Tip of the Day – 5/27/2011

Coral fragging can be a strenuous, time consuming process. And chances are, you aren’t going to make just one or two frags. The glue is out, frags plugs are dried, and you get a little overzealous with the bone cutters. After mounting all these new frags to a plug and placing them back into the aquarium or frag tank, it’s a good idea to run some fresh carbon for a few days. When corals are injured, they release all sorts of chemicals into the water. Some corals release toxins, as is the case with Zoanthids and Palythoas, while others send out large amounts of slime. To prevent any of this from becoming a major issue in your tank, add a fresh batch of activated carbon to a media reactor or some sort of media bag. The carbon will absorb a lot of the chemicals and keep the remaining livestock from becoming stressed out or even dying.