Why don't more people use rubble/rock for frags?

swiss1939 · Aug 26, 2020

I understand the convenience and purpose of a frag plug, but they are ugly as sin. Why don't more people use rubble and rock for frags? If you are a store churning out tons of frags on the regular I get it, but even if the plug is needed as support in egg crate for frags that would easily topple over... a simple solution is to take all those spare frag plug stems people cut off.. and glue those to rock rubble and use that as a frag plug! Then when someone like me buys that awesome looking frag.. I can just break the plug stem off the rock and have a nice natural rock/frag to glue into place!

FangsAndGames · Aug 26, 2020

I agree with you. Frag plugs are an ultra cheap and easy way for people especially pros to frag, transport, and show off their coral. It is also cheaper in many cases. Frag rocks are a lot more attractive but some don’t have the cash to buy them especially in larger quantities compared to frag plugs.

Dilan Patel · Aug 26, 2020

Couple reasons I use frag plugs: CHEAP lol, Easy to place frags on frag rack until I get to placing them, Easy to transport and less likely to puncture transport container, I can price corals lower than I would if I had used rubble rock. Rubble rock has lots of crevices that dipping solution/critters can hide/absorb in which others may not want.

Pntbll687 · Aug 26, 2020

presentation, especially at frag swaps is a big deal. Uniform frag plugs make this much easier.

And getting rubble rock to sit right on a frag rack is a pain.

New&no clue · Aug 26, 2020

I have a local store here that only puts frags on rocks... and I hate it. At first I thought it was great because they looked so nice, however, as my tank got fuller and I went to place one the rubble rocks were too big for a certain area that I wanted it to go in. The frag had already attached to the rock, some I could get off, but a lot I couldn't without literally cutting it all over again, which kinda defeats the purpose of getting a healed encrusted frag.

mfinn · Aug 26, 2020

When I do frags, I always mount them on rubble.
I hate the look of frag plugs.

xiaoxiy · Aug 26, 2020

I used to hate frag plugs, but the more I Reef, the more I like frag plugs. They’re uniform and sit perfectly on a frag rack, which makes propagation easy. Also, once the frags start growing in, the frag plugs get encrusted over pretty quickly and I find that this effectively hides the frag plug.

vetteguy53081 · Aug 27, 2020

many people use frag racks for organization and also utilize holes and crevices in rocks for their frags.
I agree they are not attractive and the 3" X 3" tiles are huge and fit no where. Its a matter of preference and you are able to seperate the coral from frags and plant it the way you prefer.

ReefBeta · Aug 27, 2020

If there are rock with stem readily available and cheap, maybe. But for most case the store or grower need to glue them together. For a couple to a dozen, it's not bad. But scale it to hundreds and it become very tedious.

Rock without stem on frag rack will have hard time keeping itself stable, especially with flows.

Turkey head · Aug 27, 2020

I hate the look of frag plugs and have had corals attached to small rocks. The ones in small rocks were so much better but the people in this thread make a good argument for frag plugs. It does make sense.

thermoJoe · Aug 27, 2020

Somewhat off topic, but I have a shallow tank, so when I buy frags (on plugs), I break them off then glue them to montipora skeleton cut to needed size, which sits nice and low in the DT, has excellent no-tip properties, and I have practically an endless supply of montipora materia, as that stuff is more weed than coral

Bleigh · Aug 28, 2020

I have never thought about it before. I kind of like the idea. I have tons of tiny pieces of rock from where I but my rocks up for aquascaping. I think it would be pretty important to make sure it's tiny enough. By the time you get it small enough, it might be about the same size and shape as a plug, and I'd imagine, at quite a higher price, so maybe not.

swiss1939 · Aug 28, 2020

Pretty simple to take a large unused rock and smack it with a hammer/chisel and break it into small enough pieces. My sump is full of them from when I built my scape. I keep them there for when I remove frags from ugly plugs and put them on rubble pieces if needed before going into the scape. If I had a frag tank, I would keep the stems from the removed plugs, and attach them to the rubble to keep them stable in the frag tank.

Nanorock1970 · Aug 28, 2020

I think this also gets into how the frags are mounted....I have one LFS that the frags are on very small pieces of maybe a frag or rock it was growing on but that is glued to a frag plug so when I am done acclimating the frag in my tank, I pop the glue and then glue it on my live rock where I want it. The small piece is close to the size of the frag so it hides well and does not limit frag placement. I have also purchased from @That guy and he uses epoxy to attach the frags to the plug. Very easy to release the epoxy part and re glue the epoxy in my tank.I also purchased a superman discomia from a local guy and he uses plastic screen under the shroom that once has taken hold he glues to rubble. Easy to release the screen and glue where you want...The industry should come up with something....Fine for encrusting types to be on a frag plug because they will be covered with the coral but others, not so much. I have definitely used my tile nippers to bust up some frag plugs because they look like crap and takes time for them to not be white....or whatever color they happen to be.

xiaoxiy · Aug 28, 2020

swiss1939 said:
Pretty simple to take a large unused rock and smack it with a hammer/chisel and break it into small enough pieces. My sump is full of them from when I built my scape. I keep them there for when I remove frags from ugly plugs and put them on rubble pieces if needed before going into the scape. If I had a frag tank, I would keep the stems from the removed plugs, and attach them to the rubble to keep them stable in the frag tank.

Frag plugs can definitely be an eye sore in new tank, especially when things haven't settled in and frags are still small. But once they get encrusted over, frag plugs become much less noticeable.

Here are examples of what I mean. These frags are on 1 to 2 inch plugs/discs.