How to get these corals off this rock?

[hammcd]

So I have never fragged any corals or taken any coral off of rocks. I have set up a new tank but have a giant rock in my old tank. This rock has about 100 polyps of green zoas, a large amount of starburst polyps and about 20 heads of LOTR palys...I would normally just move the rock but there is also some apstasia on certain sides of the rock ...i dont want any apstasia in my new tank...is there a way to get the corals off the rock...i know they probably wont peel off but is there a way or tool that can easily chip off large sections of rock that include corals without damaging them...i can take a pic of the area if thatd help
thanks

 

[sts04c]

Band Saw.

 

[peaches7412]

I just used a knife, and the polyps came off with a little piece of rock, then you just super glue it to a frag plug or another rock.

 

[hammcd]

i may have to invest in a band saw then...when you used a knife, you did what?...slid it under the edges of the polyps and lifted them up? or did u cut somehow?

 

[peaches7412]

ya basically just slid it under, and they sort of popped off. But I did it on only a few polyps, some were just stuck on lol.

 

[hammcd]

ah ok ..i guess thatd take time to do with 100 polyps lol...seems like band saw is the way to go

 

[budsreef]

The bandsaw is limited in how big of a rock you can pass through it. How big is the rock? If you take any part of it with you chances would be pretty good that it will include aptasia if it is really bad. If you really like the rock, I'd work on killing the aptasia and then move it.

I have used a hammer and chisel to break up coral rock before and if I wanted to be more precise, I used a tile blade on my coping saw and it will cut right through with a little muscle.

 

[stillfocus]

I would think simply getting rid of the aiptasia would be the easiest solution.

 

[coolsurf]

Personally I would recommend using the knife or chisel method on zoas. I would also say get rid of the aptasia and you won't have to worry about getting them off the rock. What happens if more pop up somewhere else on another rock? I guess if the rock is small it's not a big deal but if it's a larger rock I would want to try to save it. Just my .02 cents.

 

[crewdawg1981]

Reef napalm the aiptasia and you'll be good to go

 

[hammcd]

ive used aptasia x but it never seems to kill it and then it comes back twofold next time

 

[hud3339]

Flat head screw driver and a hammer

Edit: Flat head screw driver and a hammer

 

[wmboots]

Aptasia X has worked a few times for me and I believe the other product I used was Jacks Juice which seemed to work quite a bit better.
Personally I would nuke the aptasia and keep the rock than take trying to move that many polyps. Just seems like way too much work to move the polyps