Beginner Coral Placement Confusion

[johnvic]

I think I need reef 101.

I have bought a few corals and they seem to be doing great, which is good. But all I've done to place them is mix up a glob of epoxy and glue the frag to the epoxy and then put the epoxy glob on LR in my tank. This works but looks like I put a piece of rock on my rock, or a frag plug on my rock. What I want to do is put the coral on my rock. I'm assuming I can remove the coral from the rock ( or plug ) that it came on and glue that directly to my LR.

What am I missing ( other than experience )? Any recommendation for info about this?

My goal is to make it look as natural as possible.

Thanks!

[elmafioso52988]

Pending on what coral it is it will cover the whole plug or rock. Once the corals grow out you'll no longer see the plug.
But if you want to remve the coral from the plug just use a razor blade to scrape it off. Then glue it on with super glue you aquariu rock. There are some corals that won't glue. Corals like mushrooms, xenia, and toadstool need to be pressed down onto the rock with a tuber band for a few day until they stck.

[2FarNorth]

Again, depending on what kind of coral your talking about, If it's an SPS, it is really good to get in the habit of removing it from the original plug. Alot of bug and or pests can hide under a frag. When you cut the frag off, you have direct access to the entire coral, making sure nothing is hitching a ride with it.....

Whenever I purchase a new coral (which is almost always SPS) I either pop it off the plug if it's not too encrusted, or cut it off. After going through QT, I take the raw frag and mount it with epoxy either on the rockwork, or on a larger rock that I can mount to my main rockwork.

Most corals such as Acro's, or Monti's will encrust fairly quickly, generally within a couple weeks.....

Of course there's always an exception to this, many Limited edition or High-end corals will be fairly small, under say 1".... this case, you may want to just keep them on the plug until they grow up more....

[johnvic]

What is the easiest way to remove the coral from the plug? Obviously I want to be gentle with the coral. But I probably need some force to break the plug.

[fivel]

I use a razor blade and slide it between the coral and the plug... actually just did it yesterday for a leather coral I have.

[2FarNorth]

I generally use either bonecutters, or side snips (some people call them wire cutters) It depends on how much they are encrusted... (if your talking SPS)

[johnvic]

This is good info. Thanks!

[fivel]

I have heard from people that using the superglue gel directly on the coral itself is a no-no... is that true? I glued a leather frag down the other day in my reef but he had was attached to coral rubble so I didn't actually have glue on him, but was curious as I hope to start fragging in the near future as my xenias continue to grow like crazy

[lcstorc]

Super glue gel is perfectly fine for the coral but often does not work for softies. The soft corals just slime up and slide off of the glue. Your best bet there is to put the frag in a small dish with some rubble in an area of low flow. The frag should attach itself to the rubble.