To glue or not to glue...

[MrMikeB]

Hey all,

I was hoping you could provide your thoughts on whether or not you glue down your corals (and frags) or if you have some other way of keeping them stable on the rock work? I have been reluctant to glue down mine, because I like to move the rocks around to change things up, but I grow a bit tired of picking them up out of the sand or other places I find them when a wayward Tang or a crab decides to knock it over. Is there a way to get the best of both worlds (preferably w/o the use of a chisel to bust the frags loose once glued and I decide to move it - )?

Thanks!

 

[Nu2SW]

I glue mine, But I use just enough glue to hold on. Unless you got a supercrab, it shouldnt budge. I do it like that and I can just grab onto the rock the frag is on and with a little force break the glue.

 

[dots]

superglue the small stuff I like the locktite gel the best

epoxy the large......I like holdfast, sticks the best

pry it off with a screw driver if needed.

 

[MrMikeB]

I have supercrabs... and bristle stars that love to rearrange things. Not to mention a mean 'ol Tomato clown whom I personally seen pick up an entire hammer coral and move it to the other side of the tank because she thought it was too close to her anemone.

I also did not want to leave little glue pieces all over the rocks if possible, although I have not tried only a dab of the stuff like you are suggesting. I just figured it would not hold so I never gave it a try.

 

[MrMikeB]

I superglue the frags on little bits of rubble so that they do not come off, its just the rubble ends up in the sand bed (with the frags still attached) when I place it on the LR. Rather irritating when the tank is up 5 ft and is over 2.5 ft deep and you have to practically climb in to get them.

 

[MelodyCorals]

I got so tired of picking stuff up that was moved (in my case mostly by what I like to call my "decorator tang" - a large hippo tang with attitude), I resorted to really sticking stuff down tight, and hoping for the best. I recently moved a lot of rock around trying for a more pleasant arrangement and had to use the screwdriver method mentioned above in combination with a razor blade to move things.

All in all I would say it was better to have to forcibly remove them when moving then it was to constantly remember to scavenge for missing coral pieces and move any number of other pieces trying to fish them back out.

-- Josh

 

[eagleONE]

I've seen a guy drill holes in his rocks... a bunch of them and basically, make plugs for the frags to stick in... that way, he can change it up a bit.

 

[matttaylor]

the hole method is usually what i do. I'll attach frags to pieces of branching rock and then stick them in a hole near where i want the coral to be. This seems to work really well in my tank.

 

[Fragmented]

I glue them down and remove them later if I get the urge or the need arises for the health of the coral. The frags became too much for me to keep track of. I lost a few due to them falling and getting covered in the sand. I didn't notice they were missing until it was too late. I learned my lesson ...glue soon, it's not that hard to remove them for relocation.

 

[MrMikeB]

Fragmented, I know what you mean. Every day, 2-3 times a day I am counting all the frags to be sure they are all there. It's ridiculous! (especially when I am missing 1-2 a day because of the little beasts in the tank moving it).

So it seems the consensus is to attach them to rocks and glue the rocks into holes and just deal with it. No holes? Then drill.

I was hoping for a new fangled trick I just did not know about. I have seen a couple frag 'plugs' be pieces of PVC - approx 1/2" and slit down the middle. The idea is that you glue those into place and then slip in a frag into the slit (it holds a bit of tension if you use sch 40 pipe). The frags are secured and the PVC is attached to rocks. In practice, it did not work out so well. The soft frags would swell up and slip back out that slit or be cut by the pipe. It was different, but not very effective.

 

[eagleONE]

well, what I was suggesting, for example are the flat circular frag pieces, you can take, say an acrylic rod, glue them onto the piece, and put them into holes thats drilled in the rock...

in a sense, its like a large golf tee...

Jay

 

[dots]

I never get tired of the looks I get at Rite Aid when I come up to the counter with 6 tubes.........."gotta glue sniffing party" is what I always say.

If I tell them what its really for, they usually don't believe me.

One of these days I am going to figure out how to order it by the case.........now thats a group buy I could get in on!!!!