Help with Soft Coral Fragging?

[mama]

Hello All!!

I am a new member and new to the saltwater hobby and work very close with River City Aquatics here in Austin...they are AWESOME and I did seek advise about fragging soft corals, but am STILL so frustrated!! I am using Loctite Super Glue gel, but everytime I take the frag and glue it...by morning it has fallen off!! This is my process...

-dry the rock area and blot the mushroom or xenia glue spot
-place a good amount of glue on the rock
-place the desired farg spot on the rock
-let it sit about 10 minutes
-back in it goes!!

I have also killed 1 finger leather and 1 xenia frag and some mushrooms.

Can someone help Mama??

Thanks!!
Laura

[MissT]

borrowing this one from B&C:




Have you tried just using rubberbands or bridal's veil with the leathers like we talked about?

[Richard]

I don't mess with glue for softies. I just stick them in a cup with rubble and place it away from any strong current. Then when they attach themselves to a piece of rubble I can glue that where I want it.

[Ed]

Another method is to spear the 'trunk' of the leather or xenia with a toothpick and then rubberband the toothpick to a piece of rock/rubble.

[stoneroller]

Mushrooms, xenia, and leathers tend to slime too much to be able to glue down. Works well with zoas and palys IMO.

[Jamie]

I ended up rubber banding my xenia frags...trying to be cautious not to cut into the stocks of the frags with the band...meaning I secured the outside edges of the frag to to piece of rubble. It was kind of a pain in the butt...but the frags secured themselves to the rock pretty quickly...only a few days. On a side note, xenia stinks horribly.

[mama]

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!! These are GREAT suggestions and Misti...I will come in and have you personally tutor me about the bridal veil and rubberbanding technique....I'm done with the glue!! I love softies, so I will use these tips and move on!! Thanks again for the quick replies...

Mama

[ErikH]

This site isn't the best to navigate, but there is pertinent and useful information there.
http://garf.org/

[Submariner]

I read about the sandwich method in a reefing mag a while back. You take a larger piece of liverock rubble and place the base of the leather coral cutting on it and then sandwich it with a smaller piece of rubble. Then you rubber band the two pieces together and after about a week you can cut the rubber bands off. The coral usually attaches to both and holds them together. I works like a charm! The bonus is that sometimes the smaller piece will fall off later and you end up with another frag since it usually has some of the coral still attached to it. Don't know if I'd try that with xenia though...I just usually place them on a pile of rubble in my sump and they attach very quickly.

[mattymalcolm]

I just put them in like a glad sandwich container with rubble and they will stick on their own. The rubblerock rubber band method works best if you take a rock split it in half put the base of the leather or xenia betweeen the rock putting the rock back together in the same position it was before it was broken then rubberband the two pieces of rock together.