Removing Finger Leather from Rock

[stscream4187]

So, I have a finger leather that is starting to get pretty large. It was one of my first corals, and it is attached to a piece of my base rock. I cannot remove the rock to remove the coral. Is there any way to remove the coral safely without having the toxins overtake the tank? I have a 125G tank with a 30G sump. Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

 

[reefwiser]

Here is a good thread on doing this.
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/soft-coral-discussion/90938-fragging-attaching-leather-corals.html

 

[Big Dog]

Cut off what you don't want on the base rock and rubberband the rest to a smaller piece of rock with the cut touching the rock. It will reattach and take off again. You can cut multiple pieces also and frag. Very hardy coral and really no worries that it will NOT survive the cutting.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Can't really do it safely, without the toxins running about. When you get ready to do it, get carbon running on the system beforehand, that will help the situation. Cut away using a utility blade what you need.

 

[stscream4187]

Thanks everyone.

 

[TJ's Reef]

If you are wanting to keep and just re-position it or sell it as a whole I have had good success using bone cutters and slowly cut away LR at base of Coral leaving behind small fragment of the rock still attached to Coral. This allows you to reattach it more easily and exactly what I'll be doing soon in new tank upgrade to re-postion a couple of Leathers

Cheers, Todd

 

[mfinn]

I pull leathers off live rock all the time and don't have a problem with "Toxins overtaking the tank".
Cut it off or just pull it off.
If you really want to use carbon.

 

[stscream4187]

Well, for future reference, I didn't experience any toxins leaking in the tank and ruining anything. I hacked it up with scissors and glued it to frags last night and everything still looks just fine. Thanks for all the advice everyone!