Do you keep plugs or do you break the coral off ?

[Sailfinguy21]

Jist wondering what you guys do.. do you keep the corals on the plugs ? Or do you break them off ?

I ask because normally 95% on the time i break my corals off the plugs even if i lose half the coral that encrusted on it. Mainly because even though i dip i dont like nasties coming in on my plugs.

It sucks losing all that growth specialy for sps acroporas or montis ect.

But yea.. just curious. Like this unknown to me acro i got today for 30$ i dipped it and saw really nothing come off it.. but the plug has alot of coraline encrusted on the sides.. i was just going to keep it and i tried to break the stick end off the bottom but i broke the acro off.

Now im debating.. keep the acro i broke off and toss the plug or keep both and have two acros growing. Its got enough encrusted on the plug to grow into a seperate peice.

But is ot worth it ? I heard flat worms lay eggs on the base of thr coral so thats why ive nornally always tossed plugs.

What do you guys think or do ?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

Almost every new coral I get is taken off the plug, dipped, then remounted. I have made exceptions for a few fully encrusted pieces, but in those cases, I usually have snapped the stem, dipped, and used epoxy to cover the bottom of the old plug and remounted on to a larger-sized plug or disk. If you are going to get pests, it's likely going to be hiding on or around the plug.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

So would you just toss the encrusted plug in my pic

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

So would you just toss the encrusted plug in my pic

In the future, if you carefully use a razor blade you can often get a lot of the encrustment to come off by forcing it between the encrustment and the plug and a single scraping motion. I would have done that where the frag plug is exposed on the left of the picture and likely would have got a good bit of the encrustment growth connected with the rest. Doesn't always work.

To answer your question, though, I would have thrown away the encrusted plug. When you get a little further along and nursed some of those frags to colony size you'll want to be careful not to chance disaster with a pest that lived through the dipping process. It'll grow back.

 

[Rilo]

I’ve been keeping plugs. This thread is becoming an eye opener...

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Ive tried box cutter knives it just breaks the encrusting part off in little peices.

I just put the plug ina seperate tank i use for QT on fish and corals

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Also does anyone have any idea what acropora it is ? Here it is before i broke it . Due to the teal and pink color it looks like a cotton candy acropora.

 

[krash7172]

If I understand what a plug is, I keep it. I break off the stem. I am worried about hurting the coral so I do as little as possible to damage. When my I was new I wanted everything to look perfect and natural. Seeing anything man made drove me crazy. Now I just want things to live and the tank is doing great

 

[road_runner]

I keep the plug, I feel breaking off the plug bring more stress to the coral that outweighs the fear of pests.
I dip using coral rx by following the instructions every time I get s new coral. This was and still enough for me so far.

 

[krash7172]

If it is properly attached to the plug then removing is essentially fragging and work...

 

[Kodock]

I always use a dremel to cut the coral off and glue it to a new plug. The only exceptions are corals like alveopora or hammers whose skeletons would be compromised. I just take the risk for those. I just temp acclimate, dip in reef dip for 20 minutes, dremel off, glue to new plug, rinse off again with DT water.

 

[Modest]

For me it depends on the type of plug. I only remove the big and ugly ones

 

[Cell]

I remove from plugs b4 dipping then remount with my own new plug guaranteed free of any nasties.

 

[Katrina71]

It just depends for me. Some I leave.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I remove most of the shaft of of the plug and then go over the remaining plug with a razor blade.

 

[ScottB]

Like others above, the answer depends on the situation. I am lucky to have separate frag tanks for QT. I don't have to rush my dipping and or remounting process. I also keep a strong magnifying lens. Once I dip and inspect I will make the call. Any doubts about the cleanliness after that process and I will remount.

 

[EMeyer]

What I don't get is this whole "remounting on a new plug" business. I remove plugs because I don't want ugly, ugly plugs in my tank. Protection from possible pets is a side benefit.

 

[RichReef]

I try to get them off the plug and either put them on a new plug or mount them right to the rock. Some I have even wedged into a rock and let it grow out. Some I have weighed down with a piece of rubble. It all depends on the coral.

I have made a small rack from eggcrate that fits in a small container that elevates the frag and I'll fill it with peroxide to just cover the frag plug and sizzle everything off.

 

[Cell]

What I don't get is this whole "remounting on a new plug" business. I remove plugs because I don't want ugly, ugly plugs in my tank. Protection from possible pets is a side benefit.

To me this is temporary. The coral will eventually cover the plug one way or another.