Frag fell behind epoxied rocks - ideas?

[FishyReef]

One of my urchins was toting around a zoa frag today and in trying to retrieve it from him I lost the frag down behind a wall of rock, all of which is epoxied in place. I've tried to reach back there with tongs, a coathanger, and 1/4" tubing - none of which worked. Any other ideas on how I can retrieve my frag? It was a really pretty set of green zoas that I'd hate to lose :(

 

[Waddi]

Picture?
Maybe some type of suction? You know? Start a siphon and try grab it?

 

[WooA]

+1 Syphon if you can..

 

[FishyReef]

Here's the pics - the first one is a view of the rock on the side of the tank - the frag fell underneath the rock in the far back corner - the second pic is of the back corner with the frag (not sure you can really see it w/ the polyps closed up, but it looks like it almost blends into the base of the rock).





I tried the siphon idea but couldn't get the 1/4" tubing to bend the right way to get into that corner. It kept curling back up towards the top of the tank. Is there a way I can get the tubing to flatten out rather than continue to curl up?

 

[chichimom79]

Get some of that rigid tubing and put a long piece of it on the end of your tubing Hope that works

 

[Waddi]

Either get a suction going, or blast a powerhead down there. Thats the only thing I can think of

 

[sen5241b]

Either get a suction going, or blast a powerhead down there. Thats the only thing I can think of

Yeah, if suction doesn't work blast the hell out of that corner although that might psuh it back even farther. This kind of thing has happened to me.

 

[tritan]

Thats a tough situation, maybe take a coat hanger with superglue attached to one end, try and squeeze a little glue out while its down there and touch it to the frag and leave it for a minute?

 

[Samhain]

XL surgical forceps. That's what I've been using to grab frags that my urchin runs off with. Mine look like reeeeeealllyyyy long hemostats with a curved end. No clue why anyone would ever need them in surgery, since they're like 18 inches long, but I'll be damned if I didn't swipe them from an opened but unused sterile setup. They were throw-aways, not reusable ones, so they would have ended up in the garbage anyway. See that? I'm a recycler! Or at least, that's my justification...........

 

[Bifferwine]

You can attach some tubing to the sucking end of a MaxiJet powerhead, then grab it.

 

[FishyReef]

Thank you all for the suggestions!! I planned to go to my office today to try to retrieve the frag using any and all of the ideas you guys gave me, but apparently I left my key card in my office on Friday and am locked out until Monday.:grumble: Such a bummer!! Just going to keep my fingers crossed that the frag lasts that long without light (5 days total) before I can get to it again. At least I fed the fish before I left yesterday!

 

[fastrd400]

Tape your coat hanger to the tubing so it will not curl. Then attach it to the maxijet like Sarah said. If you do it right, you can use the hanger as a sort of handle to guide it right where you need it. Plus you can shape it or bsnd it as needed.

 

[chichimom79]

Tape your coat hanger to the tubing so it will not curl. Then attach it to the maxijet like Sarah said. If you do it right, you can use the hanger as a sort of handle to guide it right where you need it. Plus you can shape it or bsnd it as needed.

Ooohh, that's even better than my rigid tubing idea

 

[FishyReef]

What type of tape should I use? And do you think the zoos will still be alive come Monday evening (gotta wait until after work to dig into the tank!)

 

[fastrd400]

Ooohh, that's even better than my rigid tubing idea

And that is why I get paid the big bucks, lol :mrgreen:

What type of tape should I use? And do you think the zoos will still be alive come Monday evening (gotta wait until after work to dig into the tank!)

Doesn't really matter, what ever you can use that will adhere in the water. I'd probably use duct tape myself, just wrap the hanger and tubing really tight.

 

[Samhain]

My zoa frag survived two months buried under my sand after a sandstorm that crashed my tank. I found it when i upgraded, looking really pitiful, and put it the new tank on the off chance that it might make it. A couple months later it was all better and adding new heads!

 

[Bifferwine]

The zoa will survive just fine for five days. When some people have bad algae problems, they do a complete black out of the tank (no light, covered in heavy blankets) to intentionally keep light out for up to a week at a time.