I'm just curious of technique and what you use.
I am currently using the epoxy putty that Pat sells. it works well, as long as you make sure it has a good hold. for small frags, where the fragment of rock, shell, stone or whatever the coral is attached to is so small, it is hard to work with. I blend a small peice of each until it is well blended, then I moisten it to make it more pliable, the into the tank and attach it to whatever peice of LR i am putting the coral on. i then press the coral frag (attached to whatever it came with) into the putty. Sometimes it releases right away then i have to somehow, in a cloud of epoxy debris, re form the putty and try again. it can be messy and tedious. maybe i'm just doing it wrong.
shoudl i be holding it in place for a bit? shoudl I not press it in as far?
I've tried crazy glue gel, and i find this hard to work with as well as it does not seem to bond instantly like it does with dry material.
What do you use and what technique do you use to ..uh..use it?
I haven't tried the epoxy yet, so I'd like to know the secret too...gluing in the tank is a pita.
I use crazy glue gel, and 99% of the time glue outside the tank. Dry off both pieces with paper towel and glue away!
I've had crazy glue fail after a couple weeks/months of holding - bye-bye polyp >:(
And ya, epoxy can be tough on small pieces...
I've started to attach frags to rubble first, and then attach the rubble (with frag) with epoxy.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/ac/feature/index.php
what do you attach to the rubble first with? crazy glue?
I just had a frag fall of a piece of rock that it was attached to for the last 3 months, it was attached to a little piece of rubble, that it was still attached to, so it was somewhat easy to attach to the rock, but the little piece of rock was TINY. I'm sure a head or two got buried into the epoxy putty.
Quote from: RoxyDog on January 21, 2008, 09:41:40 AM
I haven't tried the epoxy yet, so I'd like to know the secret too...gluing in the tank is a pita.
I use crazy glue gel, and 99% of the time glue outside the tank. Dry off both pieces with paper towel and glue away!
I just find the crazy glue doesn't bond quickly, then it just keeps falling of before you get it into the tank. I'll try holding it in place longer. i just dont like having the corals out of the water for too long.
Quote from: mdugly on January 21, 2008, 10:49:27 AM
I've started to attach frags to rubble first, and then attach the rubble (with frag) with epoxy.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/ac/feature/index.php
Ya, I glue the frag with super glue to a little piece of rubble out of the tank. Let it dry for a bit, then back it goes. Haven't had the glue fail this way in awhile now. Next I'll have to epoxy the rubble to a big rock. Havne't don that yet, I just shove them in a crevice somewhere. Most softies can handle being out of the water for some time, especially zoas.
OK, I will try to not be so delicate...heh
when epoxying last time, i had to press right against the zoas to get it to stick (had nthign else to press on!). i hated doing it but they seem to be pretty tough little buggers.
I use crazy glue gel from dollarama. A buck a tube! Haven't had any problems at all. Just don't try to glue softies like leathers, xenia, etc... the tissue just dies and the frag floats away. For these I use elastics until the frag attaches itself( a day or two).