My 125g Experience

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i have found the easiest way to attach my toadstool frags is with a piece of thread...i tie it just tight enough to keep it down on a small rock..after a few weeks, the stalk of the leather will grow around the string
 
How do you attatch it with the thread? Tie the thread around its base and then wrap around the rock to secure it?
 
yeah, something like that...i just tie it wherever possible..it will attach
 
Cool, thanks ron. I will git that a try.

Ben: On the left side theres a few caves that go through to the back of the tank. On the right hand side though, there isnt any. I was kind of just sticking it in there and seeing what I could come up with. I will probably redo the right side of the tank and go with more of an uneven height on the rock rather than straight across the tank, the same height. All the fish I have love to swim in and out of the rockwork so its key to get a path for them.
My purple tang already has his "race track" lined up. He darts in and out of like 6 caves around corners and back to where he started. He's by far the funniest fish I've seen.
 
Nice. Hey, on the kenya tree, it's pretty tough and leathery. I've used the superglue in the past and it's worked well with now problems.. you just have to make sure to get the superglue with this cyato..bla bla stuff.. as the base ingredient and your fine..

thread may work well too.
 
I like the look of the tank. Well done..

Also I love your plug-in switch idea. That is great.

I always use fine fishing line to attach leather frags... just tight enough to hold it snug. If you get it too tight it will cut through. Also I have threaded the fine fishing line on a needle and "sew it on" a rock.

Candy
 
I like the look of the tank. Well done..

Also I love your plug-in switch idea. That is great.

I always use fine fishing line to attach leather frags... just tight enough to hold it snug. If you get it too tight it will cut through. Also I have threaded the fine fishing line on a needle and "sew it on" a rock.

Candy

Thanks! I still got a little work on the rockwork and the power panel. Need to replace the outlets with GFCI's to make sure I don't have any issues. Thanks to everybody on the info for attatching this little guy. I'm hopeing he doesnt float away again :oops:
 
Got some new frags from some very nice people, Steven11, and MCSinc. Here's some pics of em.
DSCN6060.jpg

My new Frogspawn frag
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and my Xenia
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Ben: I've got the Cyno-Acrylate SuperGlue which is the safe stuff. Will this work if not 100% dry?

oh yeah.. definately. what I've found to work the best is to take the base of the tree out of the water just a bit, then apply the glue, then submerge it, and attach to it's landing spot. I've found dabbing the coral (after the glue is applied) on the rock works the best.. As soon as you submerge it, the outer most layer of the glue almost gets tough, so, in order to get to the soft part, you dab it on the rock and then it will start to attach. you'll start to see stringy things start to form between the rock and the frag, once you think you've got enough stringy things, you just hold it on the rock for another second or two and voiala... your frag is now stuck on the rock.

there are some good illustrations of how to do it on the web - I jsut can't remember where.. let me do a little digging and see if I can't get you an illustration.
 
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well, doesn't appear others have had as much luck with glueing as I have. I've never had problems with it. "to each his own" I guess.

check out this excert from Calfo from coralgrowing.com. This guy knows his stuff, so you may want to try the sewing it down.

http://www.coralgrowing.com/SecuringPropagatedCorals.php

"Cyanoacrylate (superglue) has been heralded like the eighth wonder of the world for attaching coral categorically. Many aquarists read in aquarium literature and hear about the convenience of using this product, but experience with it is often met with frustration, disappointment and a lost coral fragment blowing around the aquarium. Quite frankly, I do not understand or agree with all of the hubbub surrounding this technique especially as it pertains to species other than SPS scleractinians. I have handled many thousands of fragmented divisions of soft and hard coral (secured with various techniques), and find the process of gluing with cyanoacrylate to be tedious, at best, for many popular coral species. I have listened to more aquarists than not complain through the years about difficulties with utilizing this technique that really cannot be attributed to procedural faults. Defenders maintain that there is a very specific protocol (that is ironically quite variable among the defenders) for attaching soft corals with cyanoacrylate glue. Please forgive me, but I am just not willing to buy into the hype of a ten-step procedure for getting super glue to set that involves a Tibetan Sherpa, a stick of chewing gum and a roll of duct tape. Indeed, I am exaggerating here for the purpose of a bit of humor, but still I mean to relate that the application of cyanoacrylate glues to living coral is often misunderstood or misapplied by aquarists. The time required to apply such glue is no faster than a simple elastic band or tie/stitch and it certainly is not as reliable (where a stitch works the first time, every time… cyanoacrylate may need to be re-applied). As super as it may be around the household, it is not a universal adhesive for most or even many corals. Cyanoacrylate glue can indeed be very useful for some coral like SPS species, but it is ultimately very challenging to employ with many other corals. It seems to work best with surfaces (living or not) that can easily be patted dry and handled out of water for some time without suffering or secreting much mucus, such as the broken edge and exposed corallum of stony corals, the woody gorgonin stem of a gorgonian and the rough surfaces of many "leather" corals. These are very fine places to which one may easily and successfully bond cyanoacrylate glue to another surface. One of my favorite applications of cyanoacrylate glue is upon the underside of stoloniferous corals ("mat" formed like Star polyps) for setting sheets of living coral in place upon the aquarium's vertical back and side walls (temporarily drop water level to do this). Other artifacts of the aquarium system like plumbing/pipes and overflow wells may be covered in like kind with a living veil of coral by cyanoacrylate glue. Yet, other corals still, like individual zoantharians (button polyps or mushrooms anemones) and "slimy"/mucous corals like "Colt" coral (Klyxum), are very challenging to secure anywhere with cyanoacrylate and are best anchored by other means. With the intention of trying to keep this article shorter than the preamble to the Constitution <G>, let me direct aquarists interested in learning more about the various subtleties for properly applying cyanoacrylate glue abroad onto the internet and more specifically to a wonderful site for aquarists: GARF. For aquarists not familiar with the work of Leroy and Sally Jo Headlee, their site is filled with an enormous amount of very useful and instructional content in articles, images and video on a wide range of topics embracing reef aquarium science. Know that there are likely more than a few ways to successfully apply cyanoacrylate glue to live coral for settlement."
 
Thanks for the advice Ben, and thanks to PSAS I now have a stick of CA glue.

Took some pictures as I put my ringtail in and had to redo the rockwork to accomodate for him. All the rock is off the back of the tank as I will put a spraybar back there to keep flow, and I had to create caves for all the fish. There's one for each in the bottom of the rocks. I came home today to find that my Koran Angel has taken a liking to my newly acquired Fire & Ice zoas that I got from steven11, and now have 2 of about 20 left :mad: So it's either get rid of my buddy, or not keep zoas. Hard pick as I want both. Anyways here's some pics of the tank as of today. Still need another 250w Icecap MH ballast if anybody has one :D

Full tank shot
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My Ringtail Surgeon saying hello
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And my fast growing Kenya Tree
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Thanks Matt!! BTW, those bulbs are perfect :) I think I started the stealing chain when I took those bulbs from ya hehe, sorry.
 
Well I just picked up a RBTA today from Candy(MCSInc), thanks a bunch!!! Here's a few pics of it. It's still getting adjusted and hasnt fully opened up yet. Now need to do some more reading on em, make sure he's happy. My GSM is slowly coming out and checking the guy out. Hopefully soon, he'll find his new home :D
 
And an hour later.....love at first sight
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Hey David - has the rbta moved around much. It'd be nice if you could get him to stay right smack dab in the middle there, but it looks like it's fighting some current. Also, are you planning on doing SPS in this tank? If yes, you are as gutsy as me :D :D :D
 
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