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Hello,
I just purchased a tank from a friend. Look at my profile for pictures and info. BTW the cats are going away. So i am planning on making my own real rock rockwork, probably lava. I am going to plant Java moss, Anubias, and maybe Java moss in the structure. This will be like a fish hotel with diffrent heights being caves for fish. So my question is is there anyway to keep the rocks together just in case they were to fall, such as Glue? I know this will be risky but i feel confident. Also can anyone give me pointers on how to do this? Thanks.

Chris

that sounds like a great idea! youll have to post pics once your done!

im sure you can use silicone safely to glue them together.. just glue and place together and leave them to dry against a wall or something for support and i think its 5 days (the pack of glue should tell you how long)until you can add them to your tank... i could be wrong about the duration though..

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

Hows the Idea sound, Will it be compatable with the fish? Also will that Silicone glue be able to be taken off?

EDIT: Heres a picture of my ideas for my future tank drawing...
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Gar0foli/untitled.jpg

Chris

I used aquarium silicone to spot-stick my rocks together for my tanganyikan rockwork. If at a later date you want to seperate the rocks, you should be able to do so just by pulling and cutting. Not all of the silicone residue will come off the rocks, but enough that you could use the rocks again for other purposes, and being 100% silicone, it isn't harmful to animals or anything.

For more permanent structures, I have also used aquarium safe epoxy putty with good results. This stuff dries like cement, though, and you will not be able to seperate the rocks without breaking them aaprt with a hammer.

Either way you go, get a product that specifically says Aquarium Safe! It may cost a little extra, but you don't want to take chances.

As for the process. collect all of your rocks and have the silicone or epoxy handy. Then build what you think you want your structure to look like without glueing anything. When you're happy, take a picture or make a quick sketch, then build it again according to the picture and glue as you go. You do not need a lot of glue to hold rocks in place, as long as you stack them in such a way that they are stable to begin with. I used very little glue to hold my rocks together, and raanged them so that the entire structure is actually three seperate pieces that support each other, so when I need to remove them for maitenance, it's either on me and the tank itself.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...