Montipora Mistake

[GuppyHJD]

I was happy to watch the montipora plates grow out. Once they reached the aquarium sudes they started growing up the glass. When I go to prune the coral back, it does not want to come free from the glass. Suggestions?

 

[20gallonreefer000]

Razor blade?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I agree you could try and frag the coral

 

[DSC reef]

A razor blade will help the coral release from glass

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I just removed years worth of this on my barebottom. Some areas were five inches thick and up the sides by that much or more. I use a heavy duty putty knife. Something that doesn’t have much flex at all. Almost like a 7 in 1 painters scraper.

You can just chip and pry what’s growing up the sides, but I’ll be honest here. I found it much easier and less painstaking to remove a path from the bottom and pry up large chunks. This was much easier (for me) and most everything pops of cleanly that way with little to clean up on the sides. Plus I wasn’t as worried about scratching the viewing panes that way.

I was very nervous as I can’t really see what I’m doing, plus I have a 1st gen RS 750 which are known to burst. The method that worked well for me was to find an edge of the plating coral on the tank bottom. I would go in about an inch or two a then press down on the scraper, maintaining medium pressure, and then rocking/wiggling the scraper back and forth as it worked its way into the coral. I could feel the blade as it penetrated the base and when I hit the tank bottom. From there I would tilt the blade to pry out that one inch section. After that I would ram the scraper under that freshly cut edge (between the tank bottom and base of coral). Wiggling the blade in about an inch under the coral then lifting up on the scraper to pry up the coral. Depending on how thick and dense the base is I found that I would get anywhere from a chunk that was a couple inches, or something a foot long. It was a painstaking process. If I can do it, anyone can!

Full disclosure, this was not easy for me. It took me a very long time. Beside my vision issues, I have tremors, spasms, neuropathy, and am a total weakling now. I started almost a year ago but that little spurt took me down for a long time. Over the last couple weeks I found my groove with the technique I noted above and was able to 10-15 minutes worth a day.

 

[GuppyHJD]

I just removed years worth of this on my barebottom. Some areas were five inches thick and up the sides by that much or more. I use a heavy duty putty knife. Something that doesn’t have much flex at all. Almost like a 7 in 1 painters scraper.

You can just chip and pry what’s growing up the sides, but I’ll be honest here. I found it much easier and less painstaking to remove a path from the bottom and pry up large chunks. This was much easier (for me) and most everything pops of cleanly that way with little to clean up on the sides. Plus I wasn’t as worried about scratching the viewing panes that way.

I was very nervous as I can’t really see what I’m doing, plus I have a 1st gen RS 750 which are known to burst. The method that worked well for me was to find an edge of the plating coral on the tank bottom. I would go in about an inch or two a then press down on the scraper, maintaining medium pressure, and then rocking/wiggling the scraper back and forth as it worked its way into the coral. I could feel the blade as it penetrated the base and when I hit the tank bottom. From there I would tilt the blade to pry out that one inch section. After that I would ram the scraper under that freshly cut edge (between the tank bottom and base of coral). Wiggling the blade in about an inch under the coral then lifting up on the scraper to pry up the coral. Depending on how thick and dense the base is I found that I would get anywhere from a chunk that was a couple inches, or something a foot long. It was a painstaking process. If I can do it, anyone can!

Full disclosure, this was not easy for me. It took me a very long time. Beside my vision issues, I have tremors, spasms, neuropathy, and am a total weakling now. I started almost a year ago but that little spurt took me down for a long time. Over the last couple weeks I found my groove with the technique I noted above and was able to 10-15 minutes worth a day.

Thank you. I am using a scraper and a razor blade. a few inches each time I try. Gonna be a while