Aquaculture coral bases and removal

[lawdog]

All SPS keepers when you get in new colonies or larger frags mounted on those aquaculture agrocrete bases what is the best way to remove them so as to not harm the coral and be able to place them in your tank without that big ugly base attached.

I am talking about the ones mainly from surayaba or bali which come in with what looks like the top of a plastic bottle filled with agrocrete/concrete. I do not want to attempt to just break them off as most of them have some encrusting started over the base but the bases are tough to place in the tank as they like to tip over if not on a totally flat surface which we all know our reef tanks have very few of those unless on the barebottom and who wants that.

Just curious to see if anyone has come up with a good way to remove those bases once ready to mount on your reef. Or if someone has come up with a good idea that I guess could allow for the colony to stay on the base and still be mounted nicely.

Thanks.

 

[jnfallon]

dremel tool while wearing protective glasses. allows total sculpting of the base.

 

[lawdog]

Great idea... Thanks. So do you sculpt around the encrusting portion and then attach to your rock? Seems like the best way to save the majority of what is growing...

Keep the ideas coming. Anyone else use a dremel?

Guess I need to go buy one of those.

 

[Acroholic]

I use a wet saw (tile saw) and cut around the encrusted areas, the last one I cut to shape to wedge in between some rockwork.

 

[manderx]

cut the colony off with an inch or two still on the base. let it grow some and trade.

 

[johns]

I just got a dremel recently.

What sort of bits/cutting wheels, etc work best for this sort of thing.

 

[jimsta]

I use the dremel to cut all around the base also. It takes some time when you have colonies that have a bunch of horizontal branches, but overall it works great.

I use the diamond wheel.....the same one that I use to cut glass.