Frag Plugs

[GPB]

How do most of you deal with frag plugs. Do you remove the coral from the plug and glue directly to rock or just glue the plug to the rock. Those round plugs are the most unnatural looking things, and i hate them. Seems like LPS, and SPS could be safely pryed off the plug and glued directly.

What do you all do?

 

[d2mini]

I put the plug into my vice on my workbench so the disc is sitting on top and the stem is in the vice. Clamp down on the stem until you hear the snap. Wallah! No more stem. Now you can epoxy the disc anywhere.

 

[Mandragen]

I think most everyone has a different way that suite them best. I think the general opinion is that epoxy and gel glue are the best two ways of adhereing the coral to whatever.

A few methods...

If you have a hole in the rock you can sometimes slip the plug right in for a while. Watch our for crawly critters that might knock it over, it needs to be in there good. This will allow you to see if the coral likes that spot before you glue it down.

Epoxy works best for larger corals and rocks where glue wouldn't quite be enough.

Gel glue can be used, like you said, either plug directly, or pull the coral off and glue the coral on directly. Sometimes if the hole is real small and you are dealing with sps, Ill just pry the frag down in the hole without glue, or maybe just a small amount. If it is a spot where it will stay for a month without being knocked over it will glue itself down.

Softies can be tied down with fishing line and they will attach on their own.

 

[Mandragen]

I put the plug into my vice on my workbench so the disc is sitting on top and the stem is in the vice. Clamp down on the stem until you hear the snap. Wallah! No more stem. Now you can epoxy the disc anywhere.

yeah sometimes i use my fragging bone cutters as well for this, which works well. The disk still looks unnatural, but it covers up as the coral encrusts.

 

[cody6766]

You can also blend the disk into the rock by using epoxy putty. I do this with larger plugs to ease odd transitions. It looks like dog doo until coraline covers the epoxy, but it's all good after that.