Fragging Corals 101 - A Basic Tutorial For Beginners

[Rcpilot]

I noticed we have a lot of newer members on the forums and many of you have asked questions about fragging corals. I'll try and put together a few short videos on how I cut and mount my frags.

I'm pretty casual about how I cut and mount corals. I've had very good luck using a simple and common sense approach to fragging many different types of corals. I do take my personal safety seriously and I always wear gloves when handling corals outside the tank. I always wear glasses to protect my eyes. I always wash my hands before I put them in the tank. I always wash my hands after fragging.

 

[yote]

Cant wait to see the video Rc.:D

 

[Rcpilot]

First up - scraping some zoas and yellow polyps off the back glass for mounting on aragonite tiles.

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[Rcpilot]

Next up - button polyps. I fragged these 6 months ago, but I'll post it here. This one shows how to hack a couple polyps off a rock.

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[yote]

You make some pretty good videos Rc.

This might give you an idea of how toxic zoas and palys can be.
• View topic - palytoxins

 

[Rcpilot]

Oh man I know it. Those things are toxic as hell!! :death:

Last thing you want to do is expose a cut - a mucous membrane (eyeball - nose - ear - mouth ) - or even your skin to a paly toxin. I'll venture a guess and say that if you get this stuff in your blood stream and run to the emergency room - they ain't gonna have a CLUE what you're talking about. Thats ESPECIALLY true if you're smack in the middle of the country like me - 1200 miles from the nearest ocean.

My wife is holding the camera in these vids. She's got safety glasses on and gloves too. She's just holding the camera - never any closer than a couple feet away. But I've personally seen button polyps shoot/squirt juice over 24" out when they are pissed off from being cut.

Thanks for the link Yote!! Good info for people to read BEFORE putting razor to polyp.

 

[Rcpilot]

Next up - an LPS Trumpet coral. It's not very big, but it's growing like crazy in my display and I'm kinda running out of real estate in there. So it's getting hacked up. :mrgreen:

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[Rcpilot]

2hrs later:

 

[yote]

Rc,A set of these http://www.vividaquariums.com/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=04-1722&Category=Drygoods And Aquarium Supplies:FraggingTools&SortBy=Price will make fragging those LPS as simple as fallin off a log.

 

[Rcpilot]

I know there are specific tools designed for fragging - I wanted to show people that it's NOT a big deal. You can use whatever is handy if you're creative. You don't need expensive or specialized tools to frag. It's nice - but not required.

I have a big pair of snippers kinda like that, but I've been reorganizing my storage area and I have lost track of them recently. Took my dremel to my friends house to fix a busted airplane so I had to improvise. The little mini hack saw actually worked pretty darn good.

Thanks for the link Yote. :Cheers: I'm sure somebody reading this will have need for them. It's always nice to buy and use nice new tools. I'm just too poor - so I improvise a lot. :mrgreen:

 

[yote]

I know exactly what you mean improvising.:D
I've got a set of horse hoof nippers that I used and duct stretcher,then converted them for fraggin:mrgreen:

 

[Rcpilot]

I used to have a pair of horse hoof nippers too. Had a big pair and a small pair. They work great when you've got an apprentice banging the duct together and he don't pay attention - puts it together all racked out of square. Long as he don't put screws in the pittsburg seams those nippers will pull just about any drives together. :mrgreen:

When I quit wearing tools, I gave them to a friend and he's still using them to this day.

 

[Solarfall]

Should have this stickied and let anyone post their fragging videos up. Could lead to a nice little wealth of info.

 

[Rcpilot]

I would also encourage anybody to post videos or technique here.

 

[d2mini]

RC, those are great vids! Thanks for taking the time and effort to do them!

Where do you get gloves that are reef safe? No powders and stuff. What would one be looking for on the package?

 

[Rcpilot]

I don't even know if they are reef safe to be honest. I don't put the gloves in the tank. I put my bare hand in the tank to collect the corals for fragging. I don't put the gloves on until after I've collected the corals and then washed and dried my hands.

Those are just plain old powder-free nitrile gloves. I'm sure latex gloves would work just as well.

I think you can get those at any Wal-Mart or Costco. If not - find an industrial safety supply store. They will have the gloves and also safety glasses or face shields if you want to purchase those as well.

 

[yote]

Just get the powder free rubber or latex and your set.Both are reef safe.

I too think its a good idea to sticky this thread.:D

 

[dcantucson]

:bowdown: Rc good job on the videos. :bowdown:

 

[Hiker4twenty]

Thanks for the great video's RC. They're very informative.

 

[Ninja Spear]

How DO I Frag a Leather? I want to Chop Up Mine.