I'm new to coral frags and would like to know if I need to scrape encrusting Coraline algae down to bare rock before I "super glue" a frag plug to a piece of rock? How many use super glue gel, marine epoxy, or just wedge the plug into a crevasse in the rock? Thanks in advance.

Klinemw

I haven't glued my frags before. I have used the epoxy. 2 brands one was good and the other turned white and was crappy. I now just wedge it in the rock so I can pull it off and frag for people when needed. I imagine if you glue to coraline then the coraline will die and flake off taking the plug with it. Hope this helps!

I have two small montiporia cap. frags; one is bright pink and about the size of a nickel, the other is purple and about the size of a quarter. I would like for them to grow on a near vertical surface on one of the rocks in my tank. So, because of the fear of dying and flaking Coraline algae, I scraped the rock down to a solid surface where I want to glue my frags and used super glue gel to quickly stick these frags on the sides of the rock. I hold them in place for over a minute and everything is great. The pink one will appear solid and then after the second or third day, it pops off the rock. This has happened three times with the pink and once with the purple. It takes at most three to four seconds from the moment the super glue is put on the frag until it is mated to the rock. What am I doing wrong? I know this repeated handling and very brief periods out of the water are not good for these corals. I don't want to glue dead coral frags to my rock before I get this all figured out. Could it be my Loc-tite brand of super glue gel? Any advice would be appreciated. I'm expecting the pink one to fall off tomorrow evening or Thursday morning...if the trend is correct.

Klinemw

I had a similar issue.. my solution? cover the hell out of the portion (on the bottom) of the coral or plug you wish to stick.. it took a lot to get a green plate coral to stick... make it thick and heavy and hold it there for 20 seconds before taking your hand off. If its a large plug, use a lot of putty to hold it in place... Otherwise, let the coral sit on the bottom of the tank for a few days before trying over again, this will help reduce the stress on the thing for a bit of time.

Thanks for your advise. That's pretty much what I did this last time, but it looks like there is a big glob of white glue between the coral and the rock. The upside is that the frags are still sticking out from the rock like wings. I guess my best hope is to make sure that the water chemistry is great so they grow over the glue and encrust directly to the rock quickly.

These frags are not on plugs, they're just chunks of coral cut off the original colony. There is no way to glue a plug on this rock without building up a branch with marine epoxy putty. If they come off again, I think that's what I'll do...basically make a little shelf and then glue the bottom of the frag to the epoxy shelf. Eventually, the shelf will be hidden by the coral or covered with Coraline algae. That might even look better in the near term.

Now is the hard part...waiting to see them grow. I sat there and enjoyed looking at the tank for two hours last night and couldn't see any change. I can tell you that corn grows faster.

Thanks again.

klinemw

lol, yea, they're slow growers for sure. look every week, not every day, and you may see something.

posted twice.. sorry bout that.....

Update...my coral frags have stayed on the rock now for several days, so I think that I just wasn't using enough glue. The purple frag is starting to grow with a lighter colored thick edge forming on the frag. Can't see any change in the pink, but it doesn't show any signs of distress either. Thanks for the advise. I think I may just about be ready for some thing new, maybe even on a plug.

klinemw

Sounds good! in a some weeks, you'll notice the zoas spreading out a bit. you may notice the new zoas may not have the same colors, thats due to different lighting and tank parameters than where they originated. The plugs may need putty instead of glue.

Thanks for your response, but it generated a couple of questions.

1) From your comment about zoanthid colors, it sounds like they develop differently based on the environment "at birth" rather than from the original DNA from the parent polyp. If the environment is that important, what can be done to change that environment to help influence the colors of the developing zoanthid bud?

2) When we talk about putty, is that just a larger block of marine epoxy shaped prior to hardening? Or, is there something else that's used to bond coral fragments other than marine epoxy or super glue?

Thanks again.

Klinemw

wow really amazing