Temporary coral placement?

[mike1024]

Hi. Do you generally place corals on rocks temporarily to see if they do well in certain spots before affixing them permanently? For corals that come on frag plugs, what's a good option for placing them temporarily on rocks? Thanks!

 

[aggie13reef]

I would say try to find a hole in your live rock where the end of the frag plug can be placed. I always move it around to see if it will stay in place when a snail or fish hits it. Some of mine are still just sitting where I placed them and some I ended up having to super glue down due to snails and my flame hawk.

 

[explorer07]

Yes but it's also a good idea to start them off in the sand bed and slowly move them up on thee rock work for lighting acclimation.

 

[mike1024]

Thanks for the tips. They started out in a frag rack about half-way up. Didn't have any color loss, so hopefully they're acclimated. They've spent between 1-3 weeks there and I was going to start finding them a more permanent spot. I didn't want to commit to anything really permanent though until I see them doing well in their designated locations. There's not too many holes in the rocks but I'm sure I can find some. Thanks again!

 

[sabo]

Even if you glue them down, its not hard to relocate them. Though they do seem to sulk if you keep moving them around.

 

[mike1024]

Even if you glue them down, its not hard to relocate them. Though they do seem to sulk if you keep moving them around.

Thanks. I wasn't planning to moving them repeatedly. I just don't want their placement to be truly permanent in case they're unhappy (not enough/too much flow or light). I don't have the experience to know where things go, other than "high/low/medium" suggestions from liveaquaria, and it would be nice to be able to undo poor placement. Is reef epoxy undoable at all? How do you relocate corals in general?

 

[sabo]

I use a ball of aquakneedit to form to the rock, and use superglue to glue the coral to the putty, and putty to the rock. So basically a ball of putty, glue it to the coral, then put glue on the other side of the putty and push it onto the rock.

 

[mike1024]

Thanks Sabo. I'll try something like that.