New to corals how do I place them?

[tencwhiskey]

I am about to introduce some corals it's my first tank. I am going with some softies and mushrooms to get started. If I buy from LFS they come on a small rock or something usually? Do I just glue the rock? Or not a clue where to start. My tank is cycled. Been monitoring all my levels with no more ammonia spikes for a couple weeks.

 

[gobeach]

I usually place my new stuff on the sand to acclimate them to my light. If your lfs sells them attached to a rock or frag plug, you can glue (coral glue or epoxy) to a rock or you can wedge them somewhere to see if they're going to be happy in that spot. I'm a fan of trying to wedge them in so I can move them if the coral (or me) are unhappy.

Soft corals will do well with lower light usually and mushrooms can grow just about anywhere in the tank but don't put them in a high flow area.

Good luck!

 

[Dalmatia]

Thumbs up to that!!
And I use gel super glue, I find it to be the easiest to work with under water.

 

[Treefer32]

I have used Epoxy and gel super glue, I even have tried both together, and so far I haven't found either to to stick to a coral or a rock in water. I use the RJ weld expoxy. And Have tried a variety of super glue gels. So far nothing that actually keeps the coral glue down. SPS are easiest to get to stay, but, soft corals, I nearly killed a beautiful zoa this past weekend, I was unable to get it glued down outside of water, let alone int he water. The I couldn't get the coral to stick to save my life.

I got one out of 5 SPS corals to stick, finally I gave up and just wedged them into crevices hoping they'll encrust... I haven't found a glueing method that works everytime.... It's the one thing that drives me nuts about corals... I've lost a couple corals because I thought I had them epoxied down, and the flow was able to blow them with the epoxy off the rock...

 

[FishyPapa]

I've used water weld with about 80% success.

 

[Reefing Madness]

HoldFast Epoxy Stick

Reef Aquarium Fragging & Coral Propagation: Two Little Fishies CorAffix cyanoacrylate adhesive

 

[TJ's Reef]

Couple of methods I use to glue down corals are for SPS: first clean and dry end of frag to be glued even if cut or broken off a plug, take a toothbrush and gently clean/scrub area of LR that coral is to be glued to then apply a small amount of gel to end, dip into water to form a slight skin to glue, add another dab of gel then reach in and place coral to cleaned LR area. With light pressure twist and push/pull a few times to get glue tacky and starting to cure then hold firmly in place for 5-10 seconds. This usually works first time but occasionally a second attempt is necessary. Larger frags/mini colonies I will usually use marine epoxy as a gasket by forming small amount around base of coral then pushing into place (cleaned area) shaping to look natural, then carefully removing from tank and placing in small container of SW to cure for the 5-10 minutes needed. Then use gel to attach perfectly formed epoxy to the LR sometimes will need to glue coral into epoxy gasket as well. For zoa/palys I just dab bottom of them dry with towel and place small amount of gel glue on then gently twist into place. Rarely has this not worked out first time on anything glued to. Glue of any type is not very effective on Soft Coral and best to let themselves attach to ??? you can place a piece of netting over them, place them in a covered fruit basket full of rubble or even run a plastic toothpick through them then glue it down with gel or shove into LR crevice.

Cheers, Todd

 

[glb]

I use single use super glue without a problem. It works but you can snap off the coral if you decide to move it.

 

[coreybroja]

Super glue is a good route to go. Since it's your first time introducing corals into your tank, I would definitely "dip" them first before putting the corals into your tank. I use the brand Two Little Fishies Revive Coral Cleaner. Reason being is you don't want to catch any unwanted critters or bad stuff from your local LFS. Other than that happy reefing!:xd: