granite as frag plugs?

[reef46]

I have recently gotten into the fragging craze and have ralized that the smoother the surface the faster zoas spread. My question is would granite be ok to use for propogating zoanthids? It would be really easy to peel them off and put them on LR before trades or sales. Thanks for the replies.

 

[reefkprz]

absolutly not granite can leach arsenic into your tank and kill the coral attached to it as well as slowly poisoning everything else, use white marble if you want a smooth surface, it works great and is completly safe, you can usually get scraps from mom and pop style countertop companies for free if your willing to go ask if you can paw through their discard bin, DONT use any colored marble Just white.
if there are no small countertop companies near you you can buy white marble door saddles at homedepot or lowes for like 4-8$ and get dozens of frag plugs.

 

[maxalmon]

reefkprz......I was looking at those white marble window sills from HomeDepot, there about 4" wide and maybe 24" long and cost $6.00... I wasn't sure if they were actually white marble or cultured, do you know if there safe?

 

[autofreak44]

can you use plexiglass? i have loads of it laying around

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by maxalmon
reefkprz......I was looking at those white marble window sills from HomeDepot, there about 4" wide and maybe 24" long and cost $6.00... I wasn't sure if they were actually white marble or cultured, do you know if there safe?
yes they are, just wash them off in RO water before use to remove any blade residue, they are just white marble white marble is suprisingly inexpensive.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by autofreak44
can you use plexiglass? i have loads of it laying around
yes you can use plexi, regular glass, plastic housings from filters, anything that would normally be safe in your aquarium you can attach corals to for grow out purposes. its unlikly anyone will want a frag thats attached to plexi but you can always grow a colony on it for fragging off from.
anyone remember this thread?
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/267663/marble-score
Just as a note, the whiter the marble the better, any darkness in marble is caused by mineral deposits, different minerals are different colors so the less color the better so your not leaching any unidentified minerals into your tank. reds are especially bad as they are usually ferric oxide compounds and lead to horrendous algae growth.

 

[reef46]

ok, well I guess I can just throw away my granite scraps then. but that plexyglass Idea sounds pretty good!

 

[maxalmon]

I'm on my way to HomeDepot for those window sills, those are like the perfect size, cut them in half, plant some zoa's and scrape them off. Im actually going to use them for the blue cloves that I just go and possibly some pom pom xenia

 

[ric maniac]

Originally Posted by reefkprZ
yes you can use plexi, regular glass, plastic housings from filters, anything that would normally be safe in your aquarium you can attach corals to for grow out purposes. its unlikly anyone will want a frag thats attached to plexi but you can always grow a colony on it for fragging off from.
anyone remember this thread?
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/267663/marble-score
Just as a note, the whiter the marble the better, any darkness in marble is caused by mineral deposits, different minerals are different colors so the less color the better so your not leaching any unidentified minerals into your tank. reds are especially bad as they are usually ferric oxide compounds and lead to horrendous algae growth.
i have another question: how fast did it take for you to have 20+ polyps on that white marble?

 

[reefkprz]

never got that many, I ended up fragging all of them off for people, and mixed rocks for others. the growth rate on marble is only marginally faster due to its smoothness. but its SO easy to get the frags off its mindblowing, perfect lift everytime, just scrape the marble with a razor like you do glass, almost no tissue damage at all. they all opened within an hour of being back in tank after the frag.

 

[ric maniac]

wow! ill have to try that.

 

[maxalmon]

I've got a great test for this, just recieved some green & orange cloves, I think there were 5 polyps on this frag. Cloves are such a pain to scrape off any other substrate. I'll run over and pick up the marble and then do a fragging with the cloves later tonight and post pics over a period of time.

 

[reefkprz]

I hear you on that I dont even try to scrape clove I just break the rock. let me know how it turns out.