Fragging 101 with a bang

[watchguy123]

I placed a pretty little JF Flame frag high up on my rockwork a good while ago and it blossomed into a beautiful colony. So much so that it started to shade corals beneath it. I have fragged it previously but unfortunately I left it untrimmed for too long. My issue with it is that not only is shading other corals, but it has gotten so thick that is pretty much impossible to frag with conventional bone cutters. I guesstimate it is around five to six inches in diameter. Hence a technique Ive seen others use and I have also utilized the technique previously.

A little precaution in advance, Im new at video taping my tank so be patient with the length of the video. This was taken on October 4, 2018 and the follow up pictures are from today, October 22 or 18 days follow up. Some of the follow up photos are with blue lights and some with white lights, you should be able to figure it out. Enjoy

[video]https://youtu.be/OBiUzWpqV0w[/video]


I got about 20 plus frags out of this fragging effort. Mostly between one to two inches in height

Here is the colony recovering and repairing 18 days post fragging. I think it looks pretty darn good

And here are some of the frags, different photo lighting from blue to white but should be obvious. The frags look gorgeous

 

[djrice69]

I see your shooting with the a7r3. I need to trim my fox flame too.

 

[solitude127]

WOW, I never thought of chiseling out thick colonies like that. I guess it's a blessing and a curse to have thriving colonies.

 

[Smite]

Great looking frags and thanks for the video.

You got lots of flow/nice surface movement. what pumps are you running?

 

[scr_dayOne]

Is Mark back in CA no

 

[BeanMachine]

Nice vid Mark.

Great looking frags and thanks for the video.

You got lots of flow/nice surface movement. what pumps are you running?

Ditto. The flow is cranking.

 

[watchguy123]

I see your shooting with the a7r3. I need to trim my fox flame too.

Even with a great camera, I still miss so many shots. Unfortunately, it takes more than gadgetry to get nice shots. The video was with my old iPhone though.

WOW, I never thought of chiseling out thick colonies like that. I guess it's a blessing and a curse to have thriving colonies.

If the colony had broken from the base, I would have been so unhappy. Aside from a little nervousness, it was fun banging away at that chisel.

Great looking frags and thanks for the video.

You got lots of flow/nice surface movement. what pumps are you running?

I have two 250 gyres at opposite ends and i run them with a variation of the BRS schedule. Basically, over twenty four hours, they transition from both at 80 percent against each other and then one side will diminish slowly to zero and then ramp up while the other ramps down. The idea is to move the point where they contact each other. I also have a dart/snapper hybrid with two returns that adds to the flow. I have a lot of top surface agitation. My corals are probably placed too close to the top surface so I need the gyres placed pretty high up. Otherwise the flow would be too direct on the colonies.

Is Mark back in CA no

Nice vid Mark.

Thanks. I would like to learn how to use my real camera to video at some point.

Ditto. The flow is cranking.

 

[Dave57]

Even with a great camera, I still miss so many shots. Unfortunately, it takes more than gadgetry to get nice shots. The video was with my old iPhone though.


If the colony had broken from the base, I would have been so unhappy. Aside from a little nervousness, it was fun banging away at that chisel.

I have two 250 gyres at opposite ends and i run them with a variation of the BRS schedule. Basically, over twenty four hours, they transition from both at 80 percent against each other and then one side will diminish slowly to zero and then ramp up while the other ramps down. The idea is to move the point where they contact each other. I also have a dart/snapper hybrid with two returns that adds to the flow. I have a lot of top surface agitation. My corals are probably placed too close to the top surface so I need the gyres placed pretty high up. Otherwise the flow would be too direct on the colonies.

Wish I had that much flow in my tank haha, and now I want some of your frags! I’m gonna have to take a trip and visit! Wonderful recording I subscribed looking forward to more content hahah