SPS keepers, how many of your colonies started as frags...

[PaintGuru]

I know this is a reef keeping NO NO, but I am kinda getting sick of putting these small frags of SPS, that I pay $10-15 for, into my tank. Most of the frags I get either (A) fall over and get lost, (B) fall over and die because they are so small I don't notice that they fall over until it is too late, and (C) just never GROW! While this is not always the case (no growth), most of the frags I have gotten over they last year or 2 have simply disappeard for one of the reasons stated above. Am I the only person that has this problem? Do most of you SPS pros get your colonies as small frags and have a method of keeping track of them and growing them to a nice size? Or do you just get decent size colonies from the LFS? Sorry if this sounds like whining, but it is .

[Geoff]

i have grown just about everything from tiny frags. several less than an inch long.

there are several ways of dealing with the problem you mention.

use plugs like cyberchef has. you superglue gel them to these then stick them in holes in your LR.

what i like to do is take a small ball of the underwater epoxy and stick it to the LR where you want the frag to grow. now push the frag into the epoxy. sticking the epoxy to the LR can be annoying sometimes but with some pushing it will stick. then over the next couple of weeks the coral will start encrusting over the epoxy then onto the LR making it darn near permanant.

G~

[tdwyatt]

failure to gtrow is often the result of failure to encrust at the base due to motion of the frag. It is extremely important to affix the frag to a permanent ( or at least semi-permanent non-moving base in relation to the coral frag, like plugs) within a few days of cutting the frag from the parent colony. If you use the plugs that Don has, you can keep them in a rack of eggcrate, even better, use a nylon washer under the plug, as this prevents encrustation to the eggcrate (and it is a pain to remove the colony then! ). Once you get some growth, the plug can be either inserted into a hole in the rock, or cut away and the base of the colony epoxied to it's final home. Personally I like to drill a 1/4" hole in the rock and glue the entire plug into the hole.

[tdwyatt]

frag rack

[bamann345]

Tom, can I come visit...hehehe. Nice looking frags.

When you say you drill the live rock, you just pull it out of the tank? I have thought about doing that, but it seems like a pain to get it in and out of the tank if it is lower in the tank.

[Casey]

Glue the suckers to a rock no telling how many has fallen down and I lost or let Tom grow them for you and buy some colonies from him

[MiddletonMark]

All frags. I somewhat understand your predicament ... I normally glue them [superglue gel] to rubble rock ... then put them where I'd like in my reef [with 2-part epoxy]. Once the epoxy hardens ... no big deal. I have lost one, thankfully recalled it before it was `gone' and was able to dig it out.

And I'd check your system if you're not getting great growth in a year or two of time. I'd think you'd get maybe 1/4" to 1/2" a month on most [some slightly more, some less] ... but that still means 3"+ a year in growth ... maybe this is a high estimate, but for many of mine I think it to be true gauging what I've gotten since July. Of course, there will be a month or more of encrusting ... but I've had 1" growth every few months on most of mine.

Maybe I'm lucky [knocking on wood as I type ...]

Am I off-base here?

[LongShot]

After upgrading my lighting and increasing the water movement in my LPS-only tank, I decided, more or less on a whim to try my hand at SPS with some frags obtained from NorthStar just before he shut down. Super glued the 1" or so pieces to some small LR scraps, placed them high in the tank, and to my amazement, they've taken off like wild fire. In 6 weeks, I've seen an average of about 1/2" growth with total encrustation of the LR plug and several new branches appearing, especially on the bird's nest.

'Course now that I'm setting up what is intended to be an SPS tank, I'm sure the magic will disappear...

- Bert

[wildernet]

I use all frags simply so that when they do grow it just might look a bit better and I can grow in my abilities with them. I use superglue to mount the frags to concrete mounds using an eggcrate for a mold (Thanks RickO). They never move because that are to heavy for the snails and the current.

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by bamann345
When you say you drill the live rock, you just pull it out of the tank?

I have done that before, but if I don't want to move the rock. I use a hand powered drill with a plastic rod for an extension and a 1/4" bit in an adaptor at the end, Most live rock is soft enough to use this without a problem.

[RWD]

About 3/4 of my corals started as small frags. As stated above, I highly recommend that all frags be mounted to something sturdy. It's not IF but WHEN they will fall over. I lost a nice open brain that I had for years because another coral fell on it. Bob

[Rick O]

About 95% of my corals started as frags. I prefer them that way because I get great satisfaction from watching them grow. I always mount my frags the same day I get them. My current favorite method is to superglue them to concrete/aragonite plugs I made using styrofoam egg cartons for molds. I start them out in the sand to give them a chance to acclimate to my lights and while I decide where in the rockwork I want them. When I get ready to place them I use two part plumbers epoxy to attach the concrete to the rockwork. The epoxy and the concrete quickly become coralline encrusted and blend in with the rocks. Below is a frag that I've had for about two months now. It was a single branch when I got it. Notice the encrusting.

[jeepjon]

I use all frags...I just place them where I want them, they're usually on small rocks or plugs anyway...and then you can use 2-part epoxy until it encrusts into the rock, then its attached pretty darn well...

[yardboy]

Ya know Paint, I can relate. I've had frags that just seemed destined to die, they would not stay glued. But then there are certain ones, for instance the Porites that I broke off a piece of live rock and it kept falling down Several times I completely forgot I had it, then would find it later, upside down and bleached. Now it's growing away. After about 10 attempts, it finally decided to stay where I glued it.
Here is a frag that I thought was dead, I'd cut off another frag to keep algae from growing on it. Tossed it to the bottom of the tank and several days later noticed that it had two polyps still alive. Voila. One day it will be a nice colony and I'll be proud of that accomplishment above anything else I've done as a reefer

[yardboy]

Here it is 40 days later.