MACNA XVI - Boston

Frag workshop

Greg Hiller, member of the Boston Reefers Society, took the time to conduct the Frag Workshop. Attendees not
only watched closely, but then went to their tables to learn in this hands-on workshop. Once they were done, they
not only took home the knowledge of fragging & mounting corals, but took home a few frags for their own tanks.

Greg had his workspace laid out, with the tools necessary nearby. The tank held some of the corals he'd work with.

A dremel tool with a rotary diamond cutting wheel is well worth the money, as it can be used in many applications.

Fragging a Montipora capricornis isn't hard to do. We often break them while working in our tanks.

However, using a dremel tool, you can create nice clean cuts, which
allows the coral to grow quickly and provide easy-to-mount frags.

Using a cutting wheel, it doesn't take long to cut through the coral's skeletal mass.

Pieces are mounted on small home-made concrete pads.

Here is a frag of Montipora digitata, that was blotted off to dry the end that will be glued.

First it was run across a piece of sandpaper a few times to make a smooth base.

A quick test to make sure it will stand on the concrete pad.

The pad had a couple of drops of accellerator placed upon it, then the frag had a blob of super glue gel put upon it.

Holding the piece in place for 5 seconds was all it took. The accellerator speeds up the glue time from 45 seconds to just a few.

Ready to go back in the water.

This is a piece of soft coral. It can be cut with a straight edge razor blade, and secured to a piece of rock with the
toothpick method, or perhaps with a rubberband that holds it loosely yet with enough pressure to keep it in place.

A leather coral is cut complete through the base. The base goes back in the tank, as it will regrow the crown.

The top section was cut into multiple small pieces.

Here, he pokes a toothpick through a section of the frag.

This piece is ready to mount.

Applying super glue gel to the toothpick on each end, it was glued to a piece of rockwork. The toothpick keeps it
in place until the coral can attach to the rock on its own. This avoids pressure on the coral and growth is natural.

This is a more difficult piece, an Acanthastrea. This LPS was either on or grew a very dense piece of rock.
Greg used a Dremel tool to cut this coral in two.

Cutting first the base as deeply as the tool could reach, he then flipped it over to cut from the top.

Voilà. Two corals instead of one.

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