Annoying plugs for frags

[Ray Kallaher]

What is really annoying are the frag plugs. They are there for the coral to adhere to...great. Aquascaping with them is a major pain because of the way they are designed. I don't have enough perfectly-sized holes in my reef rock to handle them all. What would be really nice is if some of them were just flat on the bottom so I could glue them a variety of other places. I have been using acrylic frag plug holders as a temporary "home" for my frags, but that is not a sustainable solution. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[bluemon]

What is really annoying are the frag plugs. They are there for the coral to adhere to...great. Aquascaping with them is a major pain because of the way they are designed. I don't have enough perfectly-sized holes in my reef rock to handle them all. What would be really nice is if some of them were just flat on the bottom so I could glue them a variety of other places. I have been using acrylic frag plug holders as a temporary "home" for my frags, but that is not a sustainable solution. Does anyone have any ideas?

Most people just snap the bottom "plug" portion off.

That way you get that "flat" piece you are looking for.

I sometimes go to the extreme with corals that have not encrusted yet, where I just nip the coral off the coral plug entirely. Your mileage may vary with different corals though

 

[TX_REEF]

i love this product, I've started using it recently: https://amzn.to/3IQqOSp . You can snap off smaller squares as needed as coral encrusts over it. You can also, as bluemon said, just use some shears, bone cutters or brute force to break off the bottom "plug" piece of standard plugs.

https://amzn.to/3IQqOSp

 

[exnisstech]

Cut off the plug stem or remove the coral from the plug.

 

[edsbeaker]

I remove the coral from the frag plug.

 

[BonnieB]

I do the same as bluemon with either taking the plug post off with bone cutters or if I think I won’t hurt the coral remove it from the plug entirely. The latter is my preference although I make sure where I am going to place it is permanent in that case.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

What is really annoying are the frag plugs. They are there for the coral to adhere to...great. Aquascaping with them is a major pain because of the way they are designed. I don't have enough perfectly-sized holes in my reef rock to handle them all. What would be really nice is if some of them were just flat on the bottom so I could glue them a variety of other places. I have been using acrylic frag plug holders as a temporary "home" for my frags, but that is not a sustainable solution. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Talisker]

Cut off the plug stem or remove the coral from the plug.

So I was going to ask a similar question. I cut the plug off but how do I make this look more natural. Will it hurt the coral if I remove it at the base? And reglue to rock?

 

[exnisstech]

So I was going to ask a similar question. I cut the plug off but how do I make this look more natural. Will it hurt the coral if I remove it at the base? And reglue to rock?

You could do that but TBH that piece doesn't look great. I would probably leave it for now and maybe think about glueing it down later when it has started looking better.

 

[Talisker]

Ya, just got it yesterday. Something knocked it over last night and it spent the night upside down in the sand. Just tacked it down. Hopefully opens up.