Frag Mounting Question

[bladeruner143]

When you guys get a new frag (after dipping an QT of course! ) how do you guys go about mounting them in your tanks? What I mean by this is I know that you can glue them to rocks, which is what I did for a couple. My question is what if you want to change your aquascape? If you glued your frags on to a big piece of rock, you can't really move that anymore right? Plus, in order to do this, you would have to take whatever is already mounted on the rocks out of water, which would stress them out right? Thinking about all of this, I have come up with something that I think may work, but I'll ask for your input. I was thinking of making a rock and then pre-drilling it with holes. I would also build some lil piece of rock that would fit into the holes and keep those somewhere in the tank. Then, when I get a frag in, I could glue it to the lil piece, and stick it in a hole! What do you all think?

~Rudy

 

[lobstergrabber]

I have seen something similar to this done using plastic golf tees. I personally just glue mine to the rock and I do it all underwater(except applying glue to frag) and don't have to move anything. You are right on not being able to move things around to aquascape but even if I had not glued my frags most have encrusted so well that they would be immoveable anyways. One method would be as you said but you would have to make the rock big enough so that the coral will not completely encrust and connect the frag rock to the main rock. Just some ideas. As long as you like the way whatever you do looks like then I would say you are good.

Rich

 

[bladeruner143]

Thanks for the reply Rich. I have another question now. You are saying that I could apply the glue to the frag outside of the tank, and then apply the frag to the rock in the water and it will still stay?!

 

[lobstergrabber]

Yeah that is how I mount all my frags. You will have to hold the frag in place(usually one minute or a little more) to give the gule a chance to get rigid enough to hold it and then in about 24 hours it is stuck. If you have big mexican turbo snails you have to cross fingers that none knock it loose right after glueing. Use the cyanacrylate super glue gel and you should be good. It won't foul your water so it is safe and a lot of people use this method just fine.

Rich

 

[bladeruner143]

LOL! This whole time, I had been taking the whole rock out of the water because I thought that the glue needed time to "set" out of water!!! Thanks alot Rich! This is going to make my life that much easier!!!!

 

[lobstergrabber]

The glue will intially set faster in the open air. I believe it is a reaction to oxygen that causes this stuff to set. It will set in water just have to hold it for a while as I stated.

Rich

 

[bladeruner143]

That's fine, I have some gloves I brought home from work that I use so holding the frag down isn't a problem. Thanks for the help Rich, now I probably wont have to make my "contraption!"

 

[MrMikeB]

I usually glue them to a small piece of rubble with superglue (outside), and then glue the rubble to the LR inside the tank. this way I am able to break off the rubble from the LR should I want to move the coral w/o harming the coral itself. Works great!

 

[bladeruner143]

Thats also a great idea! looks like I'm going to be bashing up a piece of LR tonight!!!

 

[funman1]

I'll second Mike
I take small LR rubble and glue all my frags to them, then place the rubble in the tank.
That way you don't have unsightly frag plugs in your main tank, the rock blends right in.

That's how all my frags are in my grow out system.
So when they encrust they can be moved to the main tank without breaking all the encrusting work they've done.

Also there was an artice about doing just this thing in Reef Hobbiest Mag. a few months ago (Free copies at YR)

 

[xia]

I like to dunk my freshly glue frags in water and then twist, lightly pull apart a couple of times and then reset. You'll see that the glue will skin over when introduced to water, and set faster. The twisting and pulling will give you a better and stronger hold, and you can confirm that it has attached. Some slimey frags won't stay attached and you'll have to add more glue. After that I keep the frags underwater for few minutes to make sure they set before handling and positioning them, or gluing them to other rock. I also use the buffer rock idea, since I like to frag a lot and glue my frags real close together. It just makes it easy to move the encrusted frags when they grow too close together.

For underwater gluing, you put a big dab on your finger. Rub it on the rock in a circular motion and pull apart to see that it has attached itself. Put glue on frag outside of tank, then rub frag in circular motion on spot of glue on the rock. Pull apart slightly to make sure it's attached. Super glue will usually skin over in water and won't attach to anything, so you have to rub it together to get it to stick, or do it outside of the tank before placing in water.

 

[kevin95695]

I've used cyanoacrylate gels almost exclusively and Xia's tips will certainly relieve frustration.

 

[bladeruner143]

Well, all of the frags that I have, have been attached to LR rubble, so all I have to do is glue the rubble to another bigger rock. I have never actually "fragged" one of my corals and when the time come, I think I'll just go sit in a corner and cry!!! Thanks for all of the input guys!

 

[Auntbeez]

I know what you mean about sitting in the corner and crying, I fragged my frogspawn yesterday. It needed it as it had grown big, but it felt like I was cutting a puppy in half. I am happy to report both the mother colony and the frag are doing well.