How Do I Frag An Aussie Acan???

[Kevin34]

I know the easy way is just breaking it including the rock or plug that its on. But what if I want to keep the plug in one piece and just "peel" up the acan? How do I do that? I know they are rock hard so I am guessing it isnt too easy??? any tips would be greatly appreciated:bigsmile:

 

[bannshy]

I am pretty sure Acans are Stonies; part of the animal lives in the skeleton (rock.)
My favorite method is to use a dremel with a diamond blade and cut the skeleton. I know some people use a hammer and a chisel but then you never know where it is going to break. I can't always cut in such a way as to not cut some of the polyps in half. but the partial polyps seam to heal and regrow. I don't know if you are thinking of trying to pizza cut a polyp like you can with mushrooms. I would sugest against it though and always try to keep one whole polyp min per frag.

 

[EliteReefs]

I know the easy way is just breaking it including the rock or plug that its on. But what if I want to keep the plug in one piece and just "peel" up the acan? How do I do that? I know they are rock hard so I am guessing it isnt too easy??? any tips would be greatly appreciated:bigsmile:

you can just break the rock but your going to have less success that way.

the best way IMO is to use a WET diamonb band saw. thats what i use and it cuts through then like butter. your goal to to break the rock with at little stress as possible and without tearing the flesh. your going to do some damge and with practice you get really good at it.

when i started it went and bought some super guly nearly brown ones from a store that they were happy to sell at a very good rate. i used those to practice untill i felt ok with cutting into the higher end ones.

I got my bandsaw for only 400.00 so the cost is very reasonable if you plan to do alot of fragging.

for a one time deal you can also used a dremmel or tile saw with good results

 

[Kevin34]

so once the acans skeleton is attached to the frag plug or rock there is no way of getting it off? I would have to break up the plug its on?

 

[vetteman]

Plugs are cheaper than Acans

 

[Kevin34]

Plugs are cheaper than Acans

hahaha very true. I would imagine disks would be even easier to frag them on. Ill have to pick up some of those. thanks for the tips guys.

 

[bannshy]

If it was glued with supper glue like most are you should be able to break that bond with your fingers. I have popped a lot of zoa's off of the plugs they come on. My favorite method is to use the razor blade and poke it under the glue then pry up the usually pop off. I wish I could afford a wet diamond band saw that would be sweet how thick is the blade? Is it circular so you can cut in patterns? I will have to watch the local classifieds and see if I can find one.

 

[vetteman]

Post a pic so we can see what your working with

 

[vetteman]

I have a cheap tile saw from L*wes or H*me Dep*t that was around $80 that works pretty good. I cut the back side but don't cut all the way through to the flesh, I then cut the flesh with a razor and wedge the cut skeleton until it breaks completely through to the top.
and I use tank water to cool the blade.... just rinse it good when finished
and breaking the frag from the plug is usually pretty easy

 

[Kevin34]

here it is. You can see that it has overgrown the plug in the front but on one side the edge of the plug is still exposed. theres around 15 heads on it. grows like a weed.

 

[vetteman]

Hmmmm I need a closer look... I'll PM with my address and you send it right to me away :beauty:

 

[vetteman]

I would try to get a thin blade between the skeleton and plug to break it free from the plug

 

[Kevin34]

alright thanks. haha I'll try to get some frags up for sale/trade next month. pics dont do this piece justice. it is sweet! here is a closeup of one of the heads.

 

[vetteman]

I'm gonna take a guess but it's under 20k's right..

 

[Kevin34]

I'm gonna take a guess but it under 20k's right..

15K. my camera is aweful. every picture it takes is 10X more blue than in person.

 

[Saltysteele]

i think it was calfo or boreman (sorry, not too up on which is which ) wrote an article about fragging them, and he's pretty ruthless. would probably make most of our behinds pucker up to see him do it, but he basically just breaks em up, and not real careful

i'd look up the article for ya, but i'm pretty lazy right now think it was on reefkeepers