Coral frags?

[Grymatta]

Ok so I've been doing some research into my nano reef project and the one thing that I cant seem to find in books or forums is how the coral that you buy from the store is transfered to your LR setup.

I mean..do you place the frag piece next to or on the LR that you want it to spread on and just wait? What else do you need to do to make it "grow" on a particular spot of LR that you want?

thanks

 

[lordroad]

I've used Holdfast bonding putty, seashells, coral rubble, and superglue to secure my frags. I've also let my faster growing corals, like my gsp, grow onto a shell or piece of rock to frag. Though this coral grows so fast you can almost watch it growing up the glass...

Hearing bad advice from the LFS (never let coral EVER hit the air, yellow polyps die in 3 months, etc), I was afraid to place the corals anywhere other than on the substrate or on a very secure location on the rock that just happened to fit the frag piece of rock.

I now use Holdfast (ugly and kind of sucks, been hard to secure frags IME) and superglue. I've had my zoos and green star polyps exposed to air for up to a minute and they haven't been affected at all. Granted, you probably don't want to do this with SPS or more difficult corals.

I recommend taking out your piece of live rock where you want the coral attached and just supergluing it, if that's possible. Wish I had done this to begin with.

 

[Grymatta]

so...you basically take the tiny frag piece with the coral on it and glue it to your LR setup? This should all be done underwater right?

Does anyone know of a good underwater putty to use for this? What is GSP btw?

thanks!

 

[lordroad]

gsp = green star polyps

Holdfast is an underwater putty. You mix up the two parts in your hand--it's in a silly putty like tube, white on the inside, green on out out--then when it's all white it's ready to be placed under water.

I've glued tiny mushroom frags onto larger LR rubble before, but only out in the air. With my green star polyps, which forms an encrusting purple mat, I used a razor blade to scrape it from the glass then glued the mat to a rock or shell out in the air. I don't think it will work completely submerged, the glue... only takes about ten seconds to stick, then it presumably dries underwater.

I've only done this with softies (zoos, polyps, shrooms). Haven't done it with any SPS or other soft coral... maybe someone else can help you out there. What kind of coral do you have?

 

[Grymatta]

Lord...

I dont have any coral at all right now. I'm thinking of finally setting up my nano cube and realized that I have no idea how to get the coral from the LFS to a LR in the tank!