Needs some quick help to frag my acro

I'm looking for some help to frag my blue acro. It has crusted the plug nicely but not so well onto the rock. I was thinking snip a few stalks and glue directly to the rock. Will that allow it to begin to crust the rock and spread out developing new branches? Also should I dip the frags before gluing, I cannot pull out the rock so was going to try the process in the tank. And finally would I be better placing the frags horizontal as my other sps I show to the right in the pic, or place it upright.

Thanks as always for any guidance.

 

I would not consider myself an expert coral fragger (if that's a word?) by any means but I believe you would be fine. I had a colony of purple tip acro that I accidentally fragged/broke into pieces and ended up with three smaller frags that are all alive and growing. I would recommend using a plug or rubble to glue the frags to though just to minimize how much you touch the coral. Then you could just glue the rubble to your rock. I don't see the need to dip the coral since it was from your tank and I am assuming free of parasites. Hopefully a more seasoned "fragger" can chime in on this.

 

How much an acro encrusts is quite variable with species; some don't encrust much at all.

I'm not sure if there's an issue here or just a perceived issue? I see nothing wrong.

 

If you snip some of the branches and glue the base, it will encrust over the glue.

 

As Evolved said, different corals will encrust differently. I have some that are MEGA encrusters and other that barely did at all. photo examples below.

my best advice, if you want it to grow, leave it alone. it will encrust and shoot up just fine. Now, as my general rules of thumb:

1. I never dip acros after fragging. Never needed to unless i saw pests.
2. Super glue GEL will harden under water and form a decent bond. when I frag, I clip the coral, pat the clipped area dry and then put a glob of glue on it. then into the tank it goes to where i want it (or to a plug for sale). hold it there until it does not move (usually 20-30 seconds) and then leave it alone. it should encrust.

This colony has 8" + branches. encrusted to about a 2-3" diameter area: it started off as a thumb tip sized frag on a plug.

just a funny note on this one, it has been fragged once, where it was growing into the poci. that one branch has never grown again.

This Acro Cerealis is just bigger than my fist. the encrustation is about 10" diameter or more. it started off as a 2"x1" chunk with no plug.

 

Thanks for all the info, and jealous of that acro pickupman. It looks awesome. I just picked up a new acro and gorgonia myself today. Will post some pics later.