Rust on frag plug?

ianryd · Jan 17, 2021

Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this but, I placed a tricolor acro frag which was still attached to the plug in my tank a little over a month ago. Today I decided to move it to lower light because its getting bleached. When I removed the frag there was a rust colored stain on the bottom of the plug where it was glued down, and on the putty it was glued to. I did cut the stem of the plug off with a rusty set of garden pruning shears when I first put it in. Could it be rust? Maybe a small amount rubbed off the shears and stuck between the epoxy and the plug? Or something else? Should I be worried about this and check my other frags?

dazoc · Jan 17, 2021

Could be the kind of glue the seller used. I have had some frags come in that when broken off, had the same orange color as your picture. I also could be wrong.

Jonify · Jan 17, 2021

No, rust only forms on iron and its alloys (it would not come in from rusty shears). It's probably the type of glue or a bacteria/algae that prefers the polymers in your glue.

ianryd · Jan 17, 2021

Ok cool. I thought since there was no metal it wouldn't be rust, but thought I'd check. The epoxy I used was the TLF coraline color, so maybe that was extracted by the superglue somehow.

Quiteña · Feb 6, 2021

Did you ever figure out what this is? I’ve seen that as well in one of my zoa frags that I actually lost

((FORDTECH)) · Feb 6, 2021

I see it on almost every one of my frag plugs. Following

Sabellafella · Feb 6, 2021

ianryd said:
Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this but, I placed a tricolor acro frag which was still attached to the plug in my tank a little over a month ago. Today I decided to move it to lower light because its getting bleached. When I removed the frag there was a rust colored stain on the bottom of the plug where it was glued down, and on the putty it was glued to. I did cut the stem of the plug off with a rusty set of garden pruning shears when I first put it in. Could it be rust? Maybe a small amount rubbed off the shears and stuck between the epoxy and the plug? Or something else? Should I be worried about this and check my other frags?

I'll never understand this. Think it's iron binding to something. Some frags will have this some won't so who knows. Super curious also!