Frustrated, Ideas needed!

[LBCBJ]

Just brought home a $129 acro colony, one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, and another $59 purple frag. Went to epoxy them as usual with Deltec Aquascape epoxy....it was a disaster, not my lucky day. Neither acros would stay on place, so I was forced to hold them in place for over 5 minuets with my bare hands touching the polyps. I was able to get one to stick (after falling a few inches), the other one refused to stick, so it's on the sand until I can figure something out. A few of the polyps now have epoxy on them also and the water clouded for over 2 hours from the epoxy. This has never happened before! Do these corals have a chance, or is this not too big of a problem and I'm just overreacting. How does everyone else secure their SPS? I really need help here

 

[cwegescheide]

As far as frags go I use superglue or superglue gel. I take the rock I want to attach the frag to out of the tank and gently dry the area of the rock that I want to glue to. I've also glued a nice sized table acro like this too.

 

[LBCBJ]

The lights have been off for about an hour and the wild colony has about 80% PE, is this a good sign? The other has no PE so far

 

[LBCBJ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7754603#post7754603 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cwegescheide
As far as frags go I use superglue or superglue gel. I take the rock I want to attach the frag to out of the tank and gently dry the area of the rock that I want to glue to. I've also glued a nice sized table acro like this too.

I really wish I could do that, but I'd have to my rockwork apart to get the rocks out

 

[kevensquint]

I would use carbon to take any crap out of your water. And use the superglue. Just take the frag, hold it upside down, you can keep the branch's submerged, pat dry the underside of the plug or whatever the frag is growing on. Then empty at least half the tube of superglue GEL, making a nice big blob. As soon as this blob hits the water it will start to cure, quickly put it down to its spot on the rock and push while twisting slightly, this will work into the still wet glue in the center of the blob, hold it in place for a minute or so. Works very well, but gets expensive in the glue departement if you often buy frags.

 

[LBCBJ]

Can I use just any superglue gel? Is it reefsafe? (I guess it is or you wouldn't be telling me)

 

[DaddyJax]

Yes, it is reef safe. I use the gel and a piece of rubble or plug as stated before. Let it sit out for a few minutes to dry and place in the tank. Sometimes I will drill a little hole in the rubble if needed.

 

[PUGroyale]

For the coral mounting impaired

ALWAYS use superglue gel if possible in favor of 2-part putty.
NEVER allow coral to touch 2-part putty. It uses a chemical reaction to harden which generates considerable heat... not good for coral.
ALWAYS allow 2-part a little time to set up or it's extremely difficult to work with.
ALWAYS turn your skimmer down considerably or it will overflow within minutes of putting 2-part in the water.
NEVER try and use SG Gel to affix large coral rocks to the reef... gets just as messy and you use too much.

BEST advice I ever got for mounting larger pieces... USE BOTH.
Put the SG Gel on the base of the coral/rock then push on the set-up 2-part and then put more SG Gel on the bottom of the 2-part before pushing it into place.

hth... only kidding about the impaired thing

p.s. I like Dura SG gel... it has a self puncturing cap and is easy to work with.

 

[LBCBJ]

Yeah, a little bit of the epoxy got on a few polyps, more heartache. Still, 80% of the polyps are out right now, which seems to be very good. Doesn't it usually take several days? Is it possibly not a good sign that the polyps are out so fast? Also, in both of my acros there is a very small white crab. I believe these are beneficial to the coral, protecting it from predetors, is this correct? What do these crabs feed on (dont know their name). There is also a medium sized brown crab in one of them also, which makes 2 crabs in the same coral. Is this harmful? I will try the superglue tommorrow and hopefully things will work out better

 

[DaddyJax]

Okay, take a deep breath. PE(polyp extension) is a good sign no matter what. As far as crabs go the only ones that I keep are white with a black line across the eyes, kinda like a bandit. The bad ones have blue eyes and/or hairy.


Over 1000 post in 2 1/2months...you have been busy!!

 

[Charlie Davidson]

Brent, I use the superglue gel at Dollar general..

 

[jda]

For frags, sometimes you are better off using superglue gel to get them onto a small rock and then using 2-part to stick that small rock to the larger rock.

Cheapo super glue gel works well. If you get the tip wet, then you might ruin the applicator, so go ahead and use a bunch. The dollar stores around KC will sell 2-packs for 4-for-a-dollar sometimes. When you see this, buy all that they have and stash it away.

Also, the 2-part putty at home depot works just as well as stuff for the aquarium industry. It is called Aqua Mend and it is in the paint department next to the superglue.