how to frag montipora

[nandan]

Hi, I wanted to know the procedure for fraging montipora, my friends brother had started with a reef. and he can help me with getting frags from his aquarium. but i wanted to know the procedure to do it and what should be the water conitions in my frag tank plus the lights the frag tank would be 20g aquarium. and i also wanted to know how can i mount it on my live rock??

[Mariner]

You can just break off branches of monti digi or leaves of monti cap. I like to make a small hole in a piece of LR for the digis using a philips screwdriver, put superglue gel in the hole and stick the frag in. The glue will harden almost immediately when you put it back in the water. For the monti caps you can do about the same thing -- make a slot in a piece of LR using a cerated knife (like a ginsu knife), fill it with superglue, stick your leaf of monti cap in and put it back in the water.
Besides normal tank parameters (pH, SG, etc), you'll need to maintain calcium and alkalinity in a tank with stoney corals. Calcium needs to be over 370, ideally 420 or so. Alk should be 7-11 dKH. If you're not familiar with measuring and maintaining these params, you might want to do some reading over in the Reef Chemistry forum here on RC.
Monti's can do fine under most lighting, anything from bright fluorescent lights of the right kelvin up to Metal Halide.
HTH,
Mariner

[nandan]

will the super glue stick on wet live rock?

[JLopez]

ur better off using epoxy

[Mariner]

Yes, the superglue will stick on wet LR.
Epoxy will work as and will provide a more stable hold...but ultimately not as natural looking IMO.
Mariner

[skeeter-doc]

the super glue will hold, but you need to make sure it is super glue GEL

[SVXH6]

epoxy heats up and can cause damage.. better of using super glue gel.

[skeeter-doc]

good point

[kidreef562]

rubber bands worked well for me on montis

[vetdog]

2nd the super glue gel

[BonesCJ]

i use super glue gel in the 10 packs

[tgcreef]

yeah get the bob smith super glue gel. It works real well also it comes in black so you can hide it better

[grewbek]

where does one get "bob smith" super glue gel? I just pick up the cheapo walmart superglue gel and it seems to work just fine. Holds long enough.

[grewbek]

Hey Kidreef562, do you see any tissue necrosis from the rubber bands? Do you do anything special or just band them to your plug/rock? I read somewhere that for some SPS you need to remove some of the tissue so your rubber band is sitting firmly on the calcium skeleton.

[Mariner]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12808466#post12808466 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greggboeck
where does one get "bob smith" super glue gel? I just pick up the cheapo walmart superglue gel and it seems to work just fine. Holds long enough.
I think the formula for super glue gel is pretty much the same no matter who manufactures it -- not even as much difference as there is between coke and pepsi.
fwiw,
Mariner