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I am in the process of starting up invertebrate propagation. I am using a well insulated room built in my basement and 50 gallon rubbermaid stock tanks, airlifts for flow, sponge filter/skimmer and water change for filtration and 80 watts of T10 lighting for growth. My plan will be propagation of sarcophyton, xenia and BTA anemonae for sale, but will use the operation to demonstrate techniques.

Please email me or better yet join us on fragexchange to teach us other techniques.

Coral Frag Tips:

• Try to only frag corals that have been well established and actively growing in your system to decrease the risk of harm to the coral
  
• Soft Coral tip- sew soft corals onto your plug/disk (great for leathers/colts)or use floral/bridal veil to cover your soft coral(mushrooms) over your plug until attachment occurs after 1-3 weeks
  
• SPS frags should be glues or laid on their sides to expose more of the axial corallites vertically as it occurs in nature when a wave knocks a piece off (per Eric Borneman)
  
• If planning on shipping overseas eventually as an aquaculture supplier, put your corals on artificial plugs/discs to avoid having to prove your coral is aquacultured
  
• when fragging soft corals (xenia, zoanthids), use a sharp wood chisel to scrape some rock off beneath the coral, so this rock can be glued to your reef plug or disc with more ease than trying to attach a slimy soft coral down
  
• when using a basin to hold your corals in while fragging, make sure to change the water out between species of corals fragged, to avoid overstressing the corals
  
• consider a dip (such as Seachem's ReefDip) for corals fragged before placing back in your tank.
  
• When fragging a hard coral such as favia or fungia or brains etc. use a dremmel on the skeleton underneath and a sharp blade with decisive cuts on the flesh....or try a wet tile saw witha sharp blade to make surgical cuts
  

I now have a small rack in my 120 for growing frags, of sps, lps, and mostly softies. Soon I will be stepping up the fragging schedule and start the growout on a larger format. I will list out what i have and will be posting pics later. I am planning on upgrading to a larger grow out system in the near future, i am not a business and am not doing this for the money, but to distribute cultured corals and help others learn how to frag. So if you like what you see let me know and maybe we can swap some frags.
My frag system setup (as it was):

FragTank:

I use frag plugs and reef glue from Boston Aqua farms and mount them on light diffuser racks.
I am a member of fragexchange.com and am constantly learning about fragging techniques (IMAC/MACNA conferences were great. I am not selling these but am available for trade. Some of these are occasionally for sale locally through Wet Pets.
Check out my threads on frag techniques and growth documentation on Frag Exchange.

This page updated march 16, 2007