How to re-glue/reposition large colonies??!?! HELP!

[Dowtish]

So I have a large green birdsnest colony that is about 10"-12" wide that recently fell over in my DT. I think a fish hit it. So when I noticed it, I just placed in my QT. So tonight I am trying to put it back. I have used so much epoxy and glue it's crazy, and it just wont stay where it was before. It is simply just too heavy. And when I try to really smash it down, I create 20 frags instantly.

So you guys out there with large colonies, I'm sure this has happened to you at some point or you had to move tanks. what do you do? I'm thinking it is going to take 2 people with their arms in the tank. One to hold it in place while the other is packing epoxy around the base. When I tried to do this alone the epoxy and glue had not set up or hardened enough, or it would harden up too fast. Grrrrr!:mad2: Very frustrating. Please somebody help!

 

[bct15]

That is a big colony to reglue, I'd like to see what tricks people know too. Can you glue some temporary rocks or something in place to hold it for a bit while the glue and epoxy cure?

 

[Otter_rs]

I would say frag it until you have a few manageable pieces that you can epoxy. Unfortunately, if you don't break it up it probably won't grow back onto the rock and hold itself. I would take your best 4 pieces and epoxy them close together this way they grow together at the base and become very strong.


Brent \><{{{{*>
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[Dowtish]

That is a big colony to reglue, I'd like to see what tricks people know too. Can you glue some temporary rocks or something in place to hold it for a bit while the glue and epoxy cure?

The rock that it was on can be moved but has 2 large monti caps fused to it. I was thinking about pulling the rock out of the tank and trying to start it outside the tank and have someone help me. Not sure if this will help or not, but at least we could get enough epoxy packed all the way around it. But I dont want to lose or break my monti caps either.

 

[Dowtish]

I would say frag it until you have a few manageable pieces that you can epoxy. Unfortunately, if you don't break it up it probably won't grow back onto the rock and hold itself. I would take your best 4 pieces and epoxy them close together this way they grow together at the base and become very strong.


Brent \><{{{{*>
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I really dont want to do that. But it might be my only option. The crazy thing is, it never encrusted. The whole thing is still mounted to the flat frag disk. And once it go so big, the bottom was so shaded that the base branches are thin and some are just white from no light. So maybe by chopping it into manageable size pieces I could mount it easier. But that will be my last resort.

 

[bct15]

I really dont want to do that. But it might be my only option. The crazy thing is, it never encrusted. The whole thing is still mounted to the flat frag disk. And once it go so big, the bottom was so shaded that the base branches are thin and some are just white from no light. So maybe by chopping it into manageable size pieces I could mount it easier. But that will be my last resort.

I can never get birds nest to encrust, they just keep growing up and out and seem to grow little or none at all at the base.

 

[Dowtish]

here is a pic of it....you cant miss it

 

[Rob.D]

Make a mound of epoxy, turn all flow off and use rubble to hold it upright until the epoxy has time to set.

 

[Connie]

take a small rubble rock that will wedge snugly into the space you want the BN to be. Do this in advance of any gluing, so that you know it will be stable. Dry the rock off put lots of epoxy on it. Take the birdsnest out, dry the frag plug off and position it on the epoxied rock and hold for a while. Place in QT to let it finish curing then wedge the rock with the BN in the place you planned.

 

[Dowtish]

The rock that it originally was mounted to is kind of round and has just a bit of a flat area on top. So I really can "wedge" anything onto it. I have someone coming over tomorrow to help me. I think if I pull the rock out of the DT and place it in my 12" tall tank, turn off all the flow, and both of us have plenty of epoxy ready, we should be able to get it....hopefully.

 

[Otter_rs]

Good luck, I hope it works out. If not, and you do it my way, it will grow back fast, and you can make a few bucks selling frags


Brent \><{{{{*>
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[reefjunky24]

Can you get large plastic ties around it or can you get some fishing line and tie it down till the epoxy holds and then you can cut it later once it is set in epoxy

 

[bct15]

take a small rubble rock that will wedge snugly into the space you want the BN to be. Do this in advance of any gluing, so that you know it will be stable. Dry the rock off put lots of epoxy on it. Take the birdsnest out, dry the frag plug off and position it on the epoxied rock and hold for a while. Place in QT to let it finish curing then wedge the rock with the BN in the place you planned.

I think this is the best way to do it, maybe even use a little epoxy super glue combo on the rubble rock to hold it in place.

 

[cdness]

Well here is some first hand experience... I had a birdsnest colony of this size or larger that snapped off it's mount too. It never encrusted and was stuck to a small frag plug. I tried superglue, epoxy, everything else in the book and nothing worked. I tried wedging support rocks in, but it still just snapped off even after curing. In all of the attempts to get it to stick, I ended up causing the coral to start RTNing and it died from the inside out... I was able to cut frags before it fully died off and have a couple colonies re-growing in the tank now...

If I was to ever do this again, I would take a smaller rock with a good hole in it that I could use to brace the colony on. Put some epoxy on the base and super glue in the hole. Place it all together for a snug fit. Then run a zip tie through the colony in a couple places to hold the rock steady that you glued it to. Leve this for a few days to sure fully.

After curing I would then glue the smaller rock onto the main structure using a layered method of Rock -> Super Glue -> Epoxy Putty -> Super Glue -> Rock... This way you give your colony a good base rock to attach to and the ability to do more gluing to really hold the base rock to the main structure.

Just my $.02

 

[Reefltx]

SSame thing happened with my birds nest, it was 9x8" colony. Like you I ended up making tons of little frags trying to wedge it in its original spot. I finally got it secured using epoxy and glue. Form a secured base with some epoxy on the rock and use the base of the colony to form a mold while the epoxy is still curing. Wait for the epoxy to cure and use a ton of glue on the base of the colony wedging it in the molding. You'll be surprised how strong that super glue is.


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