Broken Coral Advice

[dixonallred]

Well I had an accident tonight that ended in the majority of my prize Red Planet colony breaking off from the rest of the colony (everything inside of the yellow box broke off in one piece). I immediately attempted to superglue the large piece back onto the remaining coral but the piece is just too heavy. I even removed the rock from the tank and it still wouldn't hold. Now two hours later I have calmed down, stopped crying, and I am now looking for advice. If this was your coral what would you do?

Here are a few things I have thought of;
1. Superglue the large piece back onto where it broke off from the remaining part of the colony (this obviously didn't work).
2. Break off the branches on the far right side of the large piece and attempt to superglue this smaller piece onto where the large piece broke off from the remaining part of the colony.
3. Break off the remaining branch from the rock and attempt to superglue or putty the large piece onto the rock where it is encrusted.
4. Forget attempting to reattach the large piece, sell it off (whole or fragged), and start over.

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[Wes]

i have to say i loved that peice in your tank and i hate to hear you broke it, sorry bout that. if at all possible you can get it reattached id give it a try at least before you start over. good luck!

 

[SumThinhWong]

ive actually have super glued my digitada together before what i did was glued it with gel super glue and then attached it then used a piece of acrylic to prop it up until it started to encrust the glue. of course this method will take a long while to work but unless you want to cake the thing with puddy thats your best bet

 

[MBZ]

I've done this before with my favorite milli colony, don't worry. I can't tell from the pic of how much room is on the rock but my first choice would be to glue the broken piece back to the same rock. I would glue the broken piece by laying it sideways (more secure) and using a minimal amount of super glue gel on the coral. Second choice would be to make another colony with it and glue it to another piece of rock. Then you could put both colonies next to each other.

Mark

 

[Rick]

I would also try and place the broken piece as close to the base of the original colony and attach it with glue or epoxy. Soon it will encrust and will all look as if they are all one colony.

 

[toaster77]

this happened to me as well, with my GARF bonsai colony - wife was using a magfloat to clean glass while i was out of town and knocked off the entire bonsai off its encrusted trunk/base :sad:
i tried to glue it back to the trunk but it was too heavy and so i used a big chunk of aquamend to attach it pretty much where it broke off (still a challenge to get it to hold). luckily it held ok and now it is starting encrust over the putty in certain places. good luck! (beautiful colors by the way!)

 

[mtraylor]

I think your best bet would be to glue to another rock and have two colonies.

 

[Crazyc625]

sorry to hear your red planet broke. one of my favorite corals too. if i were you i'd start another colony at a different location and to see what color you would get.

 

[melev]

Beautiful piece. I would glue it elsewhere so you can enjoy two colonies.

 

[Wes]

so hows it doing? what did you do with it?

 

[dixonallred]

@Wes wrote:

I ended up breaking it apart into three large branches and mounted them horizontally out from the base. My though was this would give it more of the tabling growth, quicker. I ended up having to use epoxy putty but the base is encrusting over it nicely and should be covered in about a month. I?ll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

I also ended up cutting off the one remaining vertical branch from the base and made it into several frags.