Beginner Coral Placement

[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? Should I be cutting the piece of rock that the frag came on to make it smaller with a dremmel?

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

Thanks!

 

[michaelp]

You shouldn't remove the coral from the plug. Just insert or glue to the rock and in a couple months the coral will grow to overtake the plug.

 

[Kaz289]

If u can avoid glueing them down right away do so, that way if u feel the need to re aquascape u can without risking the corals. I leaned that lesson the hardway now if I can, I try to place my corals on a flat piece of live rock where they wont fall over or get knoocked over easily. In the event I want, have or need to move something around I can.

 

[reefman]

i dont like the plug look either. however, i would allow the frag to acclimate to the tank for awhile to reduce stress. when it seems to be doing well, then u can try to remove it n glue it to a rock. some plugs r easier to re-frag than others. if the base is covered,then u may just have to frag the frag, however, it does increase the risk of stressing the frag out.

 

[SevTT]

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? Should I be cutting the piece of rock that the frag came on to make it smaller with a dremmel?

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

Thanks!

Easiest thing to do is just snap off the post on the back of the plug and epoxy the thing to something else; whatever's growing on it should encrust the plug, and if it doesn't coralline will.

In some cases you can easily remove the frag from the plug, in others, you can't without causing damage to existing tissue. Plus, leaving it on a plug allows you time to decide if you really want that coral there.