Getting some colonies

[AZG]

So this is my first time getting acro colonies instead of frags. I purchased them from aqua sd. Every frag I receive I remove it from the plug, bayer dip, rinse, qt. However these colonies are coming in on live rock which makes me super nervous. Would it be alright to snip it off the rock dip it and glue it to a new plug? Or is that too much stress for a colony? Of course I don't want to kill it but I'd rather not invite pests into the tank. Any experience with this would be great thank you.

 

[mannyhernz]

It's the safest way... remove the animal from the rock..

 

[AZG]

It's the safest way... remove the animal from the rock..

great thank you

 

[mannyhernz]

I buy colonies from will (aquasd) and do exactly what you described for the same reason

great thank you

 

[BoomCorals]

Yes remove it from the base. It’s probably not a live rock base but a mariculture base, and you don’t want that in your tank! It will have all sorts of nasty algae, can have pests, and they often leech stuff into the water.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have noticed a lot of the good vendors are cleaning these bases so algae does not grow back and coraline takes over. Also most corals coming from the wild or mariculture sites aren't infected with pests. At least not to the level that I see them in hobbiests and even trusted sellers tanks and for sale corals. But still these practices are good to do if you dont have qt or isolation tanks.

 

[BoomCorals]

You can’t clean the base to remove phosphate etc that leeches out. Only time can do that, usually takes a few weeks.

 

[jda]

I have had monti nudis (not even on Montis) and some nasty spiders come off of mari bases. Although they might not be prevalent, you only need one to slip through.

If I cannot get them off of the base, I set the base in a glass of kalk for a few minutes with the top exposed to the air. The 12+ pH wreaks havoc on organics.

Although this does not help anybody now, if you are going to be going wild/mari colonies, consider having two prep tanks. The first is just to land them so that they can get accustomed to your home after the move without dips and cuttings and stuff. Then, after a few weeks of looking good, then you cut, dip, etc. and they end up in your normal frag tank. I had a lot less losses when I did this.