Removing Frags From Plugs

[Chitownpw]

Do people generally remove frags from plugs at some point? If not, will the coral's growth be stunted or adversely affected?

 

[Ma_reefer]

I removed my montiporas and glued directly to pices of lr rubble but no I wouldn't see why growth would be affected by leaving it on the rock

 

[Mark9]

I remove everything from plugs and put on rocks.
Super glue gel for lps & sps, rubberband for softies.
Don't think it hurts their growth at all.

 

[Coelli]

It depends on whether I can hide the plug or not - if not I glue to a piece of LR rubble, then glue that to the rock.

 

[Reef_Paddy]

Hate the artificial look of frag plugs stuck to LR. Take em off and directly attach.

 

[itche_scratche]

Small frag, leave it on the plug. Larger frag, remove and glue on small rock. Once fully acclimate to tank and light move it to desire location.

 

[Johnseye]

Is there a good way to glue zoas to LR? SPS and larger LPS frags are easy. Individual zoa polyps look to be a pita. Looking for tricks of the trade.

 

[Odysi]

So what do you do with spa that have encrusted already? I have some that are like that and would love to take them of the plugs.

 

[rgulrich]

Depending on the frag, I do either. I haven't found the coral growth affected by leaving it on the plug when I mount it to the rock. Nor have I found it distracting when the coral grows over and off the plug onto the rock - it blends in pretty well. There is the challenge of "fitting" the plug, or even the frag at times, to the desired location, and that can take some finagling around. Whichever approach I use, I try to save as much of the original frag as possible. If I end up removing the frag from the plug it has already encrusted, I tend to re-grow a new frag on the old plug from the remaining chips.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Ray

 

[Odysi]

I guess that's a wAy to go cut the stick at the base a leave the encrusted part to grow out.

 

[Fish Ed]

I usually don't because I can snugly fit the plug into a hole on my LR, sometimes epoxy is used to keep them in place better. In time, it'll usually encrust or grow past the plug. Or algae will just blend the look of it.

 

[gREEF stricken]

I just take my diag cutters and snip off the peg. Leaving you with just the disc. Much easier to glue to your rock. And it does not take long for the natural progression to disguise the disc.

GS

 

[chefbill]

Is there a good way to glue zoas to LR? SPS and larger LPS frags are easy. Individual zoa polyps look to be a pita. Looking for tricks of the trade.

Ive heard of people using plastic toothpicks through the zoa foot and then gluing the tooth pick down. Another way is to be a little more aggressive (and a lot more careful) and scrape off some of the underlaying plug, rock or whatever it was attached to off, then gluing the rocky bits instead of the zoa itself.

 

[Mark9]

Is there a good way to glue zoas to LR? SPS and larger LPS frags are easy. Individual zoa polyps look to be a pita. Looking for tricks of the trade.

For zoas, I just glue them to rocks with super glue gel, never had a problem doing this.

And like chefbill said, toothpicks in softies works too.

 

[msderganc]

i just take my diag cutters and snip off the peg. Leaving you with just the disc. Much easier to glue to your rock. And it does not take long for the natural progression to disguise the disc.

Gs

+1

 

[Tattoocean]

I just traded some corals the other day and received my 1st plug. So left it in the sand until I found a place to put it when it gets transferred to the new tank. But in the mean time, needed some space for new frags I was cutting and seen a nice spot in my bali. Which made me think, how about drill a hole in a rock Id like this to grow on and place there for a while. And when it has grown out enough, I can place it somewhere else to do it again and again.... This is coming from somebody who just fragged out 5 toadstools when I already have 10....lol!!!!!!

 

[Reef Bass]

how about drill a hole in a rock Id like this to grow on and place there for a while. And when it has grown out enough, I can place it somewhere else to do it again and again...

I've done this to hold those bigger than egg crate hole ORA plugs. Live rock generally drills very easily. And yes, it was convenient for a while, though I don't do it any more. I usually just snip off the peg from the frag plug and mount the disk easily. For ORA plugs I'll use epoxy and superglue gel. The process is apply glue to bottom of plug, push it into a marble to superball size ball of epoxy, apply glue to the bottom of the ball and push it onto the rock. Sometimes a little twisting while putting onto the rock seems to help lock it in / on.

I like to use epoxy when mounting frags coming off the sides of rocks instead of balanced on top. Sometimes I'll use a plastic stick or something like that to support the frag from beneath while the epoxy and glue harden. After about 10-15 minutes it's safe to remove the support.

 

[Tattoocean]

like to use epoxy when mounting frags coming off the sides of rocks instead of balanced on top. Sometimes I'll use a plastic stick or something like that to support the frag from beneath while the epoxy and glue harden. After about 10-15 minutes it's safe to remove the support.

I will def keep this in mind for the near future. I could see how beneficial it is to mount on the side. You could then butt it up against 1-3 other plugs growing it out in different directions at the same time.....Winning!!!
The plugs I received were already over grown trying to stretch and touch near by rock. Which gave me the idea of drilling the hole and placing the in for my display.