Drilling rock for reef plugs a must?

[Spar]

I have around 800 pounds of live rock ready to add to my tank. I will be using reef plugs for new coral and getting them introduced via a QT with frag racks first.

I can drill the rock throughout with holes as I add them to the tank (so I know placement at the time) to prepare for the plugs later, but figure this will be a mess and more difficult than I am giving it credit for.

Would I regret it later if I didn't drill the rock before hand or is it over rated and best to just attach the coral/plugs via a different method later?


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[mille239]

When I was keeping SPS (I suppose applies to other corals as well) I would do one of two methods:

A) cut off the bottom of the plug (the nub that goes through eggcrate), and epoxy the coral and flat base of plug directly to the rock;
B) Snip off the coral from the plug about 1/2 inch from the plug leaving enough to regenerate in my frag tank, then mount the coral itself to the rock with Superglue.

Your corals will eventually grow onto the rocks, so by drilling the holes for the plugs, really only allows you a window of a month or so to rearrange them to your liking before they need to be placed into a permanent place.

hope this helps.

[RcToners]

I wish I would have drilled my rock for frag plugs. I just added a 20 lb rock to my main tank and drilled it for plugs, it works out so much nicer for adding frags IMO. Yes you can cut the base off of plugs and go through that every time you want to add a coral to your tank but once its there its there. I like being able to move my frags around in the tank so i can try several options as far as placement. Its not hard to drill the rock and takes very little time vers having to cut every frag pluug and glue it.

[sslak]

I just cut the plug part off and glue the discs in place.

[dublo8]

I just got all new rock for a new build I'm doing and I'm all for drilling a couple holes for plugs. Most of the reef saver rock I got from BRS already has holes big enough for a plug anyways but I think once everything starts to encrust over the plug it will look great.

On a side note, in the past I have placed the plug inside of a hole and once it started to encrust I would cut the plug and frag out of the hole leaving the new growth in place which turns into more frags and look more natural than having a plug sitting in the tank for months on end.

[seesick]

I drilled my rock, am glad I did. It makes moving new frags around painless.
If it’s not doing well in one place, I move it to a different hole (ie: needs more light, or less flow) might move 2-3 times to make it happy. Has work excellent for me.

[Spar]

How easy is it to drill into the rock with that size of a hole (1/2")? Could I stack the rock first and then drill after so that I know the exact spots of where to drill into? Figure it would be a heck of a lot easier that way.

[cherubfish pair]

I have drilled dry rock only and some of it crumbled. Have any of you had established rock crumble when drilling?

[williamjhitchcock]

i drilled mine worked great. only one of 2 holes crumbled. make sure if your putting a frag in not to puddy it too much. i have like 5 holes closed up with the frag plug stuck in there.... also make sure to turkey baster the holes every once in a while they fill up with junk like crazy!

[Reef Bass]

I've both drilled and glued. Drilling makes nice receptacles for frag plugs. And I've hauled out rock, drilled it, returned it, and then put new frags in.

That said, most of my frags were glued and now have encrusted over whatever plugs they were on and the rocks they're on too, so with sps anyway it's moot in the long run.

People often think that just because a frag is glued in place, it can't be moved. Not so. I've moved a number of glued frags. Just pop it off and glue it where you'd like it to be.

[crvz]

I drilled holes throughout my rock work on the last setup, and I'm about to do it again. They arent very noticeable (if at all) and you'll enjoy the versatility of coral placement down the road. I would recommend it, but I don't know for sure if you would regret NOT doing so.

[mtaswt]

Has anyone drilled the rock while it's in place in the tank with an extra long drill bit?