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Growing Corals On glass

Has anyone glued a frag onto the glass and the coral grow there? Or does it work until the weight is to much and it falls down. I'm talking more LPS & SPS. I know softies do this but I'm not sure if it can be accomplished with hard corals.


Josh
 
I have glued a few to the plastic return on my tank. They seem happy and are still encrusting. Time will tell...
 
Josh, Most common "hard" coral people glue to the wall is a Montipora Cap. I've seen some really elaborate montiporas grow wonderfully just below the grates of in intake. They seem to love the flow. Don't know how well anything else would grow or what the point would be. Usually you see GSP or xenia on walls. One awesome choice is blue sympodium. It's gorgeous and grows quite well across anything.
 

Fish Brain

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
SPS will grow on anything. I've seen a few tanks where SPS, not just monti caps, were growing on the glass or overflows.
 
I have confusa and flower petal montis starting to encrust the wall. I also have grinch and Jedi montis strategically placed to grow on the giant overflow. I'm hoping to get some acros going there next. I think it works great. Also seems adds a bit of depth to the system.
 
Sounds promising. When I set up my new tank I think I'm going to give it a try. @ Zoanut, I currenty have my blue sympodium on my overflow box. I like the look thats why I was wondering if it was possible with hard corals. @Thermosts I kind of figured they would grow but the thought is on smooth glass they would have nothing to really grip onto so once they got some size/weight to them they would just fall off. @Zippy & jgraz aren't you concerned that they may start to block flow on the return/overflow? Wouldn't it turn into constantly trimming them back to keep the water flowing? But it still would be cool to see.
 
I have some tri color valida that was on a rock adjacent to my overflow chamber, that had encrusted and is now growing on my overflow.
 

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Josh, I'm sure just about any coral would grow if you glued it to the glass, but I'd caution against it for one simple reason... it will make cleaning your glass a nightmare.

It's a pain for me just to move my magnet frag rack whenever I do mine. I can see you bumping an sps almost every time and likely knocking it off or accidentally fragging it at least.

Of course, this only pertains to glass you intend to keep clean. If you put it on the back wall and you never clean that anyway... I guess that would be ok.
 
Josh, I'm sure just about any coral would grow if you glued it to the glass, but I'd caution against it for one simple reason... it will make cleaning your glass a nightmare.

It's a pain for me just to move my magnet frag rack whenever I do mine. I can see you bumping an sps almost every time and likely knocking it off or accidentally fragging it at least.

Of course, this only pertains to glass you intend to keep clean. If you put it on the back wall and you never clean that anyway... I guess that would be ok.

That was another thought. If you go to frag it you might just break the whole thing off the wall.
 
@Zippy & jgraz aren't you concerned that they may start to block flow on the return/overflow? Wouldn't it turn into constantly trimming them back to keep the water flowing? But it still would be cool to see.

ATM no concern with me. When it comes time you just need to keep the area flowing water clean. Plus constant trimming just means a constant supply of frags for others.
I'm not overly concerned by weight right now cause they are pretty small for now. The Jedi and grinch are actually on the rock work just in an area where they will eventually grow on the overflow. As for the other two they are on relatively strong magnet mounts plus even though the glass is smooth for now you'll be surprised how well the hold. In the future the glass will start to get corraline on it and there will be no fear of collapse. I will say that I only do this on the back glass which I do not clean. The sides are clear ATM. I have a orange cap that is close and the only thing that keeps it away is constant cleaning with the magnet.
 
i have some red cap monti growing on my overflow and i just picked up a sunset monti that was on a magnet and had overgrow ontothe glass...it was stuck there pretty good.
 
That's actually getting more outward growth. All that encrusting will also branch out. The branches on the acro looks like it tripled or more during the time.
 

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I have had a couple sps grow toward the glass and attach over time. It was real cool and nearly impossible to get off unless there was coralline on the glass before it attached. I had to scrape the one that did not have coralline under it and it sctatched the glass pretty bad. The one that had coralline under it just snapped off when I needed it to and it was smooth underneath with a clean spot on the glass.
 
Just be mindful of placement. Some montis, sunset comes to mind will take out others. So give then plenty of space.
 
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