Remove frag that is well encrusted?

[Myrdin Potter]

I am pretty new to saltwater and I am adding SPS to my tank. For frags that are just glued down, I am popping them off the plug and throwing the plug that they came on away (and dipping). I did get one frag from a recent sale that is very well encrusted on the plug. I dipped (Bayer which is Bioadvance now) and scrubbed all the non-encrusted parts of the plug hard. Should I pop/cut the coral off the plug and have it start encrusting all over again or clip the plug and glue the frag with the encrusting still let on? From what I can tell, the encrusting in months of growth.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,sounds like a pretty good clean,imo,clip post and glue disk

 

[PicassoClown04]

+1, bone cutters will cut the stem off the plug creating a frag disk. Scrub the underside of the new frag disk to remove loose sediment and anything gross that may have been hiding there and add into the tank like normal. It should be very safe since there’s nowhere for a pest to hide and you won’t be wasting all that good growth

 

[coralbeauties]

If you are able to you should qt the frags in a small makeshift qt system if you dont cut the frags off the original plug. We take the time to qt our fish why not a coral? It is very easy to miss an aefw egg along the edge of the encrustation or even underneath a lip of it and in no time you are now infested.
Jeff

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I am new enough to the salt water hobby that I have the tank I bought. If I had known that I need to run a QT system and delay 3-4 months before the main tank did anything, I am not sure if it is worth the hassle.

So with no QT tank, I should set back the coral growth several months by clipping the frag off the well encrusted plug? My current plan was to wait 4-5 days after the initial dip, dip it again after clipping the plug and then attach to where I want it to grow. I figured that any eggs would hatch by then and with the coral there and bug would not launch into the water.

Based on the reading and watching beforehand, I have been dipping everything and taking off the plug where I could and redipping everything else 4-5 days later plus using a handheld wireless microscope to look to see if I found anything. And scrubbing with a toothbrush soaked in peroxide.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I am new enough to the salt water hobby that I have the tank I bought. If I had known that I need to run a QT system and delay 3-4 months before the main tank did anything, I am not sure if it is worth the hassle.

So with no QT tank, I should set back the coral growth several months by clipping the frag off the well encrusted plug? My current plan was to wait 4-5 days after the initial dip, dip it again after clipping the plug and then attach to where I want it to grow. I figured that any eggs would hatch by then and with the coral there and bug would not launch into the water.

Based on the reading and watching beforehand, I have been dipping everything and taking off the plug where I could and redipping everything else 4-5 days later plus using a handheld wireless microscope to look to see if I found anything. And scrubbing with a toothbrush soaked in peroxide.

I’m sure that’s plenty of precaution. It’s certainly way more than I do and currently I’m pest free except for a single majano anemone that came to me on the live rock. I’ve got over 300 different corals and your plan sounds more than playing it safe. I’m sure you’ll be fine especially with the double dip and microscope