Mytee, maybe you can share some of the key points you discussed in fragging, and the dipping discussion? I see a bottle of I think MelaFix, what is that used for?
CR Member
Mytee, maybe you can share some of the key points you discussed in fragging, and the dipping discussion? I see a bottle of I think MelaFix, what is that used for?
"We shouldn't think of an environment where livestock can survive, we should ensure an environment where livestock can thrive."-Rabidgoose
"If it's gonna be that kinda party, Ima stick my ........ in the mashed potatoes!"-Beastie Boys
CR Member
O.K.
We had Seachem coral disinfectant and malafix.
We put a half cap full of Seachem and a half capfull if Melafix in two different cups.
After the corals were fraged we did a 2 minute malifix and a 2-5 minute Seachem dip.
This is to rid the corals of any bugs or pests (except pest anemones) and to disinfect the cut edges. I really don't know if the Seachem works or not but I have had good luck with it.
As for the fraging discussion, we showed a person has many options of how to frag corals.
We used
band saw
Dremmel,
bone cutters,
hammer & screwdriver/chisel,
Razor blade (exacto knife)
Tin snips
On the chalice colony..
We used we used the dremmel and the bandsaw.
Those were also used on the ACAN colony.
On the acro colony we used bone cutters, pair of pliers and a pair of wire cutters (dikes)
to show different ways of getting the branches off..
On the acro's we also showed the two ways of gluing the frags down to plugs. Vertical and horizontal (flat on its side on the plug)
And what the benefits are of each way.
One of course, is vertical so it looks like it's found in nature..
The other (horizontal) is to promote a larger and faster encrusting base to support a larger colony in the future..
On the Acan colony we showed you can cut the heads in to single heads or doubles or more ,and had multiple people come up and try it..
we also showed the dremmel can do some of the work but not as precise
We showed you can cut a lot of the skeleton (under the polyps)
off of the polyp to encourage faster encrusting and spreading of the Acans new growth. And we discussed the benefit of doing this.
Which is, if you leave the coral (acan) frag with a large skeleton they almost always seem to grow into "BALL" shape before spreading out , if they ever spread out.
And it looks better in the tank too.
On the Zoanthid colony we used all the tools (including the razor blade and the tin snips)
With the tin snips (my favorite tool to break and or snap smaller live rocks) we cut the rock after cutting the flesh in between the polyps..
With the hammer and chisel, we showed how you can just "WHACK" away at the rock and not be afraid of killing all the zoo's.
With the razor blade I showed how to remove one or two polyps from the edge and middle of a colony..
Whice is cutting around the polyps I want to remove. and carefully scrape the thin top layer of rock (or frag plug) off, under the polyps. this will give the glue something to stick too better than a polyp with no rock or material on it.
We showed how if you soak your ceramic frag plugs for a few minutes before gluing the frags down to them the glue wont bubble up as much when you put the frags back in water..
We also showed if you put the frag upside down in the water for a few seconds to avoid the glue from "wicking" up on to the coral....
Any questions?
Last edited by Myteemouse; 05-23-2010 at 07:11 PM.
President of Zoaholics anonymous.
still on first step of twelve
CR Member
WoW that was a very nice write up!. I especially like the pointer on hanging the zoa frag upside down so that the glue does not wick up on the coral. Great Job!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
