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How do you reuse your frag plugs?


elwallacejr

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Having just lost about 90% of my acros, I have a boat load of dead coral on plugs. My plan was to saw off the coral and was thinking about tossing it in the ca reactor. I’ll also have a ton of frag plugs so the question is, should I treat these with bleach or just let them dry thoroughly before reusing them?

 

Also should I plan on some sort of treatment for the coral too?

 

Thanks in advance for any insight.

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I soak mine in white vinegar for a few days, wash them off with RO water, the soak the in peroxide for a few days, Then I put them in one of my sumps for a week or two before using again... Scrap off as much dead coral before peroxide.  I don't reuse dead coral in my CR. 

 

Someone was looking for dead SPS in a tread a few days ago... 

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Honestly, you should be able to just pull the dead coral off the plugs. So long as it wasn't some sort of disease or contamination that is why you lost your SPS, just reuse them. 

 

aside from not having a perfectly flat surface on the plug to glue things to sometimes, that's the only downside. I do this all the time. When I get plugs and I'm putting coral on the rock, I'll just use a straightedge to pop them off and then throw the plug in a container for when I frag. 

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I'm with YHSublime if there wasn't some chemical reason that the corals died (and since you are considering using them in your reactor I am assuming not) just reuse them.

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If pests or chemicals were the reason why the corals died, I would be cautious re-using the plugs. Although I have frag plugs in my system, I prefer to cut the corals off the plug and attach straight to my aquascape. 

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I cut and scrape off as much of the coral and glue as possible. Scrub and remove any debris from the plug. Use a belt sander to flatten the mounting surface. Soak in a bleach solution, rinse and air dry. Then re-use

 

 

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So all the acros died because my alkalinity chart looked like a sin graph with all the fluctuations while trying to move systems. Pests or chems were not an issue. The only other stuff on the plugs were some short GHA.

 

 

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I have put bleached acro frags and broken up colonies in my CA reactor, it melts just like normal media. Wild collected / pasture raised organic vegan free range coral skeleton.

 

I wonder where TLF media comes from, I always assume he’s buying dead coral for $.01/lb from all of the major wholesalers in florida, cause its clearly coral skeleton and you know they have losses.

 

As for the plugs, it depends on how clean you can get them (removing glue/algae) but I re-use a lot. I Typically break them off and mount them, then re-use the plug.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

bunch of paranoid reefers here.

no need to use bleach or peroxide or belt sanders to re-use.

As Isaac says, just reuse them.

I keep a big pile in the tank where they will grow coralline algae on them, which also allows corals to grow faster than on a fresh plug.

If your coral died from a pest, theres a good chance that pest is already prolific in the tank.

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When I purchase a coral, most times knowing where it origionally came from and what pests it may contain is an uncertainty. Because of this, I cut it free of the plug, dip it and re-mount on a known pest free plug. The used plug, I then process for corals at a later date.

 

So I wouldn't classify cleaning a used frag plug or resurfacing the face as paranoia. I feel that it's good husbandry practices to insure, as much as possible, that you don't introduce unwanted pests into your system.

 

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I'm with Zygote2K here, I can understand removing the plug from the frag for aesthetic reasons, although honestly once it grows out you won't even be able to tell there was a plug but from a pest/sanitation point of view, the coral itself is just as likely to harbor pests as the coral itself is. If it's been dipped it is as clear as the frag is, whether it is still attached or not.

 

Having said that, dip all corals you receive, no matter where you got them from! Cannot stress this enough, no one, even the most responsible reefer is not immune from getting hitch hikers. And if you do dip and find something please let the seller know, odds are good they may be unaware and that allows them to alert others they may have sold to.

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