Not Sure If This Is In The Right Board

[smegforbrains]

Have just received a resin tank ornament (a slate formation) I bought on eBay.


I am claiming against RM because it arrived broken.


The ornament is cleanly broken into 5 pieces and is repairable.


Question is:


Is it safe to use Superglue (Ehtyl Cyanoacrylate based)?


Would it be OK to use it as long as I bathe the ornament in boiling water before putting it in the tank?


Or should I just repair with Aquarium Silicone?



Cheers in advance

 

[Pleccy]

I would use the aquarium silicone just to be on the safe side, you can get it in a clear form.

 

[smegforbrains]

Anyone know where I can get it cheap?


LFS want over £6 a tube, eBay ain't much better

 

[Bignose]

Regular silicone in the hardware store is the same thing as the aquarium silicone. Just be sure to read the labels and only buy silicone that has no anti-mildew or anti-fungal or any other non-fish friendly additives. Just 100% silicone. And let it cure about three times as long as the tube recommends.

Boiling something with glue/sealer on it is a really bad idea, as the heat will loosen the bonds and allows the possibility of releasing bad stuff back out. Superglue also is potentially toxic to fish, it has many different chemicals in it as compared to silicone that only has one chemical in it. Look at the chemical name of the one you considered up there "Ethyl Cyanoacrylate" Particularly "cyano" -- same thing as cyanide. That's something you definitely don't want in a fishtank!

 

[andywg]

That's interesting on the super glue Bignose as it has been used for some years in the reefing community for joining frags of stoney corals to live rock rubble. I would have assumed if it was ok for that use then it would be fine for more general use.

On the silicone, I recall Lateral Line saying in a previous thread to be careful of budget hardware silicone as much of it is made in the far east with questionable control over information regarding exactly what is in it and one batch may not be the same as another.

 

[Bignose]

Well, maybe if it (superglue) is fully cured it is okay. I just know that the old practice of putting a dab on a cut or scratch is a really, really poor idea because of the cyano compounds in the glue -- lots of people still do it, though, and it does do a good job of sealing the wound and keeping it clean.

And maybe with the poor quality control on the silicone, maybe nothing is good! It's hardly scientific because it is just anecdote, but I've used hardware silicone for a long time now without any issues. I make rock caves and whatnot for my tanks. Whenever I find an interesting rock, I put in a bucket with the others and every once in a great while I'll build a never cave or waterway for the fish with them.

I think that the real trick is to just let it all cure for a very long time. Like I said, I'd recommend for around 3 times as long as the tube/bottle says. I.e. bottle says 24 hours, I'd wait at least 3 days before putting it iin a fish tank. And definitely don't boil to reopen the bonds or weaken the glue.

 

[smbgpd]

Super glue will be fine so long as its cured ie dried. The "cyano" part of the compound is effectively non-toxic and you could drink the stuff and have no toxic effects, the effect of gluing your oral, digestive and respiratory mucosa to one another is a totally different kettle of fish though.

 

[Bignose]

Super glue will be fine so long as its cured ie dried. The "cyano" part of the compound is effectively non-toxic and you could drink the stuff and have no toxic effects, the effect of gluing your oral, digestive and respiratory mucosa to one another is a totally different kettle of fish though.

I beg to differ, and so do many authors in the scientific literature:

"CA (stands for Cyanoacrylate, the class that all "super glues" almost always flal in) adhesives have been shown to be cytotoxic in vitro (Latin for "in the body")"

See: http/www.jniosh.go.jp/en/indu_hel/pdf/42-2-14.pdf which is a paper published in industrial health.

Or how about:

Cytotoxicity of Cyanoacrylate Adhesives to Cultured Tendon Cells
C. E. EVANS, G. C. LEES and I. A. TRAIL , Journal of Hand Surgery (British and European Volume), Vol. 24, No. 6, 658-661 (1999)

"The in vitro cytotoxicity of four cyanoacrylate adhesives was tested using cultures of cells derived from human tendons. All four were found to be cytotoxic, even at concentrations as low as 1.7%, over the experimental period of up to 18 weeks."

These are just studies about how CAs affect cells inside the human body. But, since water flowing in and out is such a significantly more integral and necessary part of a fish's body, I don't think that I would want my fish swimming around in something that is known to kill cells in a human body -- an environment where there is much water as well. The similarities are close enough to me to not risk it.