Aquarium Safe Superglue

[daggaz]

What exactly makes this stuff aquarium safe, as opposed to normal, more deadly i assume superglue?  Going to build some fish houses tomorrow for our new kuhli loaches,  and of course i forgot to pick some up. My LFS is closed Sundays. 😢 

Edited June 22 by daggaz

[Tony s]

Normal superglue is also aquarium safe 

I never buy the aquarium safe kind. Just the normal ones. 

[daggaz]

That was my suspicion.  Miniscule amounts of acetone aren't exactly famous for wreaking havoc on ecosystems. 

[Sacah]

Normal, non-gel, superglues are often just cyanoacrylate, which is non-toxic and used on humans and animals for a long time now. The aquarium ones are usually 100% cyanoacrylate, because it can be hard to find the ingredients on most superglues in the shops these days. But if you take your time, you'll find one a lot cheaper than the aquarium ones.

As for the other types of glues, most will be fine once dried and given a quick wipe, but there are some that will leech harmful chemicals, so if it's not cyanoacrylate, maybe just do some research on the ingredients to double check.

[Lonkley]

Honestly the co-op branded is pretty cheap

[daggaz]

Maybe but they don't sell coop in Europe.  I checked already for easy-green. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

As long as it’s cyanoacrylate you should be good to go 

[CMcDermott]

On 6/22/2024 at 6:14 AM, daggaz said:

That was my suspicion.  Miniscule amounts of acetone aren't exactly famous for wreaking havoc on ecosystems. 

Superglues don't have acetone in them, they react with water vapor & traces of water to polymerize itself, forming huge molecules of repeating smaller units, and hold things together. Acetone doesn't dissolve it either, acetone rips apart the huge molecules and dissolves the remnants. Many glues do work as a substance dissolved in a carrier solvent, but superglue doesn't.

[Andy's Fish Den]

I just go to my local dollar store and buy packs of the  super glue gel. I haven't bought any for a while, but it used to be like 4 small tubes in a pack for a dollar. I would buy several packs at a time, because most of the time each tube is a one time use because you can never get the lid off to use a second time 😂

[daggaz]

On 6/23/2024 at 6:31 AM, CMcDermott said:

Superglues don't have acetone in them, .

Yeah I was going off poor memory and smell,  as soon as I saw "cyanoacrylate" I said "doh!", having researched the chemistry before. 

Point is kind of the same: once they dry they're usually not water soluble, so how much of the material is ever really going to leech out into the water column?  Micrograms? Nanograms? If that can kill a fish, there would be a lot more warnings about the stuff already. 

[daggaz]

So I bought bargain bin old superglue (cyanoacrylate), made in China, and we pieced some stuff together.  I couldnt get the gel stuff, so it was the good old drippy drippy glue your fingers together stuff.  I found that putting a small dab on the hardscape in the areas where I knew it would be in contact, then applying a _small_ amount of cotton fluff, then dripping that one or two more times, and then applying the next piece with only minimal pressure before letting go, worked best.  For clean up, I just pushed the exposed cotton in with the tip of the superglue dooter, putting a few more drops in, and then covered with sand.   

Amazing how well this works, I never in a million years would have guessed!

Edited June 25 by daggaz

[daggaz]

PS none of my fish died.  Great success! 

[Potterygal]

Beautiful tank. Glad superglue was success. Wish I could say same about my fish. Day 5 from intro to tank and 10/15 RIP. 
the shrimp are thriving. I always thought shrimp were harder to keep but new at those too. 
I see so signs of illness in the chili rasboras, right up until they die!

it’s a mystery but we will see how the last 5 do.