Coral Frag Plug Too Big, Need some advice

[georgeburt]

Hello all, I’m new to reefing and I have started off my journey with a Red Sea Max Nano, all is going very well!

I bought my first coral yesterday which is the torch you can see in the photos, I think it’s happy?

Anyway, it’s come on this big black square frag plug which doesn’t have a stem underneath it, is there a way I can maybe trim the plug to make it that bit smaller? Or maybe take the coral off of the plug? Just really don’t want to hurt the coral, also I secured it to the rock yesterday with 2 part epoxy, so not sure how hard it’s going to be to get that plug off the rock again Really new to corals and don’t know much at all about fragging etc. Just really don’t like the size and shape of the plug.

Any help or tips would be very much appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[Daddy-o]

Pop it off the ugly square and glue it directly to the rocks

 

[georgeburt]

Pop it off the ugly square and glue it directly to the rocks

How do I do this without damaging the coral? The square is secured to the rocks at the moment with DD’s epoxy so I need to somehow try and get it off. What is the best glue also?

Thank you for your response.

 

[polyppal]

How do I do this without damaging the coral? The square is secured to the rocks at the moment with DD’s epoxy so I need to somehow try and get it off. What is the best glue also?

Torch stems are pretty tough, you should still be able to pry it off with a razorblade pretty easilly, if not cut it off low at the base.

Use a thick gel superglue like BSI OC-Gel. Put a good size glob on the bottom of the coral and push it and hold in place on the rock. after a minute or two should hold by itself

 

[georgeburt]

Torch stems are pretty tough, you should still be able to pry it off with a razorblade pretty easilly, if not cut it off low at the base.

Use a thick gel superglue like BSI OC-Gel. Put a good size glob on the bottom of the coral and push it and hold in place on the rock. after a minute or two should hold by itself

Thank you for your reply, much appreciated! But the problem is I have used 2 part epoxy to secure the square plug to the rock, how do I get it off? Would I not be able to pull the stem of the torch off the plug then do you think?

thank you again, your help is much appreciated!

 

[polyppal]

The smooth surface area of the tile means the epoxy will prob break off easily if you get under it with a screwdriver or something.

 

[mdb_talon]

A dremel, hacksaw,etc can be used to cut the skeleton right above the epoxy if needed. Plenty of skeleton there and should be fine.

 

[georgeburt]

The smooth surface area of the tile means the epoxy will prob break off easily if you get under it with a screwdriver or something.

Thank you very much for your help! Much appreciated.

 

[georgeburt]

A dremel, hacksaw,etc can be used to cut the skeleton right above the epoxy if needed. Plenty of skeleton there and should be fine.

Thank you for the helpful reply, do you think there’s a possibility I’d be able to pull it off or not? Thank you again!

 

[georgeburt]

A dremel, hacksaw,etc can be used to cut the skeleton right above the epoxy if needed. Plenty of skeleton there and should be fine.

just to make it a bit clearer for you too I used epoxy to secure the tile to the rock, not the actual coral itself

 

[Daddy-o]

Stop worrying and give it a try

 

[SamMule]

Wedge a flat-tipped screwdriver between the rock and tile. Gently twist, and it will pop loose.

You can use the same technique to remove the torch from the tile as well.
The stem below the fleshy part of the torch is not living tissue, so don't worry about damaging the coral.

 

[mdb_talon]

just to make it a bit clearer for you too I used epoxy to secure the tile to the rock, not the actual coral itself

Oh i see. Then it may be tough to get the tile off rock unless you can remove the rock from the tank easily without stirring all your sand up. The other option is leave it and get one or two similar sized torches to put next to it and hide the big tile as they grow.

 

[georgeburt]

Wedge a flat-tipped screwdriver between the rock and tile. Gently twist, and it will pop loose.

You can use the same technique to remove the torch from the tile as well.
The stem below the fleshy part of the torch is not living tissue, so don't worry about damaging the coral.

Thank you very much for your help, very informative. Going to give it a shot tomorrow. Thanks again!