OK coral people - I need you!!

[EricHugo]

I need you all to put on your thinking caps for me.

I pose the following situation:

You are about ready to go out on a reef and attache fragments to it. Some of these are standard staghorn like branches, maybe 6" or so long. Theyw ill go in about 20-30 feet of water, and can be in a somewhat protected area, but will still face the potential for storms.

The others will be like clubs - maybe 6" to a foot long and solid. These willhave to go in very shallow water where they will get hammered with waves.

Previous methods haveused epoxy, tying with wire, and screws and nails.

If you were going to approach this, and these corals had to survive until they physically attached themselves to the reef, and you wanted it to be fast, easy, and solid, what would you do? What are some innovative possibilities for accomplishing this?

Also, let's say you can also have the fragments already grown onto a substrate or base of your choosing, if this makes a difference.

And. remember, you want coral tissue in contact with the reef to promote fast attachment.

[tld]

Maybe top and bottom pieces of something interlocking? You could secure the bottom piece to the reef with with bolts or something and then lock the top piece (of which the frag has almost totally encrusted) to the secured bottom piece. Materials could be something like threaded PVC pipe - lock the bottom part to the reef and screw the frag on??? :D

Just a thought...
Teresa

[worf59]

Hi Eric

Since you didn't mention cost as a parameter or the scale (how many) of your project, this might not be feasable.
I was thinking of powerloads..like they use in construction for securing things to concrete. You could shoot a threaded stud into the reef and have the frags premounted and encrusted upon stainless steel nuts or plates, then you would just screw them onto the stud. It would be fairly easy and fast in the shallow water scenario. The deeper water part might require an oxygen supply which could be anything that would hold air when inverted and weighted to the bottom. With a little practice, it could go almost as fast as the shallow water part.
This stuff isn't cheap though and if you're only doing a few frags, I doubt that it would be cost effective. Maybe it's in the realm of possibilities....maybe not.

[technoshaman]

maybe something akin to the rubber found in inner tubes? What I would maybe try is cut some up, cut a hole in the flat part of the rubber fairly small and slip it over the base of the fragment? This would work if it had a somewhat wider base than the bottom branch. The rubber ring (would look kind of like a giant black ring, flat with the coral base toward the inside) could then be snapped around a piece of substrate. Not sure how chemically inert this type of rubber is but if you made the hole small enough and put it in a protected area it might work. The base might not get much light depending on how you do it.

Second idea would be to use chicken wire or the large gauge hexagonal mesh sometimes used in erosion prevention (like when they make those rock filled cages). The pieces could easily be secured through this and the material itself is easily cut and bent to shape. Most is available in large rolls as well so theoretically a large area could be done with minimal fuss. I know you mentioned wire but I am thinking you are wiring down individual frags. I liked the rubber idea simply since it should give a little with the current.


Last suggestion is some type of duct or 100milehr tape. If it will hold airplane wings on it could probably be engineered to work effectively with coral.

[Casie]

If I was gonna repopulate a wild reef...

I would approach it more like Johnny Appleseed. I'd frag your large colonies down to 2" bits and go down with a BIG OL' stick of plumbers putty and a net bag of frags. I'd clean off cracks in the nautral reef, shove in a ball of putty and then push the lil' frags into it. Because they are small they wouldn't have to fight so much current right away and you could plant 3x the ammount.

[Reef Madness]

Dang!
I thought I posted a response, but I don't see it here.

Grow the frags onto an inert and durable rod (pvc, acrylic, fiberglass, etc.) say 1/4"-1/2". These can be as long as necessary to insert into holes drilled in desired wild substrate. Holes can be made with a pneumatic drill run on a regulated aluminum 80 (down to about 100psi), then insert rod into holes in substrate until coral comes in contact. Glue if desired.

The rods will take the abuse (support) while the coral grows onto the substrate.

Craig

[nvrmore]

If the frag is already attached to a base something like waterplug would work really well. Waterplug sets up extremely fast however in doing so it will generate heat, the more you have mixed up the more heat it will produce. That is why I would think the frag would be better off with a small base already attached.
I have used it at work quite a bit and it just might work pretty well :)