to glue or not to glue

Wiz · Nov 12, 2015

Hey guys, I have a zoa garden on my sandbed. All the plugs are filling up nicely. My ked reds are starting to grow onto the sand. The problem is the plugs regularly get uprooted and tossed around. And new zoas have nothing to grow onto. So I was considering getting a piece of shelf rock and gluing plugs to the underside to keep it off the sand and gluing all the different zoas to the shelf. Or do you think I should leave them be?

TheEngineer · Nov 12, 2015

You could also place the frags with some LR rubble around them. That's what I used to do. Made fragging super easy.

Wiz · Nov 12, 2015

I am afraid of causing debris to build around them. Thats why I would glue plugs to the shelf. To keep it off the sand and allow for good flow to sweep debris away.

Steve Ruddy · Nov 12, 2015

I like Eshopps frag rock. It holds your plugs and gives the coral somewhere to grow. Makes selling plugs easy too, just leave the parent on the rock and put a fresh plug back in.

Wiz · Nov 12, 2015

The rack is cool. But I prefer a more natural look. Good for holding extdas though

ReefMadScientist · Nov 12, 2015

I personally think it is an awesome look when Zoa's grow onto the substrate. I would leave them be and allow them to spread naturally since that is the look you are going for.

Wiz · Nov 12, 2015

That's sweet. I wasn't sure they would like the sand rather than a solid surface. But guess its cool.

cginter · Nov 12, 2015

Id let them be... Once they start growing on the sand, you can frag them super easy if you wanted. That pic above looks sweet

Wiz · Nov 12, 2015

Wiz · Nov 29, 2015

So, I decided to try an idea. I laid a bunch of frag plugs face down and glued them edge to edge. I left spaces inbetween that would fit another plug in them. After it dried I placed it where the zoas were, right side up. Then I placed the zoa frags in the holes. This way they won't get knocked around and when the frags grow onto them it should be easy to snap a frag off and glue another in its place. What do you guys think?

PensFanAddict · Dec 4, 2015

cool idea. Thank you for sharing.

Wiz · Dec 4, 2015

Np. Its working well. The frags are stable which they were not. And the red hornets, king midas, and especially the ked reds are attatching to the glued frag plugs.

cginter · Dec 28, 2015

I did this before. The only problem I found is when I went to go "frag" then I had to pull out the whole frag pile in order to cut what I wanted. Some got stressed by this... Good easy way to get some frags though.

truepercs · Dec 28, 2015

ReefMadScientist said:
I personally think it is an awesome look when Zoa's grow onto the substrate. I would leave them be and allow them to spread naturally since that is the look you are going for.

This looks nice! It seems like people are more interested in fragging than letting coral grow and creating a beautiful tank these days... Eventually you will have a zoanthid substrate

Wiz · Dec 28, 2015

For me its about conserving my limited space. Love my colonies butneed room for others

truepercs · Dec 28, 2015

ha...conserving space my tank is 12"x12" I understand limitations. I liked what I seen on the substrate and plan to use that idea to utilize space

Wiz · Dec 28, 2015

Large colonies are definitely more impressive I can't wait to get into my house so I can get bigger tanks. Hopefully one more year.

Rausch · Dec 28, 2015

Looks like those frag plugs worked Great under the Zoa's! Good idea! it will be fun to cut all of those plugs apart after those zoas make a nice carpet over them! For me personally though, i like to take a piece of live rock from the sump or somewhere it has been cycled, then drill 1/4'' holes into the rock (Masonry bit and taking the rock out into a separate bucket to wash afterwards) so the plugs pop right in and out, then it looks like all of your other rock, also works well on the tongan branch live rock as well if you want to really have some fun with space saving ideas