How to frag a chalice

[LorenK]

I was thinking to frag my chalice. What's the best way to do it without butchering the thing?

 

[alexpescado]

I just fragged a watermelon chalice. It was about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.
I used a Dremel to make my first incision and then proceeded to cut around
the center leaving the main piece. I then cut the donut shape into several small pieces. Keep a small container of water to dip the frags after they have been cut. I mounted a few of them on discs and the other frags I placed directly on the sand bed. All the frags came out pretty good except for one
which has a little torn tissue. They are pretty resilient.

 

[jessp]

i've used heavy duty scissors on some of my chalices. I had poor success w/ dremel because it heated up the coral to much

 

[LorenK]

Hammer and screw driver scares me. I might try the scissors...don't have a dremmel.

 

[Reef Goddess]

As long as the colony is not too thick I use some sharp, heavy duty scissors and just trim 1/2" or so around the growing edge. This is a lot less tramatic for the mother colony.
Then you can let the frags heal over or wipe off the excess slime and super glue them to a frag plug. Its also good to shake off the cut colony in a container of water because it will put off a lot of slime which can damage some of your other corals.

Good luck!!

 

[143gadgets]

I prefer to use a dremel with a diamond blade. It is makes I much easier than scissors.

 

[LorenK]

I just used my table saw. j/k!

coralnutz, I'm trying to picture what you do with the screw driver...is that just to fracture it in a specific place? How do you control the cut?

 

[reefboy]

i use a diamond bit bandsaw and works the best for me but before that i just used regular wire cutters not as clean and percise but did the job.

 

[FateX8]

second on the diamond bit bandsaw
i use it to cut through acans with a rock base and it cuts soo smoothly
so easy to cut single heads, i would only assume that it would cut through a chalice much easier

 

[Reef Goddess]

I use titanium, office scissors nothing fancy. Like I said, if the chalice has a thin growing rim like most of my colonies do then it works fine. Whereas with hammer/screwdriver sometimes it will breakoff further into the colony than I want, but for thicker chalices you will have no choice.

When I frag mine I'll take some "how to" pics.