Fragging advice

[cmiller]

New to the fragging scene so I'm looking g for some advice. I have several sps that need pruning and are attached to big rock I really don't want to/can't easily remove from the 28 gallon nano. My question is can I put my fragging shears (Dissekt-Rite Cutting Shears) in the tank to prune or is that problematic? I plan to throughly rinse the shears in fresh h2o once I'm done to help prevent rusting. Alternatively, is there another way to prune sps while leaving the coral in the tank?
Thanks

 

[reefman069]

i have always just put the shears in the tank. when cutting sps. i found what works best is grab the sps with the shears and twist the shears side ways. this way you do less damage to the sps and it just pops off. buy cutting it crushes the sps. hope this helps

 

[cmiller]

That is helpful. Thanks. When you say 'twist the shears sideways' are you rotating the shears around the sps as you cut or is it more that you are angling the shears away from the sps at an angle as you cut? Hope that question Make sense?

 

[reefman069]

no. grab the sps with the shears. dont cut it off. break it off by snapping it off left of right

 

[cmiller]

Cool. Thanks!

 

[trido]

I never rinse my frag shears. After eight years they are a bit rusty but still work great. Reefman gave you as much advice as necessary. The rest is just practice.

 

[Gryphon]

Don't try to cut branching frogspawn with cutters. I've had the bad luck of cracking more than cutting, and had a few that split the heads XD.

 

[kpiotrowski]

For thicker branches you can rotate the cutter around the branch a few times creating a score mark to encourage the branch to break where you want it also.

 

[MAC2]

i have always just put the shears in the tank. when cutting sps. i found what works best is grab the sps with the shears and twist the shears side ways. this way you do less damage to the sps and it just pops off. buy cutting it crushes the sps. hope this helps

Just to clarify, you store your shears in the tank, or sump?

 

[cmiller]

For thicker branches you can rotate the cutter around the branch a few times creating a score mark to encourage the branch to break where you want it also.

Good suggestions. I have a Frog Spawn that will soon need pruning. I think it may be time to also purchase a small fragging tank if anyone is selling one. Thanks everyone.

 

[reefman069]

Don't try to cut branching frogspawn with cutters. I've had the bad luck of cracking more than cutting, and had a few that split the heads XD.

1+ go get a dremel tool with a cutting wheel. it works great with lots of fragging.

 

[spieszak]

1+ go get a dremel tool with a cutting wheel. it works great with lots of fragging.

How quickly does it cut when you do this? I mean, how long do you HAVE to be out of water?

 

[IPisces]

most coral can handle being out of water for quite a while. Branching frogspawns and hammers only take a half a minute to cut a branch off. I just keep a bowl of water to place them in after cutting them. They will slime quite a bit too.

 

[IPisces]

i use a dremel if they are easy to get to with one or I have a band saw, which is much easier.

 

[kpiotrowski]

My experience with frogspawn is it is easy to tell by differnece in color and texture where the real hard skeleton meets the more fragile and try to break it off below that line. It pretty much just breaks off with leverage. You will be surprized at how easy it is!

Consider, the Reef can be quite a violent place at times with storms etc, and in its reconstruction during those time coral breaks off at its weakest point, tumbles, and either survives or doesn't. But since you are going to help it along and place it right side up....its gonna live.

I have said before that all things considered...and there is much to consider but, coral should be considered VERY hardy if you figure we can actually keep this stuff alive in home aquaria!

When is a tank overstocked? Compared to the open ocean, as soon as you put a damsel in 1,000 gallons of water...it is overstocked.

 

[monkeyseat18]

Anybody else use bone cutters to frag?