How do YOU, get your corals to spread?

[DVeit]

As the title says. I'm interested to see how other people go about trying to get their corals to spread/take over a rock? Do you leave it on a frag plug, cut it off frag plug and glue it, place it up next to something? Let's hear your tactics. Example- acan's, brains, etc.

 

[Z06-Hec]

Tagging along...

 

[Finnaddict]

Good water quality, lighting and flow is what you need. Pulling it off the plug or leaving it makes no difference. Neither does placing it next to something. What your looking for is growth to spread and cover the plug/rock. Acans and brains I just place on the sand. Gluing is a good habit to get into so that things stay in place and don't fall into the rock work or the back of your tank.

 

[yellojello]

I pretty much leave everything on the plug unless the place where you want it won't hold the plug, then use glue/epoxy. It will spread out on it's own.

As far as getting it to "spread", I assume this means "grow", and that would be keeping a healthy tank.

 

[SantaMonica]

I have, in the past, glued lps facing sideways to the side of a rock, so that it would hopefully grow up towards the light and thus attach to more rock, but it did not seem to help.

 

[jservedio]

With a lot of time and patience

 

[footballdude2k3]

I leave mine on the plug, once it grows out, you can't tell anyway.

 

[Eric N]

Glue it so that soft tissue is touching where you want it to grow onto. Also, if you want it to take over a large area quickly, cut multiple frags and glue them spread out over the area you want covered. This is a technique developed by aquarists that people are using to restore wild reefs. It takes years and decades to remake a massive brain coral, but if you hack up a small one and glue it all over an existing brain skeleton it takes a fraction of the time to cover it and look normal again.