I was a little brutal too mine. But like a cave man I took a pair of aviation snips to my bubble coral (pearl bubble) and It worked great, I did not even shock it. Ifully expanded it's bubbles again that night. I have also done this to polyps (white and green), a hammer coral, and a colt coral, all worked fine. I think people get a little worked up about how easy it is to damage a coral, I have had great success so far with bad meanderthal tools