Best way i found to use this IS ,
First i make sure the frag i want fits on the rock in my tank
2cd ,i put a small amount of glue on my finger and rub it on the rock in my tank i intend to glue it on
3rd ,i put glue on the frag ,(i dry of the bottom of the rock with a paper towel to asure the glue to stick)
4th ,,put the frag in the tank (glue to glue )this way you have a great bond ,

this way you are glueing the frag to the glue on the rock in your tank ,i find this to bond the best way

 

[cali_reef]

2cd ,i put a small amount of glue on my finger and rub it on the rock in my tank i intend to glue it on

You rub crazy glue on your fingers? That is CRAZY..

 

[Deanos]

You rub crazy glue on your fingers? That is CRAZY..

That would account for his typos and ,,,,

:tongue1:

 

[cali_reef]

All Cyanoacrylate based glues are fine to glue SPS frag and some soft stuff to rocks or plugs, the key is to have both parts you want to glue dried before putting glue on them. I use tweezers to hold the frags, I don't want to have glue on my fingers or gluing them to the frags.

I find getting the 1 oz bottle of the thick formula is the best value for me, you can easily recap the glue and it stays good for a good 6 months for me. You can get these at any hobby store that sells RC cars or planes; here is a list of the brand available from an on-line hobby store for your reference:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0095p?FVSEARCH=Cyanoacrylate&FVPROFIL=++&search3=Go

For Epoxy, I buy EP-400 from HD in Cali, can't find any here in NY. These are basically the same stuff as the two little fishes brand but larger package and cheaper.

My skimmer goes little nuts from the epoxy, some people had their skimmer over flowing their house. I don?t think you can avoid the problem if you want to use epoxy to glue stuff inside the tank.

 

[cali_reef]

That would account for his typos and ,,,,

:tongue1:

That makes total sense now..

 

[jhale]

I hate the epoxy, they all fail after a while, I used it to secure a cap, which is now huge and about to fall out of it's epoxy mount.

super glue gel is the way to go no matter how big the project.

my technique is to apply the gel to what you want to mount in stages.
after each application dip the coral in water and let the glue set, keep going till you have a good amount set up in layers.

then, this is the fun part, take your frag and smush the base onto the rock , the glue layers will break and glue will get on the rock and fill in the crevices. I then spin the frag back and forth while keeping pressure on the frag, this gets the glue in tight and creates the reaction to get the glue to set. you might have to hold the frag in place, but it usually does not take more than 30 seconds. make sure you get the largest tubes of glue you can, this works but large pieces will need a whole bunch of glue to secure them.

 

[joseney21]

maybe we need another group buy like the one adrian did a while back for bottles of glue ($5/ 1 oz bottle).

 

[DEEPWATER]

You rub crazy glue on your fingers? That is CRAZY..

yup ,,Im a plmber ,,i get all sort of glues,pastes,flux ,and other crap,,lol,,,so crazy glue is nada for me ,,i just use hot water and a dull knife ,and off it comes

 

[DEEPWATER]

That would account for his typos and ,,,,

:tongue1:

LOL,,good one D

 

[FastUno]

So what kinda super glue does HD offer. Name of brand & price?

I would hate to use something that has a negative effect in the tank, just wouldn't be able to live with myself. I would rather use what has already proven to no cause harm.

I have this Gorrilla glue from HD, but it looks like it's not fast drying & not meant for a reef tank?

Also, right now I have my frogspawn epoxied to a rock for some time, but it dangeroursly hangs right over my maze brain. If it should happen to fall, then goodbye to the frogspawn. I gotta get in & glue it down some. How about applying the glue directly to the rock/coral base in the tank water?

 

[DEEPWATER]

Fast ,,ill most likely go tomorrow to HD ,,if i get a chance ,,ill pick a bunch ,you can buy it for what i paid for it ,,its about 2 or 3 bux for 2 pc ,or ill se if they have the 4 or 8 packs ,

 

[FastUno]

Deep, let me know if you can get the other stuff I am interested in. Then I can pick up everything at once.

 

[jhale]

I have this Gorrilla glue from HD, but it looks like it's not fast drying & not meant for a reef tank?

Also, right now I have my frogspawn epoxied to a rock for some time, but it dangeroursly hangs right over my maze brain. If it should happen to fall, then goodbye to the frogspawn. I gotta get in & glue it down some. How about applying the glue directly to the rock/coral base in the tank water?

the gorilla glue is made for wood, it's polyurethane based and would not work in the tank. I have no idea what would happen if it got in the tank, but it would not be pretty.

the only glue to use in a tank are the cyanoacrylate based gels, like krazy glue, but there are other brands. these glues were developed for surgery. they may kill the tissue on the coral from touching it, but there will be no adverse affects in the tank.

to glue a coral in the tank already lift it out of the water partially.
turn your froggy upside down and lift just the base out of the water. dry the spot your going to glue with some paper towel and then apply the glue as I previously stated. Never squeeze the gel glue into the tank directly, it will float away and if a fish try's to eat it, well that's really going to suck watching the fish die with glue in it's mouth and gills

after you get a sufficient glob of glue built up put froggy where you want him. sometimes it takes a few try's to get enough of a glue buildup to work well. you need enough glue to bridge the gaps in the rocks and the base of what your gluing.

 

[Crakeur lost his password]

best coral glue out there

https://www2.mailordercentral.com/quantummodels/default.asp