HELP: Prattley Putty

mytank

mytank

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So my tank was coming along so nicely! Yesterday I go get some LS and got a monster green monti from Dean. I got some prattley original putty and went about mixing it. Took the monti out the bucket and tried to stick it to the monti.

Dam monti started slimming, when I say slimming I mean dripping with slime. Tried to use the prattley putty but it just turned to sluge, now I had this before with a "dud" batch so I mixed another one and tried again, yet again it just fell apart.

I have a few questions:

1. Does the Monti Slime do this to putty?
2. What are your tips for using the putty because it clouds the water
3. What is are your tips for working with a monti I didn't expect it to slime that much!!!!

The reason I asked all this is, in a matter of 10 minutes with all the slime flowing around the tank and all the putty in powder in the water all the corals closed completely looong SPS pollops pulled back and closed.

Turned up the flow to full, skimmer was skimming like a monster.

This morning things look a little better, the clams seem to have taken a beating they have a white powder on them and some are gaping (I am assuming they are filtering things).

Would you guys suggest a KH, CALC test due to all the prattley putty in the water?

I would appreciate some feedback and direction.
 
I prefer to use superglue for hard corals, I find it easier with the gel one. You have to be fairly quick though as the slime really gets in the way, lol. Have a dry towel on hand, a facecloth is good. Dry the piece of rock/frag plug where you're going to mount the frag, put some superglue on there, then remove the frag, dry the section of the frag where you're planning to mount it, then stick it onto the gel on the rock, you will need to hold it there for a few seconds. I've used putty quite a bit but once those corals start sliming it makes thing's really difficult. I normally end up going through half a tube of putty just to do 2 or 3 corals as the slime makes it impossible to work with. Plus when I put the corals back in the tank they all fall over because they've slimed up and the putty won't stick to them, lol. I think there's some knack to using putty that has eluded me so far. :p
 
Heating it for a few seconds in the microwave makes it set a bit faster.
Or use superglue gel to attach the coral to a smallish piece of liverock, then once the coral is attached you can use pratleys to stick the coral where you want it.
 
mytank said:
The reason I asked all this is, in a matter of 10 minutes with all the slime flowing around the tank and all the putty in powder in the water all the corals closed completely looong SPS pollops pulled back and closed.

Turned up the flow to full, skimmer was skimming like a monster.

This morning things look a little better, the clams seem to have taken a beating they have a white powder on them and some are gaping (I am assuming they are filtering things).

Would you guys suggest a KH, CALC test due to all the prattley putty in the water?

I would appreciate some feedback and direction.
Click to expand...
Are you running carbon? A nice waterchange should help to sort things out.
 
viper357 said:
Are you running carbon? A nice waterchange should help to sort things out.
Click to expand...


Yup running carbon, got the flow pumps pulsating at full blast, got the skimmer skimming wet and using some Zeo Coral Snow right now which usually nutralizes any acids etc in the water.
@viper357 I did a big water change yesterday, is it ok for me to do another one now?
 
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459b said:
Heating it for a few seconds in the microwave makes it set a bit faster.
Or use superglue gel to attach the coral to a smallish piece of liverock, then once the coral is attached you can use pratleys to stick the coral where you want it.
Click to expand...
@459b that's a good idea, the reason I didn't do that is I wanted to mount the big Monti onto the side of one of my main rocks and it ain't a small rock :)

I like the microwave bit. I will try that next time if I use Prattley!
 
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rakabos said:
Dont use pratley, as u see its rubbish when a coral slimes. Try aquamend, get it from builders. And if u can putty it underwater, u wont have slime
Click to expand...
@rakabos ok cool thanks for the tip, does it set faster and release less crap into the water?

Any tricks (besides doing it underwater that I should be aware of?
 
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Sorry to hear you hasseling bud, I use pratly and I mix it really well, the more you mix it, the softer it gets, then I leave it go 10 to 15minites, then I start with the frag. Sometimes you need to turn the or, so that the frag points up, even let it lean against something, next morning it should be harder than lr
 
magman said:
Sorry to hear you hasseling bud, I use pratly and I mix it really well, the more you mix it, the softer it gets, then I leave it go 10 to 15minites, then I start with the frag. Sometimes you need to turn the or, so that the frag points up, even let it lean against something, next morning it should be harder than lr
Click to expand...

Thanks @magman this was one of those ones where I was trying to stick a large Monti (like an elephant ear) to the side of a rock and no matter what I did it would stick for a minute then fall over......
 
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mytank said:
Yup running carbon, got the flow pumps pulsating at full blast, got the skimmer skimming wet and using some Zeo Coral Snow right now which usually nutralizes any acids etc in the water.
@viper357 I did a big water change yesterday, is it ok for me to do another one now?
Click to expand...
I'm sure you should be fine, slime and pratleys shouldn't do too much harm to a tank, but if you do notice some negative effects on any of the livestock then another water change can't hurt.
 
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459b said:
Heating it for a few seconds in the microwave makes it set a bit faster.
Or use superglue gel to attach the coral to a smallish piece of liverock, then once the coral is attached you can use pratleys to stick the coral where you want it.
Click to expand...


This works. I make a small ball of putty and nuke it for 10sec. The std set putty will start getting hard pretty quick once you put it in the tank so you have to work quick.

quick set putty once nuked gets hard almost instantly when you wet it so its best used when you take a coral out of the tank and want to attach it on a plug or LR then when you put it back in the tank its hard. No power or anything.

With SPS you will need to push a part of the coral into the putty to get a good grip on the coral
 
mytank said:
Thanks @magman this was one of those ones where I was trying to stick a large Monti (like an elephant ear) to the side of a rock and no matter what I did it would stick for a minute then fall over......
Click to expand...

I must admit, I will rather acclimatize ten fish before I stick 1 SPS to a rock with putty. I just hate the stuff. Especially if its a heavy piece that you want to attach onto the edge of a fixed rock in the tank. What I find that helps is to if possible, first position the right size drinking glass upside down, underneath the spot where the SPS are going to be glued. Support the heavy SPS with the glass while you glue it with the putty. Leave the glass there for support until the next day. Remove the glass carefully and voila!!!!........
 
Helga said:
Leave the glass there for support until the next day. Remove the glass carefully and voila!!!!........
Click to expand...

Cable ties also work wonders, expecially when attaching large colonies. You can even leave them there once the coral is in place, they get covered in coralline in no time.
 
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