Question about how some of you glue your plugs down.

[masssnapz]

I cant find the particular build threads but I have seen one or two sps tanks where they glue the whole frag plug down by the stem and just the tip of the plugs stem is attached to the rockwork. Is there any downside to this at all ? Slower growth ? Or will the frag just overtake the plug and start branching quicker because it runs out of encrusting space ?

 

[Coastie Reefer]

There's s a couple different ways to do it. A lot of people will cut the stem off and glue the top of the plug down. Others will cut the frag or snap it out of the glue on the plug to keep from putting the plug in the tank at all. The benefits of removing all of the plug is that it helps to prevent pests that may have survived dipping or eggs that may be attached from getting into the tank.

I don't think the frag plug plays any part in the growth of the frag... The frag doesn't care what it's on as long as it gets the right combo of light, water chem, and flow.

 

[bubbaque]

Agreed to what is said above but I have seen the treads you are talking about where they glue the whole stem. I read they do it that way because they believe once it encrust the top of the plug it will stop encrusting straight down on to the stem and it will then start to grow branches and not just encrust forever.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

That'd be cool if it actually worked like that. I think I'd end up going back and snipping all the stems though, as I can't imagine a tank full of bare plug stems looks very good.

 

[bubbaque]

I agree, I didn't like the look of it.

 

[happyhourhero]

I cut stems and use a super glue gel > jb water weld > super glue gel sandwich

 

[Turkey head]

For me it depends on the situation. Sometimes the plug helps with placement. I usually super glue it in place then make sure it's happy where I put it. Then I epoxy it down and put some around the edge of the plug to blend it to the rock. Doesn't look too bad after it's there for a while. Sometimes ill remove the coral from the plug and glue it down. The best is when my LFS has frags that are attached to a piece of rock. Glue rock to rock and it looks great. Going forward I'm going to remove the coral from the plug and glue it to a small piece of rock.

 

[BoomCorals]

If the frag is encrusted over the whole plug I try to trim off the stem and underside as an encrusted frag is healthy and will grow faster. Otherwise I just remove the frag from the plug then use superglue to glue it to rockwork.

 

[Scorpius]

A good rule to never break is to never allow any frag plugs from a foreign system into your system. I don't care how much you scrub the frag plug you will miss some pest which will wreak havoc on your tank. Anyways, a freshly cut Acropora encrusts faster versus leaving it on the frag plug.

 

[VP616]

I agree with everything that was said above. As they have already stated, a good prevention measure is to remove the frag plug completely before putting it in your tank.

There are so many different growth characteristics for each type of SPS coral: all dependent on flow, lighting, and water chemistry, that the presence or absence of a frag plug stem will not significantly influence the growth pattern.

 

[dbl]

I personally remove all frags from plugs for the reasons stated above. I glue the coral to a piece of rock rubble after dipping. That way, it's easier to remove if it's not happy where I place it or for any other reason for that matter. Many ways to skin a cat.

 

[Ibn]

Like so?

I typically remount on my own plugs and then will superglue the entire plug down to the rockwork. I like leaving the plug on there until I know that it'll do well where it's at. Having it on the plug makes it easier for me to reposition it the tank as needed. In some instances, it allows me to lift the frag away from the rockwork where it can get more light and/or flow. Once they're in a spot where I want them, I'll snip off the plug and leave the top alone. The Garf grew quick enough where it encrusted all the way down the plug so I just left it alone.

Here's another one.

Sometimes the tips gets broken from either my clumsiness when I'm rearranging thing. In this case it was when I redid the rockwork. Instead of gluing the broken bits onto plugs, I just reglued them back onto the plug base which fused back onto the original piece extremely quickly.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Here's what I do with all my frag plugs...

 

[Luis Figueroa]

would the ability to trim and prune the coral to the desired shape be skewed, if it remains in the plug? growing up and out (tree) or the bottom(base) and out?

 

[Budman's Corals]

i cut stem, glue to its own 3 inch rock then use epoxy to cover plugs for its has a smooth surface to start encrusting on. then mount the rock in display. it makes for easy movement if you need to because of light situation