what is the most PERMANENT epoxy?

[treesprite]

Was doing some cleaning up in my tank and my rock structure came apart because I used that cheapo (not in price) epoxy specifically made for reef aquariums (can't remember the brand - one of the biggest 2). I WISH I could get my hands on some Aquamend - that stuff NEVER came apart on me (stores no longer selling it).

 

Fortunately, I had already pried off stuff that was just superglued rather than encrusted, so I could do a little toothbrush scrubbing. There are still some encrusted things, but they didn't get injured. I guess now I am going to go ahead and take the 3 large pieces of rock that came down and scrub them in a bucket (being careful of frags).

 

My dragonettes are having a field day! My tang is busy trying to pre-scrub for me, the spots that he previously couldn't reach. At least they are enjoying the situation!

 

So, what is a reef-safe epoxy that isn't going to come apart like this useless, over-priced stuff from the LFS?

 

When stores stopped selling Aquamend, some people started using Water Weld (read posts on several forums around the net), so I bought some long ago, but never used it due to skepticism. I still have it stashed in the closet - has anyone here used it without problems, or should I waste more money on LFS stuff that will just come apart on me again?

Edited July 24, 2011 by treesprite

[L8 2 RISE]

I use dd aquascape and I love it, by far the best!

[silverspringnano]

I have tons of the Water Weld in my tank holding the rock structure and various frags in place...its safe, sets up strong, and covers with coralline quickly. There's actually one spot where I tried to remove it and was unable to pry it off the rock. I'd say go for it.

[FearTheTerps]

I have used the Water Weld as well. I found it really easy to work with on dry rock, but for me it didnt seem to stick well using it under water. I just had to play with it alot more, but in either case the bond is strong and I havent had a problem.

[treesprite]

Oh, cool, then I can use that stuff! Thanks for responding so fast!

[treesprite]

Excluding time for laundry, dinner, and a shower, I worked on my tank from about an hour before I started the thread, to about 20 minutes ago. And I'm not done. Scrubbed the 4 large pieces of rock in bucket ... 4th large one can't be removed... and a few smaller pieces of rock. A large rock fell on top of corals that were sitting on the bottom of the tank, so those frags got smashed.

 

Do you know how hard it is to mess around with aquascaping with 2 dragonettes in a tank? Every time a rock is moved or sand is disturbed, they are right there hunting, meaning they kept getting in my way. I couldn't even scare them away.

 

Tomorrow night I guess I'll be in for another couple hours to finish aquascaping.

 

For some reason I had an explosion of feeder filters over the last couple weeks - a few different types of feather dusters, 3 or 4 types of sponges. I wasn't keeping up with blowing the detritus off the rocks regularly, so I guess there was just a lot for them to eat. Most got scrubbed off, rock is much cleaner.

 

I used the Water Weld on one contact point so far. It seemed to act pretty much the same as Aquamend.