Crayola Lost Frag Finder Tool

[Wally.B]

Has this ever happened to you. Happened to me too often.

You are moving around a Frag to find ideal placement (Lighting, Circulation)
You find a good spot. But aren't ready to glue it down yet.

Frag likes the spot too, and opens up next day like a parachute,
and catches the current drifting lost under your rocks.

Sometime it's an easy find, sometime not.
You don't want to tear apart the rocks, if even an option.

It my case of was looking a Florescent Orange Ricordea Frag for a few days.
A bright orange beauty.
Tried moving around a few easy rocks. Tried Flashlight. No luck.
It had to be somewhere, but where?

Then I was watching my 9 year old playing with her Crayola Glow in the Dark Marker set.
She had a blue stick light to light up her Florescent artwork. Gave me an idea.

When things got dark I searched the bottom of the tank with the light stick, and Bingo!!!
A tiny orange glowing spec, Deep in the rockwork that gave me the beacon I needed to get it out. Made my day!!


It's now part of my invaluable tool shelf. (Daughter will have to find other activities). Just kidding. She can borrow it anytime.

 

[salty joe]

Good One! Thanks for sharing.

 

[CuzzA]

Nice. A hell of a lot cheaper than these "Reef" LED flashlights I see people buying.

I would still just go ahead and dab some superglue to new frags. They easily pull off and you don't risk seriously damaging a coral.

Another cool option I've seen a fellow reefer do in my reef club is take a long strip of acrylic and attach a magnet to one side and drill a hole for a frag plug on the other. This way you can easily position/acclimate the coral to the desired height and place in the tank.

 

[Wally.B]

Nice. A hell of a lot cheaper than these "Reef" LED flashlights I see people buying.

I would still just go ahead and dab some superglue to new frags. They easily pull off and you don't risk seriously damaging a coral.

I'd love to do the super glue thing. As you can see on my Shelf I use CorAffix glue. (Which is a thicker version of SuperGlue).

It works great by taking rock out of water, and gluing on semi dry surfaces, with a afterward dip into water to start the gelling.
Epoxy putty works under water, but not asthetic and hard to work with flat plug surfaces.

I've had no success trying to glue a dry frag plug onto a rock underwater with superglue drops.

What the secret?

 

[CuzzA]

I usually just brush off the area of rock where I'm going to glue so it doesn't have any detritus or algae on it. Depending on the frag (not encrusted I break off the plug, encrusted I break off the stem of the plug), pat it dry and gob a bunch of glue on the frag and push it down on to the desired spot. I'll hold it for about 10-15 seconds while twisting it and then slightly lift it up and see if the glue is stringy and attached to the rock, if so I'll firmly press it back on for 30-60 seconds or until it feels secure. If the glue hasn't attached to the rock when I do the stringy test, I'll pull it out and add some more glue and repeat. I like to use enough glue that it pushes out from where the frag and rock meet and then I use my finger to mold the glue around the frag and rock. I buy 10 packs of super glue gel at Harbor Freight for $3 and store them in the fridge. The only time I've ever had a frag come loose is from my urchin on a newly placed frag. The damn urchin is really head strong and will try to move mountains before deciding it's easier going around objects. The key with superglue is lots of it.

 

[Theokie]

This is what I use for exactly the same use

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/UV-Ultra-Violet-Blacklight-21-LED-395-nM-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-Light-/130727744160?hash=item1e6ffb12a0

Cheap and easy, also is great to take the to LFS with crappy lighting to see if there is a hidden gem that just needs some TLC

 

[Wally.B]

This is what I use for exactly the same use

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/UV-Ultra-Violet-Blacklight-21-LED-395-nM-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-Light-/130727744160?hash=item1e6ffb12a0

Cheap and easy, also is great to take the to LFS with crappy lighting to see if there is a hidden gem that just needs some TLC

Ordered 5 of these $0.99 units http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/221617591845?rmvSB=true

They Arrived today (not greatest quality one has a flaky connection (but for the price!!), ).

Works way better then low power Crayola stick.

Great tool.