Need help! How do I cut up thick SPS colonies in the tank?

[five.five-six]

Well, several of my acro are just out of control. For the past few years, my biggest ongoing maintenance routine has been trimming overgrown acropora colonies. Roughly every 9 months I have to cut out enough that it takes 2-3 5 gallon buckets to bring it all to the LFS. Yea, metal halide lighting sucks like that.

Anyways, I have 2 really thick colonies. One of them grew over a very nice clam and killed it with shade. Last weekend I filled one 5 gallon bucket but couldn’t really get at these 2 colonies with bone cutters. I did get a 15 pound rock out and cut a bunch off with hand saw but most of my rock structure has fused itself together with encrusted SPS, basically now it’s just one 200 pound piece of rock.

I’m afraid to use a hammer and chisel, I think the energy would transfer through the rock and crack my tank. I’m thinking of some sort of dental drill or perhaps using a reciprocating airsaw though I’m afraid the oils would contaminate the tank. The saws are pretty cheep at HF though.

https://www.harborfreight.com/air-reciprocating-saw-58910.html

I think this would work but I’d just have to figure out how to protect the tank from the oil. Perhaps run denatured alcohol through it and lube it with vegetable oil or something that wouldn’t be really detrimental to the tank.

 

[T Diddy]

I’d be worried about the oil as well. Have you considered a “wire saw” like the ones you see in survival kits?? It’s basically a miniature jump rope made of sharpened steel

 

[T Diddy]

It’s nice to know that I can get a pneumatic reciprocal saw for $25 bucks, though!!

 

[five.five-six]

I’d be worried about the oil as well. Have you considered a “wire saw” like the ones you see in survival kits?? It’s basically a miniature jump rope made of sharpened steel

I have a buddy who is a retired dentist, I texted hi about using a dental drill… se what he says. I think it would be slow going but hopefully it is a solution.

 

[five.five-six]

It’s nice to know that I can get a pneumatic reciprocal saw for $25 bucks, though!!

Right? Back in the day they were $200 on the snap-on truck. I use HF air saws a lot. Probably 30% of my business is access control and I use them to cut steel door frames for electrified door-strikes. I use the piss out of them but I do buy the nice ingersoll rand blades. A 5 pack actually costs more than the saw but it’s worth it.

 

[T Diddy]

If you do go with a pneumatic tool, I’d probably recommend a cutoff wheel/angle grinder type tool with a diamond blade as opposed to the reciprocal saw. That’s just too much potential for a resonant fracture like you described with the chisel

 

[T Diddy]

Right? Back in the day they were $200 on the snap-on truck. I use HF air saws a lot. Probably 30% of my business is access control and I use them to cut steel door frames for electrified door-strikes. I use the piss out of them but I do buy the nice ingersoll rand blades. A 5 pack actually costs more than the saw but it’s worth it.

I was gonna say! The blades cost more than the saw

 

[discotu]

use a small hacksaw blade...blade only to get into the tight spaces. Since the skeleton is porous it'll cut through pretty quickly. I wouldn't put any power tools into the water.

 

[T Diddy]

use a small hacksaw blade...blade only to get into the tight spaces. Since the skeleton is porous it'll cut through pretty quickly. I wouldn't put any power tools into the water.

Maybe even a drywall saw would work

 

[five.five-six]

use a small hacksaw blade...blade only to get into the tight spaces. Since the skeleton is porous it'll cut through pretty quickly. I wouldn't put any power tools into the water.

I’ve done this with some smaller pieces. (Saved an Oregon tort mini-colony from begin shaded to death). This was about 1/10th the work I need to do. It took about 45 minutes. I gave the colony to a friend and he lost it in his tank somewhere. His tank is like 280 gallons so I see how it could happen but still, I spent like 45 minutes getting it out for him.

 

[five.five-six]

Maybe even a drywall saw would work

No, teeth are way too corse. The problem with a hacksaw blade is it’s over a foot long. What I’ve done is taken an airsaw blade and superglued it to the handle I cut off a chip brush. Worked pretty good but it’s a lot of work. 32TPI is good for this sort of work.

 

[T Diddy]

I don’t know what kind of space you have to work in, but if you could fit a hedge pruner in there, that would make short work of it

 

[Reefing102]

*Note I have not done this so take it for what’s it’s worth*

What about doing a water change/just general remove water down to below where you need to cut, use a dremel with a cutting wheel, and once done, add the water (or new water) back. I don’t think there’s much of any oil with a dremel tool. Just may need to spray some colonies to keep them wet depending on the amount of time it takes and may need to run water over the dremel area to keep it cool

 

[T Diddy]

*Note I have not done this so take it for what’s it’s worth*

What about doing a water change/just general remove water down to below where you need to cut, use a dremel with a cutting wheel, and once done, add the water (or new water) back. I don’t think there’s much of any oil with a dremel tool. Just may need to spray some colonies to keep them wet depending on the amount of time it takes and may need to run water over the dremel area to keep it cool

That’s actually a great idea!

 

[five.five-six]

*Note I have not done this so take it for what’s it’s worth*

What about doing a water change/just general remove water down to below where you need to cut, use a dremel with a cutting wheel, and once done, add the water (or new water) back. I don’t think there’s much of any oil with a dremel tool. Just may need to spray some colonies to keep them wet depending on the amount of time it takes and may need to run water over the dremel area to keep it cool

Yea, I’ve been thinking of an idea like that. Problem is the tank is a 225 and I only have the capacity to make about 30 gallons of saltwater a day. That won’t get me down far enough.

Not too worried about SPS being dry for an hour or so. They seem to tolerate that quite well

 

[discotu]

Another option is to get an extra long drill bit to keep the drill out of water and drill a series of holes along the part you want to break off. Once you weaken it the bone snips can do the rest.

 

[five.five-six]

 

[five.five-six]

Oh bummer none of those photos show the two large corals


I’ll take some other photos later

 

[Reefing102]

Still pretty cool photos!

 

[Timfish]

Well, looks like you've figured out a solution but I've used these round and bendable hacksaw blades with a modicum of success.

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