Corals on plugs
- Thread starter Gladmaker
- Start date
Reef Junkie
Premium Member
I second al's advice. I use wire cutters to clip the plugs off.
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DivingTheWorld
Active member
You have two options:
1. You can cut or break off the stems and glue the top of the plug to your rock. This works better for sps in my opinion because they will encrust over and you don't see the plug. With zoas, you still see some plug through.
2. Remove the zoas from the plug and glue them to your rock. I find the best way to do this is the same as I use for fragging. Use a scalpel to trim a thin layer off the top of the plug under the zoas, then glue that layer to your rock. Gluing zoas directly is difficult at best.
1. You can cut or break off the stems and glue the top of the plug to your rock. This works better for sps in my opinion because they will encrust over and you don't see the plug. With zoas, you still see some plug through.
2. Remove the zoas from the plug and glue them to your rock. I find the best way to do this is the same as I use for fragging. Use a scalpel to trim a thin layer off the top of the plug under the zoas, then glue that layer to your rock. Gluing zoas directly is difficult at best.
Thank you for your ideas. I tried cutting the stem with wire cutters and it worked, but it left a good sized piece that will not look good on a rock. Diving's suggestion about using a scalpel to trim a thin layer off the top of the plug sounds like the result would be what I want except I don't understand how this can be done with a scalpel without ruining the scalpel before cutting through the layer.
DivingTheWorld
Active member
A good quality stainless steel scalpel won't break. You won't be able to perform surgery anymore, but it will be just fine for fish tank work. I sharpen mine every once in a while, but it generally stays sharp enough. I have a normal sized one for scraping plugs and rocks and a little curved one for scraping out things like Bubble Algae. They came with a coral prop kit I bought off Amazon I think.
sde1500
Active member
Could use an exacto knife to do it as well, thats what I use. But if you trim off as much of the plug as possible and glue it to the rock, that will work just fine. Not sure why there was the comparison for SPS though, sure they encrust, but zoa colonies expand as well and will cover the plug in time too.
I bought an Exacto style Fiskars knife and tried to cut the plug. All I accomplished after about 5 minutes was just scratching the plug. I tried using my Rotozip with the same results. This coral was on a flat piece that had been glued to a plug. I tried to cut through the glue to remove it. Didn't work. Not happy with the results. I'll make sure none of the corals I buy from now on are on plugs. The stem does come off easily, but I don't like what is left.
Yesterday you said you use an exacto knife. Wire cutters would have to be big to open wide enough to cut the plug. I would be concerned it would crumble the plug and damage the coral. It looks like I'll just have to be content cutting off the stem.
jkellyii02588
New member
Remove coral from plug and glue directly to rock, it will recover.
jkellyii02588
New member
Glued last night.
jkellyii02588
New member
Sorry here is photo
jkellyii02588
New member
jkellyii02588
New member
This forum is dead.
abrooks12376
New member
Why do you say it's dead?
