keep frag plugs or not...

[Smarkalan83]

Just want to see if I can get some opinions here I have had my tank up for a while now and little by little I have been adding coral crags into the tank....mostly pushing them into the sandbed close as I can to my live rock but now I want to incorporate them into the live rock I don't know the best way to do it....I was told to use putty to build around the drag post and try to attach it to live rock but I don't want it to look unnatural or ugly...I have never fragged anything myself and I don't want to harm corals by trying to cut them off to glue them to rubble...also I'm afraid to take the out of the water to try to glue them because I'm not sure if they would be ok being exposed to air if I can do it fast enough....can I please get some ideas of what I can do to make my tank look better or if I would be better off leaving them where they are in the sand....thanks for any help...

 

[carey]

I've glued quite a few frag plugs to small rocks and the corals have overtaken the plug then the rock. Also allows me to place them where I want without them being light enough to fall over from flow and creatures bumping them.

 

[Smarkalan83]

Do you cut off the plug post first or do you just glue right to rock...

 

[carey]

Just glue mine right to a nook in rock if it has the stick type of plug and if its just a disc plug I just glue the bottom to a flat piece of rock. When I ordered my base rock I asked for several lbs of rubble for this purpose. that way I;m not committed to a huge rock for one little coral LOL

 

[Smarkalan83]

This might be dumb question but when you glue the corals you take them out of the tank to do it and then how long for glue to dry....will the air harm the corals ...also do you have any pictures of the coral in your tank

 

[carey]

I do take them out for a few seconds, I use reef glue gel so it dries really fast. You can keep the corals out of water for a few minutes at most. The coral will of course close up once you start handling it. Just be gentle and dont touch the fleshy parts of the coral.

here are some pictures, tried to include theones I've glued to rocks, I have so many corals lol

 

[carey]

and a full tank shot of the 125g, all the zooas have been glued to rocks as well as my GSP. All of them were on frags and ended up taking over the entire rock I glued them too. Not sure what to do know but frag those onto new plugs. LOL

 

[Smarkalan83]

Thank you I appreciate the help and you tank is very nice...

 

[Smarkalan83]

I'm sorry one more question the one pic I have up that you can see the back end of the blue hippo tang...can you tell what type of coral that is....I have been told a few different things and I would like to know so I know where I would like to place him....thanks

 

[slitherbomb]

I'm sorry one more question the one pic I have up that you can see the back end of the blue hippo tang...can you tell what type of coral that is....I have been told a few different things and I would like to know so I know where I would like to place him....thanks

Looks like pulsing Xenia.

 

[Smarkalan83]

No I have had lots of pulsing xenia that's definately not it....I do have some in 1 pic but I'm talking bout coral in sand at bottom of tank....I was told by one guy its a Kenya tree?...reason I ask is the polyps don't open wide and I was going to live it to the top of the tank

 

[slitherbomb]

Could be Kenya tree, I can't tell because the photo is a bit blue