How can I "attach" frags to my live rock?

[CMOS]

Hey All,

My reef is pretty tall (30") and hence, steep. I have a limited amount of horizontal real estate on which to sit frags, etc.

Is there some adhesive that I can use to attach some frags to the reef rock?

Thanks for any help.

CMOS

[Reefland]

It depends on the types of corals you have frags of. There is commercially available puttys specifically for aquaria to attach corals with as well as super glue (gel).

[Ninong]

There are various brands of underwater epoxy putty and cyanoacrylate gel that can be used to attach coral frags. It is much easier if you can attach the frag to a small piece of rock outside of the tank first and then place the mounted frag in an appropriate spot in your tank after it has set up first. When that isn't an option, the underwater epoxy putty is easier to use underwater than the cyanoacrylate gel.

In my experience, the cheaper underwater epoxy putty that you can buy at Home Depot and Lowes (for boat repairs) takes longer to set up than the more expensive versions sold in the hobby. That can be a problem. Either one will cause your skimmer to go crazy for more than a day, requiring you to shut it off for a day or two.

The cyanoacrylate gel works great if you can attach the frag to a piece of rock outside the tank. You would first remove a bowl of tankwater. Then you would dry off the spot on the piece of rock before attaching the frag with a small dab of cyanoacrylate gel (crazy glue gel). Don't forget to dry off the bottom of the frag, too. You would hold it in your hand for about a minute before placing the mounted frag in the bowl of tankwater for another 30 minutes or so before removing the mounted frag and placing it in your aquarium. That's the easiest way to use the crazy glue gel products. The hard way is to place a dab of crazy glue gel on the bottom of the frag and then IMMEDIATELY position the frag on the spot in your aquarium where you hope it will stick. You would have to perform this maneuver within a few seconds and hold the frag in place for another minute at least. This will work if the spot you are sticking the frag on into is sort of a small depression or a crack of some kind. Lots of luck if you're trying to mount the frag underwater onto a smooth surface using cyanoacrylate gel.

When using the underwater epoxy putty, you basically form a small levee of putty around the base of the frag to hold it upright. The expensive stuff sold in the hobby will harden in about 30 seconds (maybe a little longer) but the cheapy stuff sold at Lowes and Home Depot can take at least a couple of minutes to set up. Faster-setting putty is better for this job.

Both the epoxy putty and the crazy glue gel will cause your skimmer to go nuts. Mounting the frags outside the tank and keeping them in a bowl of water for about 30 minutes first will greatly reduce this effect. If you are mounting only one or two frags, you won't notice much of an effect on your skimmer. If you are mounting ten or more frags at one time, the skimmer will probably have to remain off for two or three days. The epoxy putty produces a greater reaction from the skimmer than the cyanoacrylate gel but that might be because you have to use more of it.

Neither the epoxy putty nor the crazy glue gel is harmful to anything in your tank. Both are completely safe to use.

This crazy glue gel works better than the store-bought stuff. This epoxy putty works better than the cheaper stuff sold at home supply stores.

All of the above applies to frags of hard corals. Soft coral frags usually have to be tied down to a small piece of rock first before mounting in the aquarium.

[CMOS]

Thanks guys.

The one that needs attention first is a nice 3-finger Frogspawn Coral. It has a good "trunk" that I want to glue into a fair size crack/ravine in one of the reef rocks. I have it stuck in there now, but it's not quite in the position that I'd like, which will give each "finger" equal exposure to the lights.

I'll see what I can do!

Thanks.

CMOS