Gorilla Glue: Reef safe or not?

[TWallace]

I'm constructing an acrylic-safe, coralline-scraping mag float and was curious if Gorilla Glue (when dried) is safe in a reef tank. I know I can use Super Glue Gel, but those tiny containers they come in are annoying, and expensive (for how much you get).

Plus, I'm not sure if Gorilla Glue will effectively bond acrylic to plastic (or whatever mag floats are made from). I know from first hand experience that Gorilla Glue bonds wood to wood fantastically. I also know that it expands and gets ugly as it dries, which I'm not too concerned about.

I'm not sure if this design will work, but I'm making a blade from acrylic and plan to glue it at an angle to the side of a mag float. I'm hoping this will let me scrape coralline from my tank without having to put my hands in it. I know someone makes a similar device for glass tanks, but I haven't seen one that's safe for acrylic tanks.

[hllywd]

If you look closely at my nice new rock, you'll see I dropped the $50 piece and glued it back together...

From what I found Gorilla Glue is simiar if not the same as Great Stuff foam and people are using that as faux rock backdrops in their aquariums, painted with Krylon Fusion yet to boot...

GG and GS are polyurethane, and from what I could find chemically inert when fully cured.

Tim

[badpacket]

But, ones a glue and the other is a foam.

[hllywd]

So?

It's the same material. Polyurethane. I'm pretty certain I can't even pick it out in my tank 4 months later, it's completely grown over. Maybe at some point it all falls apart, I hope not. The way my corals are growing I'll assume it works as a suppliment if it has any effect at all on the tank. The MSDS says it's inert when cured, I guess I can't hope for more than that nor do I feel compelled to argue with the manufacturer.

I feel certain the guys shooting cans of great stuff in their tanks would suffer many more ill effects than the few glue joints I have and that doesn't seem to be the case.

Tim

[coralreefer2110]

Pardon my hitching on here but you all seem to have some experience with Gorilla Glue. How well does it hold up to heat? I was thinking of repairing a metal halide viper clamp (just the bracket) with it but it gets pretty hot. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks!!

[McTeague]

I would use JB Weld on the viper clamp myself...

[JPA]

I used it to glue my dry rocks together about 6 months ago. no problems so far.

[Finding Emo]

wow, very nice piece of rock

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by TWallace
I'm constructing an acrylic-safe, coralline-scraping mag float and was curious if Gorilla Glue (when dried) is safe in a reef tank. I know I can use Super Glue Gel, but those tiny containers they come in are annoying, and expensive (for how much you get).

save the superglue GEL for frags- you can use plain 'ol regular superglue for your project. $1.99 worth of superglue will be more than enough.

[badpacket]

No, what I meant is that even though the same ingredients, one is a glue and the other is a foam. I would not expect it to perform as a glue in an application that requires shear or any other force/bonding requirements.

I guess a simple test would be to just get some rocks and use both to glue pieces together. I think the glue will be much stronger.
If you are using it just to bond something together that is then having downward pressure applied to it, it may hold together under that circumstance.

Originally posted by hllywd
So?

It's the same material. Polyurethane. I'm pretty certain I can't even pick it out in my tank 4 months later, it's completely grown over. Maybe at some point it all falls apart, I hope not. The way my corals are growing I'll assume it works as a suppliment if it has any effect at all on the tank. The MSDS says it's inert when cured, I guess I can't hope for more than that nor do I feel compelled to argue with the manufacturer.

I feel certain the guys shooting cans of great stuff in their tanks would suffer many more ill effects than the few glue joints I have and that doesn't seem to be the case.

Tim