Fraggin Frags.

[JeffDubya]

OK... so as things continue to move along, its about time for me to get some frags for my tank.

Here's the dumbest damn question of the week.

I swear I read somewhere that there is a reef tank-safe glue that you can use to affix frags in the tank to other rocks. Am I smoking crack? Or is there such a thing? Do you guys just place them without glue and let them spread?

Enlighten me. :thanks

 

[Jennie]

Superglue gel

:mrgreen:

 

[drty811]

funny thing.....i was glueing a frag to a piece of LR and managed to glue my fingers to the rock too. last night kind of sucked. triing to fit both hands in the tank so i wouldnt disturb the rest of my inhabitants. :roll:

 

[JeffDubya]

Right into the tank? You're kidding.

drty... you glued yourself... to... yourself :mrgreen:

 

[Jennie]

If it is a small enough rock that you can pull out of the tank and pat dry then the superglue gel works well. There is also this epoxy.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

 

[djconn]

I would just use Locktite superglue gel. Works like a charm...like Jennie said, pat the frag dry then apply.

 

[JeffDubya]

But glue OUTSIDE of the tank? Remove both pieces, glue and replace?

 

[Jennie]

But glue OUTSIDE of the tank? Remove both pieces, glue and replace?

don't forget to pat dry

 

[JeffDubya]

Right. I got that part. Pat dry.

Back to my original question, I would have sworn that the glue I saw... you put it on the bottom of the frag and then just put the whole thing in the tank and affixed it underwater. Maybe in my dreams.

Seems like gluing frags to base rock would be difficult. Especially any lace rock that is *really* at the base and covered by everything else. IE, it's NOT coming out of the tank to pat dry.

 

[Jennie]

The only thing I can think of that you might be refering to would be the epoxy that I linked above.

 

[skipm]

You can use super glue gel underwater but it is harder to handle than when out of water and real easy to glue yourself because of the water trying to float the glue where you don't want it. If you can't remove the rock and are gluing a hard coral then I would go with the epoxy because its less messy.

 

[roo]

is the glue/epoxy really neccesary? Meaning, so long as the frag won't fall, is there a problem with placing it on LR without glue?

 

[Jennie]

Sometimes it is better to fix them for stability. Hermits and snails can easily knock frags over even when you think they can't.

 

[djconn]

Yeah, that is one thing I learned early - get the smallest hermits/snails as possible as the big one will just knock things down left and right. Make sure you put in a handful of bigger, extra shells for when they need them though. :mrgreen:

 

[djconn]

Pretty cool little write-up on fraggin and glueing frags from our friends over at nano-reef:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.p ... opic=85290

 

[proraptor]

Dont buy that overpriced epoxy from fish stores...Go to home depot and buy aquamend epoxy...its only like $3 a tube and is reef safe

I use superglue gel mostly though and you can use it underwater...just make sure all your pumps are off first

 

[Jennie]

That's a good one, I didn't know that!

:mrgreen:

 

[proraptor]

No problem....Im not sure if Lowes sells the aquamend stuff too but you can try and give them a shot also

 

[Jennie]

I'll make sure to look for it!

 

[reefman23]

Dont buy that overpriced epoxy from fish stores...Go to home depot and buy aquamend epoxy...its only like $3 a tube and is reef safe

I use superglue gel mostly though and you can use it underwater...just make sure all your pumps are off first

Very good point... all they have to do at your LFS is tell you that it is reef safe and charge you three times the worth of the product.

Jesse