Zoa colony smells like death :o

Discussion in 'New To The Hobby' started by tharsis, Apr 10, 2011.

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  1. dowtish

    dowtish Horrid Stonefish

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    That will work just fine
     
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  3. tharsis

    tharsis Peppermint Shrimp

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    ok good, thanks.
     
  4. tharsis

    tharsis Peppermint Shrimp

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    Well I was able to stick the zoas onto the pieces of rubble no problems, I think that will go a long way in helping.

    But i tried to glue the small rubble to larger rocks in the tank, and the glue never bonded to the wet rocks. Is there a trick?
     
  5. Reeron

    Reeron Blue Ringed Angel

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    As I stated yesterday, the surface of the glue hardens as soon as it gets wet. It's damn near impossible to stick the rocks together underwater unless you use aquarium epoxy.
     
  6. tharsis

    tharsis Peppermint Shrimp

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    haha I guess i glossed over that part... :)

    bummer....I have this frag that I really want to stick on a ledge, but the damn crabs and snails are knocking it off.
     
  7. rocketmandb

    rocketmandb Ocellaris Clown

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    Supergue gel by itself does not tend to work well to glue hard, porous surfaces together in the tank.

    Do this:

    - Get some aquarium epoxy (two-part, the stuff that you mix together like putty).

    - Mix up a small amount of the epoxy and put some superglue gel on it then mush it to the bottom of the rock that the zoos are on (superglue gel between rock and epoxy).

    - Now add more superglue gel to the bottom of the epoxy, put it in the tank and mush it where you want it to go in the tank. Again, superglue between epoxy and the rock in the tank.

    I've had superglue-gel-only and epoxy-only attachments to live rock fail on multiple occasions. I've never had a proper application of epoxy/superglue fail. The issue is that epoxy alone is a great structural component, but not great at bonding. Superglue gel is great at bonding, but does not provide great structural support. The epoxy gets into the crevices and provides good structural support while the superglue gel provides superior bonding.
     
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  9. VooDoo

    VooDoo Fire Shrimp

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    +1 Very important to follow this rule! +K!
     
  10. tharsis

    tharsis Peppermint Shrimp

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    thanks for the tip rocketman I will give that a try!

    As for the toxicity zoa's, I agree that there is a risk and it is better to air on the side of caution. It seems that the very toxic palytoxin is actually limited to specific types of zoas. Of course it is difficult to tell which ones are the dangerous ones, and the number of dangerous zoas does seem to be on the rise in the aquarium trade.

    here is an interesting journal talking about this. Someone at Nano-reef posted it a few weeks back and I thought it was a good read.

    So while there are many hobbyists that scoff at the idea of protecting themselves from zoas, saying that 'as long as you don't suck on them like menthos you will be fine' can be very misleading. I was told different variations of this by several different people since I started.

    It is kind of like wearing a seat belt, 99% of the time you won't need the protection and it seems kind of silly and unnecessary, but you will be very thankful for the due diligence when you do get into an accident.
     
  11. khowst

    khowst Bangghai Cardinal

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    I use the 2 part epoxy in 2 seperate steps. First I use some to stick the frag to a small piece of rubble, then I repeat the process to stick it to the rock I want. My thought process on this is that as my zoa frags start to grow I can seperate them with minimal fuss and get a quick easy frag out the deal. You'll have the new ones on the rubble & your original frag. Give you an easy way to spread them out if you want, or some quick freebies for the frag meets.
     
  12. tharsis

    tharsis Peppermint Shrimp

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    yeah I think I will have to get some epoxy...these darn snails have no courtesy, my frag was on the substrate again this morning.