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Cutting Your Own
Corals – Make $!!
Pictured below is the store's
older 220g system - picture taken in 2008
A wonderful result of a successful reef tank is that
happy corals will grow…& grow…out of your tank if left on
their own!! What a wonderful problem to have as just a few
years ago we had great difficulty keeping them alive for any
length of time. Now many reefers are faced with the same
“good problem” that started AquaCorals! Corals growing to
sizes where they start to shade other corals, sting each
other & basically compete for tank space. Many of you are
experiencing this & now understand one of the reasons why I recommend going
with as large a tank as one can fit & afford! :0) Ok, so now
you have this “good problem”. What to do about it? ... Cut them.
If you’ve never cut corals before you’re probably reading
this & squirming at the thought! You may also be concerned
that you’ll kill your corals. Not to worry. Cutting corals
(propagating) is not hard to do, just patience & practice.
Most can be trimmed with scissors, sharp, clean razor blades
etc. The pieces you cut can then be attached to little
pieces of rock (preferably 3 inches or larger so they have
some weight to them). Just be sure
there is good water flow around the cut area of the parent
coral as well as on the new cuttings. No direct flow but
enough to keep bacteria from setting in the cut areas on
both the parent & babies.
Because all
corals release chemicals/toxins it's advisable to wear
gloves & even eye protection when working with your corals.
Some corals such as in the Palythoa & Zoanthids (some know
these as Button polyps) have very toxic components &
can be harmful to humans depending on your personal level of
sensitivity to their chemicals. Whenever possible,
remove the coral to be cut from your tank & rinse in a pan
of your tank water. This removes chemicals/toxins the
corals release from being cut. I also advise working
with one coral species per cutting session. Once
you're done, perform a water change as well as add new reef
carbon to your system to remove excess chemicals.
The method used
to attach the cuttings depends on the coral species you’re
working with. Some are leathery, slimy & super soft etc.
Rubber bands & toothpicks
work well. The hardest part is getting them to stay on the rock
without binding them too tight or you might get what I call
“tumble weed babies”! These are babies that break away from
it’s binder, most often from the binder being too tight &/or
water flow too strong …causing the binder to cut through the
coral tissue. Gentle is best. Allow only as much pressure as
will hold the coral piece gently on the rock. If you are
working with mushroom polyps, a neat way to propagate is to
let the individual polyps attach some substrate to their
foot. (some use a baby fish net box with some heavier
substrate in the bottom so as not to loose the polyps). At
that point you would take the individual polyps, paper towel
dry the substrate & glue it to a dry rock. 3 mushroom polyps
on a rock qualifies for the “Coral Trade-In” program here at
AquaCorals! You receive
$ per coral you bring in & the
monies you earn can be used towards your purchase of
anything in the store! Hobbyists can actually pay for their
own “reef addiction” by “growing your own” ... hence the
AquaCorals slogan:
“Reefers Grow Their
Own”
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