reef epoxy

[Jshroom86]

Has anyone used any epoxy or glue to hold togeter their live rock for aquascaping? I have an idea for my setup but would involve some sort of gluing to support it

[marinelife]

Only used if for corals but I hear you can hold rocks with it.
What alot of people do is drill holes in the rock and use rods to hold them together.

[satch12]

use acrylic rods to hold your rock together it is by far the strongest way to bind rocks to each other. Just drill each piece of rock and glue an acrylic rod in then place the other rock onto the rod.

[Jshroom86]

where can i get these acrylic rods and how thick are they or how thick should i get I am trying to make a shelf in the middle of my rock work without using rock to support the front

[satch12]

lowes and HD should have them 1/4"-1/2" should work but it really depends on the weight of the rock and the angle you want it at. Also the deeper the rod is in the rock the more support it has and the weight can be distributed along more of the acrylic rod.

[Jshroom86]

thanks ill look into that it sounds pretty easy to do, is there any tricks when drilling to keep from cracking the rock

[jeremyreef]

i would go slow and try not to put too much pressure on them.

[Jshroom86]

I have a high speed drill with some mason bits I think ill try this and just hold the drill lightly and let the bit do the work

[jeremyreef]

yeah that sounds good. just to clarify by saying "go slow" i wasn't referring to drill speed, just dont rush the bit through the rock too fast.

[Jshroom86]

yea lol I figured you had to drill fast just not to force it through I practiced on some small pieces (golf ball to baseball size) and not one broke just good clean quarter inch holes. I must have been lucky lol. thanks for all the help