I was just wandering what everybody thought of Coral plugs vs. rock vs. tiles

I have just experience with using live rock for fragging now, but the tiles look pretty cool to me.

If I am going to start growing for maybe small sales or to give away, what option would make them more valuable?

Thanks

live rock rubble looks better.. the tiles are easy to place right next to one another so stuff can spread on it easily.. I downright hate frag plugs.

rocks for zoas and softies, plugs for Sps that go on my frag rack.

Plugs... They fit well in eggcrate, or stuck in sand and are easy to move around and mount onto. Sure rocks look best, but not always the most convenient or easy to move around and put close together.

I use rubble rock but put it on top of the tiles. It positions much better on top of eggcrate. To transfer just pop the rubble rock off the tile (re-use tile). If the tiles were a lot thinner it would work perfectly. I just have to get a tile saw to cut them in half.

I always prefer rock rubble because rock douesn't look out of place .

So let me recap. If you were purchasing frags, most of you would prefer live rock pieces vs. tiles or plugs.

I ordered ceramic tiles for now. Should I maybe switch to making my own plug/tiles out of live rock?

What would you be more prone to purchase if you had the choice???

If I were buying for a display tank, I would prefer rocks for most corals (plugs for SPS is acceptable).

But, for general propagation, tiles are nice. They're really a benefit for any softie that spreads quickly, i.e. Green Star Polyps. You can grow a ton of this if you frequently cut a tile out and surround it with new tiles to let the stuff spread even more.

Many LPS corals will hide the tile shape after they grow out a bit and develop their own mass.

Not too sure, but tiles and/or plugs would be more "green" than buying live rock rubble, if that's a consideration.

tiles look cool but they are a bit@h to place in your tank.. with my experiences i would place it somewhere and the next morning its upside down in the sand... i could deff see it better for fragging though cuz the stuff could grow out all over it... frag plugs are good cuz you have a flat surface and you can shove the plug side into the rock but it seems like everyone likes live rock rubble the most

When I'm propagating for sale, I generally prefer tiles/plug as it allows for uniform placement and maximum usage of my tiny frag rack - it also prevents a lot of rolling over and stinging of surrounding corals.

For frags that are going into my own system, I like to unmount them if they're on an artificial plug and remount them onto LR rubble to grow out so they look more natural.

Also, always having to make up more rubble = pain in the ass. Although, I do like to do zoas on rock, because they generally don't care about rolling into each other.

You live in Florida. Go out and find a big hunk of limestone and have at it with a hammer. It's what I do and works without any hiccups.

In the garden center of Home Depot or Lowes they have big bags (30lb-40lb) of "Marble Chips". The bags cost under $4. I use these for fragging.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...&lpage=none



Each frag is usually 1-2 inches

I <3 Penn & Teller

from a buyer's perspective, live rock rubble is much better for me. more natural looking to glue down into my rock work.
from a propagator's perspective, plugs are easier to deal with. just stack them neatly onto eggcrate/frag racks.

you can meet somewhere in the middle by glueing a piece of rubble on the plug, and then the coral on the rubble. Then just pop off the rubble with the coral when you want to sell. that way you can reuse the plug.
if the coral over grew from the rubble onto the plug, just stick a new piece of rubble there and let it grow again.