First coral - mounting options and advice

[drolmaeye]

Bought my first few pieces of coral last night. I am looking for some advice on how to place the pictured Acan on my rock. I understand I have at least three options:

1) take frag disk as-is and glue it to my rock (frag disk is kinda big, maybe even 2"/50mm in diameter)
2) cut the frag disk down until it is about the same diameter as the stony part of the coral and glue it to my rock
3) (try to) gently remove coral from frag disk and glue coral directly to my rock

Can you help me understand the main pros and cons to each method (or better what 's your preferred/hated method and why)?

If I go with option (1), will the growth look weird when it gets to the edges (will I be able to see the circle shape in the coral)?
If I go with option (2), will it cause a big height difference between the coral and my rock and make it harder for it to grow? Will it adhere to my rock?

I may or may not be a control freak, and I'm trying to let go of some of that with this hobby, but I still like to do things "the right way" and that's clearly creeping in here a bit.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[blaxsun]

#1 or #2. The plug is quickly covered in coralline algae and/or the coral as it grows anyway.

 

[LVMIERE]

Hi there! been in your shoes before, try to stay away from number 3 for a start. I remember my first torch I got and the guy said simply use bone cutters and remove the frag from the plug. Basically cracked the whole skeleton vertically.

My advice, use the bone cutting snips and snip the exterior diameter of the plug until you get to the same diameter as the coral stem. Mind you please do it in small chunks at a time, doing it in large chunks without experience tends to give you a surprise and cause a fissure crack through the whole plug and worst may travel up to the coral stem. Use eyeprotection if possible, those cracked chunks tend to go supersonic in all directions, had a piece in my eye once but thankfully didnt end up as Jack Sparrows partner with only an eye left.

I have not a clue what magic strong glue they use but its just hardcore as hell here haha.

Good luck and looks super btw!

 

[mtraylor]

Amen to number 3 as i have lost several torches that way. I dont even try to remove a torch anymore. You can try to put bone cutter on edge of coral between disk and coral bottom and apply a little pressure by simply trying to close the bone crushers. If it moves you are in business. If not. Use your other options.

 

[Fish Styx]

Just go with option #1. It will get covered soon enough. Happy reefing!

 

[drolmaeye]

Appreciate the advice from all. I put all three corals in more long-term spots yesterday during WC and maintenance. For the hammer and zoa, I cut the stems off the plugs and went for option 1. For the acan I went for option 2 to reduce the size of the disc, but there was still a border of disc all around. Three little frags in, looks like I'll need another 50 to fill it, LOL. *grabs wallet*

 

[SandNRocks]

I know you’ve already found a solution but I’ve gone with option 3 for all of my acans... And most of my zoas and just about anything else i can get off of the plug. If i cant get it off, i cut the stem off at least.

That one looks like you could get a screwdriver or something under the skeleton pretty easily and just pop it off. Otherwise if youre careful, bonecutters should work. I use just plain old wire cutters out of the tool box. In my experience that type of skeleton would be less likely to fracture than a torch’s skeleton. The key i guess is that your trying to cut the glue and get underneath rather than cut the skeleton. and don’t force it lol. If its not gonna go, thats when something breaks.

FWIW coral tends to be much hardier than you realize. Ive cut frag plugs and sents zoas flying across the room, dropped things, etc... and just yesterday i held an acan against a table and used a multitool to cut a bunch of glue off the bottom to remount it. It definitely didn’t like that, but It was fine like 3 hours later.

also, down the road if you dont like the look of the frag plugs under your coral, you can get some coral putty and it around the edges to look more natural.

 

[SandNRocks]

Also to answer a question about whether the coral will take the shape of the plug, it depends on the type. An acan wont, its going to grow its own skeleton but something that encrusts will take the shape of the plug, and then grow from there. Heres a photo of a montipora digitata that i have thats a perfect circle lol.