Ok, I give up... What is the top secret super glue gel trick?

[jwcarlson]

I have glued plants to driftwood a handful of times and it is, without question, an unmitigated disaster. I have to keep adding more, it never seems to start to set up.  I have been gluing for probably 30 minutes and it just won't harden.  What am I doing wrong?  The house is 62 degrees, is that part of the problem?  

 

Currently misting plants wondering when I will be able to put them in.  At least now that I wet everything down the glue is turning white so I can see how absolutely terrible it is going to look. 🤣

Edited December 7, 2022 by jwcarlson

[Guppysnail]

Mist with water. Water cures cyano acrylate (super glue). To dry it won’t cure. Hope that helps. 

If you can’t mist pour water on same thing. If that wood is dry the glue gets sucked in. 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Guppysnail

[jwcarlson]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:29 PM, Guppysnail said:

Mist with water. Water cures cyano acrylate (super glue). To fry it won’t cure. Hope that helps. 

Interesting, I didn't know that.  It ia pretty dry here at the moment.  How long before you can usually put it in the tank?  Usually I just give up and put it in. 🤣

Thank you, @Guppysnail, by the way... So the wood should be wet?  I did it with it wet once and it seemed similarly bad, but it might not have been gel. 

[Guppysnail]

I wipe a damp towel in the wood put glue on, stick plant and wet the glue. It can go directly in the tank. No wait. @Odd Duck has got a knack. She glued underwater. I’m not that fast. 🤣

Edited December 7, 2022 by Guppysnail

[jwcarlson]

On 12/6/2022 at 9:14 PM, Guppysnail said:

I wipe a damp towel in the wood put glue on, stick plant and wet the glue. It can go directly in the tank. No wait. @Odd Duck has got a knack. She glued underwater. I’m not that fast. 🤣

Good grief, I have been doing this all wrong. 

[lefty o]

1 or 2 small drops of glue, press the roots of the plant into the glue, and its ready to stick in the tank.

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Hi agreed with the above posts, somewhat unrelated but, if you're wanting to hide the white spots you can put a thin film of glue on the wood, sprinkle/rube in some crushed up similarly coloured substrate, and wipe away excess. Worked pretty well for me at hiding it. (Also that wood looks awesome!)

Edited December 7, 2022 by FlyingFishKeeper
Typos

[nabokovfan87]

I literally glue my plants while standing over the tank, hold them in place and count to 10 or so and then I dip it in the water to harden the glue.

If you're really brave, you add the glue to the plant and glue it underwater. Just make sure you know where it's going.

[itsfoxtail]

I did not realize how dangerously I was apparently living gluing plants underwater. Thought it had the same cure-time in and out all this time. TIL I guess.

[jwcarlson]

On 12/6/2022 at 10:49 PM, lefty o said:

1 or 2 small drops of glue, press the roots of the plant into the glue, and its ready to stick in the tank.

That straight up does not work for me.  I had some "stuck" for probably 30 minutes, I picked the wood up and two of them fell off before I could get them to the tank.  Misting did seem to help it set, I think I've been doing it too dry *shrug*.  It's in the tank now.  The discus are frightened.

Need to rearrange all of the filters, I think I'm going to put all the big sponges all the way on the right.  Trying to class up the tank while also keeping it manageable for the nightly water changes. 🙂  This pic was last night, the discus had ventured about 4" farther left as of this AM.

Edited December 7, 2022 by jwcarlson

[TOtrees]

I think less glue is better than more. And pressure definitely helps. 

I share your frustration, I would say using glue works about 50% of the time for me. It’s not uncommon for me to set up what looks like a simple application, and it just won’t stick.

I don’t think it matters whether you’re gluing wet or dry, really. I do know that a few drops of water or spray will speed up curing/drying, but the glue should work on dry surfaces, if everything else is correct. In a sense, this is no different than gluing, a handle onto a coffee cup. In that situation, it’s a thinner version of the product (not the gel), but the principles are the same: good coverage on both surfaces, highest possible contact between the surfaces, and pressure. I think using too much of the gel prevents good contact between the surfaces.

For glueing things like anubias and Java fern, I always use scissors to trim the roots on the bottom of the rhizome as short as possible, for better contact with the mounting surface.

So, set up your attachment beforehand for a good contact between the surfaces, use less glue rather than more, press firmly for 30 seconds (make sure your fingertips aren’t one of the surfaces you’re gluing), and that should work. 

I like the baking soda trick, I’ll have to try that!

Edited December 7, 2022 by TOtrees
Typos

[jwcarlson]

On 12/7/2022 at 7:14 AM, Pepere said:

now I do know that baking soda will cause super glue to nearly instantly harden, and have used that to giver super glue some gap filling qualities  on projects out of water.  Conceivably, superglue hardens better in slightly alkaline water rather than acidic water, so that might be coming in to play with your situation.   In any event, sprinkling some baking soda after you press the root to the glue might do the trick for you….

Interesting.  Our water is just thin chalk, so that shouldn't be an issue.  But I made sure everything was really dry before gluing.  I baked the wood weeks ago and it's been sitting out while I wormed the tank.  Now I wish I had more plants to glue so I could try it wet and see what happens. 

[redfish]

I've had mixed results too @jwcarlson  I had trouble gluing rocks to wood to keep it down.  I eventually got it to hold after letting it cure outside the tank with lots of pressure.  I've not had as many issues gluing plants to rocks as wood.

Edited December 7, 2022 by redfish

[jwcarlson]

If nothing else, I am glad it's not just me that has had some struggles.  I do think this thread has helped me come up with a better plan.  I'm actually not horrified by how this particular attempt turned out.  Not a ton of white stuff and what's there will be pretty well hidden by growth (as long as they grow pretty well) over time.  Anubias does well in my community tanks, so I'm hoping it also performs well in this discus tank, though there is not much for nitrates to speak of.  I could be convinced to remove the pothos as I'm sure that sucker inhales a lot of what nitrates are there.

[tolstoy21]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:58 PM, FlyingFishKeeper said:

sprinkle/rube in some crushed up similarly coloured substrate

This is probably the best solution to the ugly white crusty look of the glue on the wood/rocks. 

I personally hate using superglue and avoid it when I can. It works, but it gets all over my fingers and looks horrible and messy when Im done.

On 12/7/2022 at 9:23 AM, redfish said:

I eventually got it to hold after letting it cure outside the tank with lots of pressure. 

I do the same when I glue plants. Do it outside the tank, and hold the plant in place with pressure for a minute or so. 

I've recently been experimenting with using black zip ties to hold epiphytes to rocks or wood.  Time will tell if that damages the rhizome in any way. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:49 PM, lefty o said:

1 or 2 small drops of glue, press the roots of the plant into the glue, and its ready to stick in the tank.

@Cory uses the glue cap to press the plant to the object.  I've been doing it that way as well so that I don't get any glue on my fingers.

And I agree with other posters that water sets the glue right away.  Some people superglue plants underwater, just quick scape improvements or whatnot - but you've got to work quickly when doing that.  And you can't do the cap thing - there's not enough time to do your placement, etc before the glue sets - so plan to glue yourself to the decor if you try it 🙂 

On 12/7/2022 at 3:12 PM, tolstoy21 said:

I've recently been experimenting with using black zip ties to hold epiphytes to rocks or wood.  Time will tell if that damages the rhizome in any way.

I've attached anubias to spiderwood using the flexible plant weights. Works great!

[TOtrees]

I've never tested this, but I wonder if the time the tube has been open affects outcome? Eg if you've just cracked the seal on a new tube of glue, it might work great, but if you opened it X months ago and it's been sitting on a shelf, maybe not so good. 

[jwcarlson]

Both tubes were brand new in this case.

[Jungle Fan]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea water will set the glue, and I do not recommend the glueing under water. I have a friend who's a wizard with glue under water but he' the only person I know who gets to pull that off. If it is on a rock, or piece of wood in a tank that you can't remove I recommend lowering the water level to below the site to be glued, using a paper towel to dry the site off a bit, apply the glue, position the plant, or object to be glued, spray with water and after holding for a short period of time refill the water.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 12/7/2022 at 3:51 PM, Jungle Fan said:

I have a friend who's a wizard with glue under water but he' the only person I know who gets to pull that off.

I've done it but I'm not good at it.  If I get the plant to stick, I usually don't like its placement.

[Jungle Fan]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea I've done it too but the outcome is usually not desirable because it skews the perspective, and adds stress to the process because of the much faster time to set which means the outcome most of the time looks not like what you imagined, not to speak of the nifty white globs of now hardened glue that will require sanding to get rid off. When you lower the water level instead it's less stressful, placement usually gets to be more precise, and if there is excess glue sand, or substrate can be applied to make that spot less obvious. 

[Jungle Fan]

I believe I might have posted some of these before but I'm not sure where, so here are some videos on how to use superglue:

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/7/2022 at 5:36 AM, TOtrees said:

I think less glue is better than more. And pressure definitely helps. 

Some repeated issues glueing my anubias has led to a few rotten rhizomes. Pressure, meaning that when the glue is on the wood, that is sploodges outward and adheres is something that keeps the plant attached for me. I usually end up with something half the diameter of a dime, but whenever the glue is too thick, it usually doesn't hold and the plant wiggles. Great advice.

Not a joke. I need a case of glue at this point with the amount of moss I have to glue. I bought 4 tubes and three were rock hard one was half solid. Reglued everything today, propagated a bunch of new moss yesterday, definitely need more.

So.... Without being EU and having some of the products in the video. On a large scale wood scape, what is the "shortcut" to get a lot of moss glued in place?

On 12/7/2022 at 12:53 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I've done it but I'm not good at it.  If I get the plant to stick, I usually don't like its placement.

Yeah. Have to "plan ahead" pretty hard with that one. And even then, sometimes it doesn't sit just right and the glue is curing. I definitely don't recommend trying to do it with moss.  🙂

[cavdad45]

to get an almost instant check, I dunk it in water

[Odd Duck]

Gluing underwater is definitely tricky. By far easier to do over the tank or over the sink, usually with my wood pieces and plants in a sink full of water so the wood stays soaked.

I pick my plant, pick the wood piece that it fits into best, place it, fiddle it until it settles in a spot I like plus it has enough contact surface, then apply tiny dots of glue where the plant should have good contact and press wet plant to wet wood and hold for 10-20 seconds and pray I didn’t get glue on my fingers because that plant will ALWAYS come back off the wood stuck to your fingers. 😆 

I use a worn out thumb forcep (surgical tweezers) to hold the plant sometimes instead of fingers or the glue cap (sometimes both).

Then if I’m holding with fingers, I dunk the whole affair in the water and hold another 10 seconds. Then try to release it and hope you’re not glued on. Tiny dots, tiny dots, tiny dots (I keep telling myself). 😂 If they don’t stick the first time the dots get bigger and bigger and . . .

If you want to tackle underwater gluing, pick your spot carefully.  Be particular about how the rhizome fits against the spot on the piece to receive it, make sure it lays against it with with minimal pressure or flexing of the rhizome.  Make sure there’s nothing in your way, you’re not going to knock something off the tank with your elbow as you make the speed dive, not going to knock great aunt Martha’s picture into the tank, etc, hold the plant exactly how it needs to fit into the spot (a trial run or two on the fit and angle is good), apply glue (NO EXTRA), and dive right in, apply plant, hold 10-20 seconds, very carefully remove fingers, and done.  Or not. 🤣 Partially draining is good. 😆