Falling frags!

jessikarabbit · Dec 31, 2012

Every morning I'm noticing frags that have fallen or disappeared in the tank. The current is relatively strong, and the frags that we have received from Reefs2go usually dont come on plugs. We've tried the Instant Ocean green/ white epoxy when we were working our live rock and it did nothing for us. :neutral: I've been reading superglue does the trick, but my question is do you apply it to the frag of the coral and immediately put it in and attach to the rock, or do you do everything in the water?

Please help! I have a frag of ides of march suffering!

Spike2484 · Dec 31, 2012

Superglue works well. Make sure you buy GEL superglue. I pull the frag out of the water and try to dry the base. Squirt on the super glue and give it 30 seconds or so to try. Then place it where you want it in the tank an hold it there for about a minute while it hardens.

Patty · Dec 31, 2012

What I do is I grab the coral put superglue on it dip it on the tank until the glue goes from translucent to white and I attached it to the rock, if you want to attach it to a frag plug you can do that by doing all this on a plastic container filled with tank water. Superglue works great but you have to put a good amount on the coral and if you are attaching it to the rock, you got to keep your fingers putting some pressure for the frag to glue to the rock.

Also if you are fragging or attaching palys and Zoas with superglue makes sure you don't get any superglue on the polyps, hope this info helps.. They are also YouTube videos that can help you visualize how to do it.

Take care,
Patty

jessikarabbit · Dec 31, 2012

Will superglue make our skimmer go crazy? The epoxy sure did. Thanks for the input!

Aquaph8 · Dec 31, 2012

I use a mix of super glue and epoxy, glue epoxy and then glue again. Super glue makes my skimmer go flat for a bit but doesn't make it go crazy.

SNAKEMANVET · Dec 31, 2012

I use the superglue gel,it will make my skimmer quit skimming for about 10 minutes.

Mstansbery · Dec 31, 2012

You can also "prime" the area you're going to be attaching the frag to with a dab of SG gel! :wink:

jdl513 · Dec 31, 2012

Superglue works well for smaller stony frags.
You can use gel, but I find the liquid superglue bonds a little faster.
I usually have the frag out of the water for two to three minutes, but frags that make an inordinate amount of mucus take longer to set.

1) Place enough superglue on a dry plug to make a contact area slightly larger than the contact area of the frag to be mounted, and let it sit for 30 seconds to begin curing.
2) Remove the frag from the water and tamp the spot to be glued with a paper towel.
3) Mount it motionless till the glue takes hold. (This time will vary depending on the temperature, humidity and coral type)
4) If needed place small amount of glue around the base of the attached frag to reinforce the bond.

I don't really notice a response from my skimmer as the glue as I am not using a lot of it, and most of it has set before being placed in the water.

WillKatt · Dec 31, 2012

Another trick i have found helpfull if you dont have any of the gell type SG available is to put the glue in the freezer for a bit it will behave more gel like. After applying some glue to the end of the frag dip in some tank water so it skins up. All good advise here.