Need fragging tips please

[Blossom112]

For my cloves, sun coral .........any tips please
i need to remove the cloves from the rocks they are on .
The sun coral is hard to feed in the 90gl the way it has grown .
Thanks

[Almondsaz]

Blossom, what are your going to mount them on? more rock, plugs, plastic frag disks? I have fragged both successfully. Do you have a dremmel tool?

[Blossom112]

I havent decided the mounts yet was looking for tips on that too .
Yes i have a dremmel :-) with a cazillion peices lol
I also have 2 sets of good cutters that can cut almost anything
I was just thinking wouldnt the cloves be best on a rock from the way they grow ?
ONE more question i have yellow , green star and pink cloves can they be mixed together?

[Almondsaz]

You canmix the cloves and I would suggest mounting them onto a rock. The glue that I use is the superglue gel.

The following is just my experience and someone else's may be different:

1. Mounts: A) I use plastic if I am going to culture the frag and mount it permanently later and want to have it on my eggcrate frag rack. I always mount on a piece of rubble when mounting on the plastic plugs...exception is when I do Euphyllia-I use the mounting clay so that it can be easily removed once it gets started. B) I use the stone if it is a frag that will overgrow the mount and I can then mount the plug onto the existing rockwork in the aquascape. Stone is also my preference if it is a stony coral. c) I use rubble only if I am mounting mushrooms - but for me that is a whole other story on what to do there.

WHen I fragged my suncoral I took my dremmel and a diamond blade and cut 3 or 2 head segments out of the mother colony. I mounted them onto plastic plugs (should have used the stone). THen I put them on my frag rack and allowed them to recover. The nice thing about the suncoral is that they act-react as a colony such as you can feed one mouth in the colony and the majority of the colony will still benefit. I think that helps with the fragging - if you cut into one mouth...the others will still survive. Not sure how deep your MC is, but mine was a deep stone (part of the colony) and I cut in down to be more manageable in depth.

When you cut with the dremmel I do little cuts at a time, not to overheat the coral and dip it back into the water between cutting.

I will try to find some pics for you. HTH somewhat, pics would be better.

[Almondsaz]

Oh, sorry I forgot to metion that when you do your cloves and stars I would definitely use a rock and you can mix them. In my area that is a very popular way to sell "frag plates".

[Almondsaz]

Here is a link to Reefscape's frag links with lots of good info http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119281&highlight=fragging

[Almondsaz]

Here is a link to a vide by Eric Borneman and he gives lots of tips on fragging. BTW he likes the stone plugs http://www.wax32.com/videos/borneman.wmv

[Blossom112]

Cloves are my fav ,and the ones i have are so pretty ,mixing them would make them more beautiful !
I am gonna get my hands on as many different types and mix .
Oh no i got everything you said ,pic not needed i can see what you mean lol
You know what i mean lol.
I did frag off my (yellow and orange )carnation , but left it off the rock ,as i want to find a peice thin enough and light enough to hang upside down and sideways.
So i will break some rock while i have the dremmel out lol
might take a while to get the perfect peices lol
I also want to make a tower out of rock (not too big ) about 2feet high and attach my featherdusters,and while i have the 90gl empty im going to epoxy it right to the bottom glass so it stands alone,I would like to have a seahorse too so if this works might be ideal to make a few smaller ones for hanging on .
No im not nutts lol just trying to make a good reef that i love:-)
hey thanks a bunch
the carnation may go better on plugs then

[Almondsaz]

I took some pics and the first should be helpful as it is the unfortunate skeleton of the suncoral so you can see the margins for cutting.

The next ones are of some frags that I just did this past weekend.

The others are of current corals in my reef that I am going to frag. The xenia started on a plastic plug and I put it at the bottom of the rock I hope they will stay on and then they move off the plug and onto the rock over the course of about 3 weeks (IME).

I have star polyps and cloves and I will frag them soon as well. Hope you find these useful and there is one of my small frag kit - less the dremmel.

There are two racks: 1 I made (you can tell by the suction cups) and 1 that I purchased from Mag-Racks. I actually have two from them that I like very much. The acan I will frag is very much like the process I would use for the suncoral.

[Blossom112]

Very nice frags and station , yes i have costom ordered some mag racks ,gonna take awhile tho he told me in email but i should have them in 6 to 8 weeks .
i ordered 16 different racks as you know you can never have too many.
You have great ideas
Thanks

[Almondsaz]

Blossom, please post some pics of your frags once you have started.

[Blossom112]

yes will do .......Got the old camera ,but it used flopy and when i took pic the drive wasnt working . last night hubby took the broken (great dane broke it and was brand new lol) in last night to fix .
And just taking time to figure out my plan of action ,i have 2 of the cloves in baskets and just watching them under the mag glass , to make sure im making the right decision ,and i am as i believe i see some neudi,whick are a common hitchicker of the clove.
As soon as i get the other pc fixed and decide what rock i shall start .
Im kinda nervous, but they are pretty hardy ,i have noticed they seem to branch at the base ,so my guess is even if their isnt a clove it could have potential to grow one .
I was taking VERMITID SNAILS off The sun coral last night and in my cutting a head fell off ,fully intact to my surprise,it is now laying on the bottom and fed well last night, has a baby on the side of it .
Im trying to get over a spider invasion ,and just found flat worms last night also ,so fragging will be slow going .
I hope to get plugs ,and more glue then get started