Gluing rocks together

[jewett]

In my Pachytriton tank I have two stacks of several ~ fist sized rocks to act as hiding places. They have been in the tank for over a year now with no incident, but they still seemed to be stacked rather precariously to me. And it would be nice to be able to pick up a whole stack at once to clean gunk out and also expose hidden blackworms so they can be eaten. What would be a safe and water proof product to use? At first I was thinking silicone, but it seems to be that that stuff doesnt do a good job of actually gluing things togther. So any ideas? I would very much appreciate it!
Heather

 

[Mark]

I've used aquarium silicone to glue small, smooth rocks before and it held fast - it can be quite sturdy if applied liberally to a good sized contact area. I wouldn't trust it to hold a large weight, say if you picked up the stack by the top rock for example. I'd be tempted to silicone two together as a test before looking at other options.

 

[Kaysie]

If you take the rocks out, scrub them to remove any slime, and let them dry, silicone will hold them together pretty well.

 

[Ed]

I wouldn't trust picking up the stack by one or two of the rocks if they are siliconed together.... Silicone will make a good adhesive by following Kaysie's advise but I wouldn't trust them to stay together if picked up.

Ed

 

[tupinambis]

You can use silicone or epoxy/araldite. Both work better with rough clean surfaces, both need to be cured before they can be introduced to the tank, and neither are "fabulous" for holding the rocks together so that the structure is indestructable, so you need to be careful when moving your structure around. I've glued together some fairly decent sized rocks (1-4kg) using either, and usually the structures held together pretty well. Longer curing epoxy/araldite seems to have a better hold than shorter curing ones (ie. 1min epoxy vs. 10min epoxy) although it is a lot easier to make a huge mess with longer curing epoxy. We've used Evercoat Ten Set Epoxy for gluing things to sea lions and seals, and it works really well on them as well as rocks, but I think Evercoat stopped manufacturing the stuff.

 

[jewett]

Since I had a tube of silicone, I tried gluing some of the rocks together with it this afternoon. We will see how it works, and I just may try the epoxy on another group of rocks. I have also been conscidering getting some slate, as these should be more flat and less likely to topple. But first I'll see how lucky I am with these "glued" rocks. Thanks for all the tips, everyone
Heather