Buying first corals

[Beldarr]

Ok I am going to buy my first corals. I am a little confused about the gluing and all that.

Do i scrape the coral off the rock pod I am buying them on?

What kind of glue and how does the gluing process work?

Do i Have to remove the live rock that I am gluing it to and let it dry?

Amy additional input and answers would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Sk8r]

First, buy corals that your lights can sustain. Highest light for sps. If you don't know what that is, let's talk about lights and coral types, and be sure.

Some people remove corals from plugs and glue them to rock or old coral. My advice is start them low in your tank and move them up slowly, and that is easiest to do on a frag plug until you can see where they are happiest. Then you can make your decision. I advise NOT gluing coral to structural (permanent) rocks.

The glue is I-C-Gel, a type of superglue. Glue it outside the water, count to ten, put it in the water, while holding it absolutely steady with your fingers for about a minute. It sets rapidly, and sets underwater. Wear nitrile exam gloves. You'll be happier.

[Stolireef]

As a follow up to Sk8r, most gel superglues will work fine. Many here (including me) prefer Locktite brand but it's not required and is a bit pricey.

Before you glue a coral to a rock, it's a good idea to get out your trusty old toothbrush and scrub the area where you intend to locate the coral. I also like to very gently dry off the end of the coral before I apply the glue. Finally, after you apply the glue and dip the coral in the water, take it out of the water for a few seconds to allow the glue to develop a little skin. This will help it adhere a little faster.

[homer1475]

I like the locktite gel super glue, and JB water weld. I glue the plug head onto some JB, then stick that to my rock.

As far as removing them, if its a stony base,I remove the plug after I find where its happy. For soft corals, I just cut the plug end off and glue the frag plug head to my rockwork.

[coolxborg]

I had similar questions! Apologies Beldarr if Im hijacking.

I just have a couple of follow up questions for Sk8r.

- When you mention to not glue coral to permanent rocks, is this in the initial stages or ever? I just bought frag rocks from BRS and was going to glue the corals to that then find a good spot for it then eventually glue to a structural rock.

- I thought I read somewhere that you can technically glue underwater. Is that wrong info?
Maybe i misread it too.

[BigCountry74]

I leave mine on the plug. they will grow off of it eventually. plus the plug is easier to stick in a rock hole than removing and gluing

[tennesseebob]

Im going to get my first corals this weekend myself, i dont know enough about them, but what i intend to do is hit the $10 dollar frags at the LFS and ask them to pick me out 1 for high light, one for med light, and one for low light, and then imma see how they respond best on my rockwork.

[BillNye]

I've been curious about this topic as well! I'm not a big fan of frag plugs, although they are easy to slide into crevices. I've superglued montipora and other sps frags onto rubble rock but it's pretty hit or miss and often hard to find good spots for them. I'd like to glue things to my live rock but I don't like being locked in if the coral isn't happy or I move things around.

Does anyone have any experience with putty? Would it be possible to separate the putty from the rock over time?

[tennesseebob]

the putty turns rock hard, so i suppose it probably depends on how well you pack it into your rock crevices, my rock tower is 28" tall and weighs about 60 pounds, its solidity is mostly from putty, and i can pick it up by its topmost rock, there is a fiberglass rod in it, that has been siliconed, but before the putty the tower flexed and wracked, and i wouldnt have trusted it to pick it up by the top rock.

[scooter31707]

This is the process that I do for my tank and this might help if your process.
@ TennesseeBob, if you don't trust your LFS don't take their advice. Take pictures of the corals and post them here if you are not sure what they are and do some research on the coral. LFS are known to say anything to get make a sell. When I purchase coral, I dip them in Bayer or Revive. At this point, if I can take the coral off the plug, I will and glue it on a plug that I have laying around that is dry. Then, I will put all the coral on the sandbed for at least 1 week so they can get acclimated to my lights. After one week I will gradually move the coral up in the water column depending on their requirements. With my fairly easy SPS corals like Montis, it took about 3 weeks before they got to the top of the water column. I personally don't like plugs, so I glue the corals that I can to the live rock once I find the place they are happy. For as using putty, I will use putty while they are on the plug to find their happy spot. Once I find the happy spot I will take the coral off the plug and the putty off and glue it to the rock. If the coral is encrusted on the plug then I usually will not mess with it, corals like favia, montis, green star polyps. Hope that helps.

[scooter31707]

It is recommended that you also quarantine(observation) all corals also for 72 days. Some of us don't have the assets to do that so extra little care can go a long ways. The reason I try 100% to get the original plug off because there may be a chance that it could have some type of parasite (ich, brook, velvet) which could put your tank in danger of getting infected. So that's why I will swat out the plug until it glues to live rock.

[Sk8r]

WHOA, DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First, don't buy on store recommendations. If you get a stony coral you are committing to calcium supplementation for the life of your tank. If you get a softie, you have to take care about it over-multiplying. And both require a separate strength of light, which, yes, you can get by setting some atop, some at bottom of rock, but how far? And all should start on the bottom and move upward, unless you know the coral.

Gluing to structural rock may mean taking your tank apart if you end up with the coral that ate Chicago. Some grow wildly. Right now I'm coping with a one tiny scrap of xenia that got into my lps reef, started out as a smidge of one on a rock, and now is a palm-sized mass. I'm told they hate euphyllias, which is what I specialize in, and I hope this is true.

You MUST DIP YOUR CORALS or you risk the coral equivalent of ich that can be as bad to get rid of. This is not 'freshwater dip'. This is a special preparation like CoralRX, which must be mixed in a bucket and a bucket reserved only for that purpose.
Softie coral, particularly zoas, should be held in observation for a few days to make sure predator eggs that survive the dip do not hatch a new batch. If this happens, re-dip.

If the coral you buy was kept on the same sump system as fish in the store, you do have a small risk of actual ich coming in encrusted on the plug---small risk, but 100% if you happen to get it. A 72 day quarantine may be indicated. And it is entirely reasonable to flat-out ask a store, face-to-face, or online, whether that is the case. Doesn't necessarily affect your purchase, except in telling you this coral may need a 72 day qt and of course some lights that will keep it alive for 72 days.

Most of all do not rush down to the lfs in a must-buy mood, with no consideration of the strength of your lights (highly specialized very bright lights for sps ---10,000 to 13000 k, metal halide or T5 or highest-end LEDs, top of the rocks, and prone to exotic hard to see pests...with a skimmer that keeps the water absolutely crystal clear as drinking water.
LPS is top to middle of the rocks, even bottom for plate and slipper and bubble...with 10000 to 13000 k, but moderate skimming.
softies are T5 and dimmer, suck their food from the water, so over-skimming not good with them.

Mostly, friends, heads-up---do not rush blindly into this, or you will kill coral and waste your money and infest your tank with nudibranchs and red bug. Coral dip, follow instructions, observe your zoas or any rock kept with them, and do not buy anything you do not know the name and type of. If you are not equipped for sps do not buy sps. If you do not have the light for lps, save your money. If you are going softie, also buy some carbon, because they pitch fits and carbon helps take their spit out of the water.

Space your corals far apart. Some lps (bubble, galaxia, brain, and others) develop tentacles (sweepers) when feeding that can reach 6".

Remember that light itself is food for corals---like plants: sps lives almost entirely on it; lps half what it sucks from the water and half from light; and softies maybe a quarter of what they eat is light, the rest from the water.

Remember that all stony coral sucks calcium out of the water continually. If you have stony you must keep this reading at 420 by dosing or by kalk in the topoff or by a calcium reactor (really big reefs.)
Remember that the wrong light can starve a coral or burn it fatally.
Remember that much of that fine print in your reef salt mix is coral food.

[SaltyMember]

Good stuff Sk8r.

[jdewolftx]

Quick clarification question...

Sk8r mentioned dipping the coral and then quarantine for a few days. Makes sense to me. I have a 26 gallon quarantine tank setup with a small skimmer and a HOB filter that has been seeded by my sump. The question I have is...my light is just a Zoomed T8 Sun bulb. Will the coral be ok for a few days with the reduced light. In my DT I have 2 Radion XR30's, but I decided to not invest in much for my QT.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Sk8r]

You can turn out the tank lights (a cure for cyano/red slime) for 3 days with absolutely no problem. (Don't do total blackout. Just room lights.) For corals, you do the 4th day on blues only to let their zooxanthellae (internal bacteria) wake up slowly so they won't sunburn.

Apply the same rule to qt'd corals that have been a few days under not-so-good lighting. Start them on the bottom and maybe even reduce the photoperiod when you first put them in from a tank with quite limited light or no light. They really hate waking up too fast!

Also get a decent magnifying glass or some of those reading glasses with killer magnification: you're looking for real small eggs on zoas. Somebody also had a very reasonable suggestion about popping corals (use a knife: just wipe it down after use) off the frag plug and re-gluing it to a new, dry frag plug which won't possibly have any encysted ich clinging to it. The ich cannot use the coral tissue itself.

The dip does not kill seem to kill ich (probably because it encysts). But the stuff you can get into your tank by skipping or not following instructions on that dip can be harder to get rid of than ich is...red bug on sps is horrid to fight. LPS mostly suffers from 'brown jelly disease'---which I've only seen once in the last 20 years...and a few hitchhikers. Softies, particularly zoas, have to fear nudibranchs (very pretty, sometimes gorgeous sea slugs, which are the ones that lay the eggs) and one species of asterina stars.

[crankbait09]

I know this thread is rather old, but I have a question about the QT part for coral.

I am going to be getting a green fingered leather coral this weekend (if this weather allows). Do I seriously need to QT it for 72 days!? I don't have coral approved lights for my QT. How can I keep them in there without them dying on me?

I saw that CoralRX was recommended. Are there other brands that do just as well? I am not sure what I have available in my area. Never experienced corals before