Fragging problems

[rcreations]

I decided to frag some of my mushroom colonies and started off by cutting a few of the mushroom polyps off the rock. I cut them at the base so each polyp looks whole. Then I wanted to attach them to these small aragonite plugs I have. I tried it two ways, neither one worked. One I tried to attach with crazy glue. This one stayed attached for a few days, then the current blew it away. The second, I tried to rubberband to the plug. Left it rubberbanded for about 3 days, took off the rubberband and it looked attached. But again, in a few days the current blew it away.
And I'm not placing these in a high current area. I'm at a total loss as to what the problem is. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[nacl freak]

I image even though it's not high current, it's more than the shrooms like and they are detacting themselves. Just a guess.

 

[grabbitt]

The mushrooms are detaching, as nacl freak stated. The best method seems to be leaving them in a tupperware container with rubble on the bottom of the tank in a low flow area and placing the mushrooms on top of the rubble. Leave it there for about a week, and they should attach.

 

[rcreations]

Could it be the water quality? Because I'm taking them out of my main reef tank where the conditions are perfect and putting the frags in my lionfish FOWLR tank where the conditions are not as good for coral. (less light, more nitrates around 20, lower calcium).

 

[nacl freak]

What's the parameters in FOWLR tank? If the same, there shouldn't be a problem. It sounded from your desciption the shrooms attached then detatched. Why you ask? Unhappy with too much or to little flow or light.

 

[rcreations]

I'm sure the parameters in FOWLR are a little different, mainly because I'm not as concerned with keeping the calcium over 400. So I would guess that both alkalinity and calcium are a little different. Plus the lights are nowhere near as good. I think I will take the frags out and do the tupperware method that was suggested and do it in my reef tank.

 

[new2salt1]

I have attached like 6-7 different species of frags in the last 3 months, and I have tried EVERYTHING. And by far, the best method is a "frag farm."
A frag farm is nothing more than the corner of my tank, partitioned-off by an L-shaped piece of acrylic. The acrylic goes all the way up to the top of the tank so no inverts can get in the space.
At the top of the farm I place a small powerhead and aim it at the side of the tank, so the frags get NO direct flow.
And instead of using glue or bands, I just find LR rubble with holes or deep crevaces, and stick the base of the frags in the holes.
What has happened is the frags will be down in the holes and they will swell up really fast so their surface area is exposed to the light. The lack of stressing inverts and disruptive flow is the combination you need to achieve.