Hot to frag?

Newbie1 · Jun 24, 2020

High everyone I have a 80 gal reef tank. I have three jets on the right side. Two of them are random flow and the one in the back towards the bottom is a consistent flow. I have an Kessil AP700.i took close up pictures and an overall picture of what I want to frag. My question is how do I frag? And most importantly, where do I put my frag rack? Do I simply place it on the floor? Do I glue it to my magnet and have the rack somewhere higher? But if I do that I’ll have to put it to the sides or front which will be a lower par. And then the question is flow, high? Low?

please let me know!

Webslinger · Jun 25, 2020

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Bosreef · Jun 25, 2020

Where to put the frag rack depends on you?

What are you using it for? To grow out frags for your display or trade?
Just to hold them for you for sale?
To hold them for good pics?
Etc etc...
Frag rack is a tool how use it is up to you.

45ZoaGarden · Jun 25, 2020

Alright! So for the last two pictures, they aren’t quite ready to be cut up yet. For the first two, they definitely are! So what you wanna do with the zoas is
First: gently tap the zoas around the edge of the rock with your hands so they close up a bit.

Second: take your razor blade and get a nice clean cut at the BASE of the zoa closest to the rock. If there’s a zoa mat (flesh with multiple polyps) you simply cut the mat to get the size heads that you wanted.

Third: put a drop of glue on your frag plug, dip the plug into the water, then take it out (you should see the glue turn a milky color)

Finally: (with tweezers) hold the zoa so the mouth is right side up and the cut is glue side down and gently set it into the glue. The entire area where you cut should be completely submerged in the glue. The zoa MUST be completely upright or it will certainly melt.

That’s it! It’s a pretty simple process. Just take your time. It’s the same concept for the Xenia. The only difference is the xenia will grow in little trees. You have to cut the main stem of the tree like structure (that is the base just like the zoas) and glue that part down.

for the frag rack, glueing it is your choice. if you don’t have any sand sifters, I would put it in the sand bed. Try to shoot for a medium to low flow. You don’t want too much flow pounding on the recovering zoas.

muzikalmatt · Jun 25, 2020

To expand on what @45ZoaGarden said, when you're fragging the zoas you'll want to wear gloves. Particularly if you're going to be messing with the large green palythoas on the right. They contain palytoxin that can cause flu-like symptoms if you get it into your system.

Regarding the xenia, it might actually be difficult to glue them to a frag plug. So another option would be to use a rubber ban to gently strap it to a frag plug until it grows onto the plug. Make sure the rubber band isn't too tight or it will cut through the coral. It just needs to be tight enough to keep it from blowing away until it can grow onto the plug.

Newbie1 · Jun 25, 2020

Thank you guys very much! This has made me feel very comfortable to take the leap I to fragging. I’m trying to use these to get credit at my lfs. To cut down on the talking to’s I get from my wife lol. In regards to the mushrooms, I agree the two with the bright green center might be too small, but the orange one of larger than a quarter. Is that too small?

muzikalmatt · Jun 25, 2020

Newbie1 said:
Thank you guys very much! This has made me feel very comfortable to take the leap I to fragging. I’m trying to use these to get credit at my lfs. To cut down on the talking to’s I get from my wife lol. In regards to the mushrooms, I agree the two with the bright green center might be too small, but the orange one of larger than a quarter. Is that too small?

I would recommend letting the mushrooms frag themselves. Most of them propagate either through splitting in half or they move leaving a piece of themselves behind which grows into a new mushroom. You can certainly frag them by cutting down the center through the mouth. However, the issue is mounting them to a frag plug or rock. You really can't glue them down so typically people will place them in a container filled with rubble until the mushroom grows onto one of the pieces of rubble. Rather than cutting them, I like to place loose pieces of rubble or frag plugs next to my mushrooms and hope that they grow onto them naturally.

45ZoaGarden · Jun 25, 2020

Exactly! And don’t forget to wear some sort of eye protection like glasses while cutting the zoas, they can squirt the water and stuff while you’re cutting them. I wouldn’t want that in my eyes!

muzikalmatt said:
I would recommend letting the mushrooms frag themselves. Most of them propagate either through splitting in half or they move leaving a piece of themselves behind which grows into a new mushroom. You can certainly frag them by cutting down the center through the mouth. However, the issue is mounting them to a frag plug or rock. You really can't glue them down so typically people will place them in a container filled with rubble until the mushroom grows onto one of the pieces of rubble. Rather than cutting them, I like to place loose pieces of rubble or frag plugs next to my mushrooms and hope that they grow onto them naturally.