Glueing coral
- Thread starter demifelix
- Start date
Perfect timing...I have two neon red shrooms I got from Rit and they have both come off the rock. I crazy gel glued them and in two days they were gone again. Next I gel glued them and covered them with very fine netting and they both are off the glued area and one is still under the netting, but upside down and it's foot is against another rock...through the netting. They are the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen and this is driving me to distraction. Bubba
For mushrooms and ricordia, I use a double shot glass (must be double or they will float away) and put a small piece of rubble at the bottom and the mushroom on top. Then put the shot glass in a low flow area. In 2-3 weeks, the mushroom will attach to the rubble, then superglue the rubble to a rock. Works like a charm:up:
Mushrooms and other softies are hard, if not impossible to glue, unless they are attached to something first.
We typically put them into a tray with some coarse sand or small rubble, in a lower flow area of the tank. Once they attach to that small substrate, then we glue the substrate to something larger.
OR you can "pin" mushrooms and other softies with a toothpick. Use the toothpick like a thumbtack, stick the pick through the soft tissue (not the mouth of the mushroom, but somewhere on the cap or through the column), and wedge the end of the pick into a hole in some rubble or a piece of rock. Once the shroom (or leather, etc) adheres to the rubble, take away the toothpick. If the tissue has really attached itself to the toothpick, you can snip off the exposed piece of toothpick and the creature will grow over and encase the bit that's left (it won't harm the coral).
There's also the "bridal veil" technique for mushrooms, although I've found that more often than not, it just annoys them. Use a piece of tulle netting to keep the mushroom on a small piece of rock.
There's also the "rubber band" method - use a rubber band to keep the stalk (ie of xenia) on a rock, and it will eventually adhere to the rock and the rubber band can be removed.
Glue or epoxy work best on SPS or LPS corals. Softies, it's like gluing wet macaroni.
Jenn
We typically put them into a tray with some coarse sand or small rubble, in a lower flow area of the tank. Once they attach to that small substrate, then we glue the substrate to something larger.
OR you can "pin" mushrooms and other softies with a toothpick. Use the toothpick like a thumbtack, stick the pick through the soft tissue (not the mouth of the mushroom, but somewhere on the cap or through the column), and wedge the end of the pick into a hole in some rubble or a piece of rock. Once the shroom (or leather, etc) adheres to the rubble, take away the toothpick. If the tissue has really attached itself to the toothpick, you can snip off the exposed piece of toothpick and the creature will grow over and encase the bit that's left (it won't harm the coral).
There's also the "bridal veil" technique for mushrooms, although I've found that more often than not, it just annoys them. Use a piece of tulle netting to keep the mushroom on a small piece of rock.
There's also the "rubber band" method - use a rubber band to keep the stalk (ie of xenia) on a rock, and it will eventually adhere to the rock and the rubber band can be removed.
Glue or epoxy work best on SPS or LPS corals. Softies, it's like gluing wet macaroni.
Jenn
I use superglue gel if directly to a coral. If a rock or frag plug to rockscape I use a sandwich of superglue gel - aquamend putty - superglue gel. The big issue with aquamend putty is that it generates a lot of heat as it cures. It goes up into the 110 deg F, range and beyond. If that's directly on a coral, well, it can be bad.
As mentioned aquamend epoxy/putty can affect surface tension of the water and make your skimmer overflow. Mine is currently off for a few days since I used the putty yesterday to mount a coral.
As mentioned aquamend epoxy/putty can affect surface tension of the water and make your skimmer overflow. Mine is currently off for a few days since I used the putty yesterday to mount a coral.
