procedure for adding new SPS frags?

[aural]

how do you guys prepare SPS frags to be put into your systems? I know a lot of the zoanthid guys swear by fresh water dips to get rid of pests, does this apply with SPS coral as well?

What are your acclimation procedures?

How do you mount your frags? i've seen a lot of people that use superglue and stick them on small pieces of rock... i've also seen a lot of people that use marine epoxy and stick them directly onto their base rocks. Using this method, will the coral grow over the epoxy? (i imagine it would as long as it is doing well)

anyway - i'm just starting to get some SPS corals and i am getting a new aquarium specifically for them. just wanted to know your thoughts on this subject.

cheers

 

[jay24k]

Depends on how they come in.

I generally only get from trusted places so I don't do a dip yet. I plan on doing it but haven't bought the stuff yet. I have yet to get red bugs.

Corals that come in mounted: I stick on the sand bed for 1 week and then I begin moving them up. I generally only buy sps from metal halide tanks so I'm confident my lighting isnt overdoing it. When I move them up, I clip em off the plug and glue em in place.

Corals that aren't mounted, I glue right away to rubble or in the place I want. I use a portland cement mix so if I glue them to rubble, I can cement them to a rock easily.

For my accilimation, I temp them. After that I hang them upside down for about 45 seconds and let all the water drip off. They slime up and repel water. I then dunk em in. I have probably 60+ SPS types and multiple others and have had 0 issues. This is only with sps that I do that though.

 

[Justin/TiV]

I do the same thing...I'm new to this...but friend of mine got me doing the same thing. Never hung one upside down though. Just take them out of my frag bucket long enough to glue it down.

I use super glue gel, and marine epoxy. I just take some rubble, put on gel glue, then put on epoxy, then put more gel glue on. I then take the frag out of the water, smoosh it into the glue and epoxy gently. This has worked for me so far.

I just bought some iodine dip for corals. But haven't tried it yet...still a little scared. Is it supposed to bring out the color faster ?? Thats what I've heard

 

[aural]

excellent suggestions so far. anyone else care to chime in?

thanks guys!

 

[DarkXerox]

A lot of people will quarantine and use different reef dips to make sure that all of the current parasites are kept off.

As for new frags, I like to have them put on top of a piece of rubble or in a snail shell until they heal over the wounded area. Then I superglue them to a piece of rubble and finally superglue/epoxy sandwich them onto where I would like them. However I tend to wait on that last step until I find a spot where they color up nice.

 

[Horace]

Perhaps I am not cautious enough but I have probably 30 or so SPS in my tank and I dont even acclimate them at all before gluing them in. Granted most of them come from 400w halide tanks so I doubt I am giving them too much light with my T5s. I have never lost an SPS yet. I think these corals are more resiliant than people give them credit for.

 

[fishgeeksrus]

we qt everything (corals) that go into our tank and treat with interceptor (redbugs) and Levimosole (sp) (flatworms, acro flatworms, reportedly monti nudis). We had battled red/brown flatworms in the past and redbugs and really don't want to loose our stock to anything.

As for acclimation procedures, Just temp acclimation and adding a little tank water to make sure salinity balances ok. generally we super glue gel everything to a small piece of rubble then place or glue (whichever is needed) the frag into our rockwork. Some swear by leaving the frag unmounted in your tank for up to a week so it "heals" before glueing it to anything, others will glue it in asap. I guess what ever seems to work best for you.....