Glueing frags: what a fiasco

[outtafocus]

My first attempt at using 2 part epoxy to attach a frag to some live rock went horribly wrong.
Thinking that an underwater epoxy might actually stick to the wet rock I proceeded to place a small amount of epoxy on my intended bonding point on the rock. Well the stuff would not even stay on the rock, so I then tried to dab away as much water as possible, still no luck.
I ended up using a combo of way too much gel crazy glue and what ever small amount of epoxy I could get to stick to the rock. The resulting mess I hope will one day be covered in coraline algae, unfortunately the frag isnt in the exact position I wanted it in so I will have to live with that.

What are the general recomendations of attaching frags to pieces of rock??
Do most of you just choose not to glue your frag to the rock and just allow it to sit in place and hope it wont get knocked over by some clumsy snail? This is why I chose to glue it down, a snail managed to knock off a frag and then push it under the live rock pile to a point that required some rock disassembly. GRR.

[Bob I]

For zoanthids, GSP's, hard corals, I use Crazy Glue Gel. Soft corals, mushrooms etc I allow them to attach themselves.

[Chin_Lee]

if i only use epoxy, i wait about 6-7 minutes before moulding it into the rock. its a little harder and less malleable but still soft enough to play with. then roll it into a ball and press the frag into the ball. then press the bottom of that ball it into the rock.
here's a trick i've learned: if that frag falls out, leave it out and don't adjust the epoxy anymore because now there is a "mould" of frag in the epoxy. put that frag somewhere for a few hours and wait till the epoxy hardens, then use crazy glue and glue that frag into that epoxy mould .... its a guaranteed fit.

[Jack]

Different brands are better than others.

[muck]

Now thats thinking Chin... Thanks for the tip.

[trilinearmipmap]

I do the sandwich method for hard corals. Two part epoxy in the middle, crazy glue get on top and on bottom.

For zoanthids I dry of the zoos and use crazy glue gel to attach them onto a small piece of dry rock or frag plug, then glue this onto the rockwork with the sandwich method.

For colt corals I sew them onto a frag plug with thread.

For mushrooms I give up, they do what they want.

[outtafocus]

Thanks for the tips , Iam going to try it out.

[albert_dao]

There's also a right way and a wrong way for mounting SPS frags.

The wrong way involves what you typically see, the frag standing straight up, glued from the break point. Frags mounted like this will have minimal branching compared to frags that are mounted parallel to the substrate.

Next time you're over at the store, I can show you the method I've had HUGE success with. Works on everything, zoos, SPS, softies, xenia (Ha! Almost 100% success rate on this stuff), colts, whatever.

[props]

when i frag or mount new corals i usually mount the coral first on a small rock with crazy glue then mount the rock with the two part epoxy.. i've had corals where they receed a little bit when they touch an epoxy. they do recover when you use an epoxy but i found the coral to recover faster using the crazy glue. albert also mentioned i think its better to mount sps horizontally .

[crusty1]

Originally Posted by chin_lee

if i only use epoxy, i wait about 6-7 minutes before moulding it into the rock. its a little harder and less malleable but still soft enough to play with. then roll it into a ball and press the frag into the ball. then press the bottom of that ball it into the rock.
here's a trick i've learned: if that frag falls out, leave it out and don't adjust the epoxy anymore because now there is a "mould" of frag in the epoxy. put that frag somewhere for a few hours and wait till the epoxy hardens, then use crazy glue and glue that frag into that epoxy mould .... its a guaranteed fit.

Great tip Chin_lee. I wish I had thought of this setting up my tank this last weekend