What do you do with dead coral skeletons?

[Henry1]

Once a while, we may encounter coral death in our tank.
What do you do with them?

For me, I collect them (hate doing it though ), break them up and use them as Ca reactor media.

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
They have the same function as live rock.

If there are still some decaying tissue on the skeleton, wash it off then put it back into the tank.

 

[danmhippo]

I collect dead/near death corals and put them into a bucket to "cure" it as LR. Occasionally, a few pieces will make a come back. The near dead corals are free from most LFS.

 

[2poor2reef]

If you keep jawfish or other creatures that build tunnels then broken up coral skeletons make excellent construction materials.

 

[Anonymous]

used to give 'em away to customers to help 'seed' their tanks
they make cool paper weights, too! :wink:

 

[monkeyboy]

Mount frags to them and continue the cycle of life and death.

(insert Elton John's circle of life song here) :wink:

 

[Mac1]

I do what Monkeyboy suggested.. mount frags to them.

Actually saw an interesting use for dead acro branches at a fellow reefers last weekend - He uses them to mount frags too, but slightly different.

The Dead Acro branch can be broken easily, and you end up w/ a flat, round, point of attachment. The Live Acro frag, also has a round, flat base to it, right? So what he does is put some superglue on the end of the dead branch, carefully dries off the broken end of the live frag, puts a tiny dab of glue there, and then attaches the two. In this person's experience, the glue bonds very well (one surface is completely dry, the other semi, and since they are both glued, it sticks very well). He now has a frag mounted to a 1-2" branch of dead rock... this he can glue, tie, epoxy, bolt, weld, or attach in nearly any other manner (as it's dead), w/o fear of harming the coral frag. As the coral adapts and grows out, it encrusts down the "dead" branch, and eventually comes into contact w/ the rock, grows a base, and does very well.
I hope that description makes sense, I had a hard time understanding it over the phone as well, but once I saw it in his tank, immediatley thought it was a great idea!

- Mac

 

[Carpentersreef]

I've got 2...

I just keep them in the tank as a reminder of past mistakes. A Tubastrea that I didn't feed properly and a Euphyllia that got a white slime infection that I didn't act on quick enough.
When people come over, it helps to show them that this hobby is harder than it looks.

Mitch 8O :wink:

 

[Palmetto]

I eat them.

 

[Henry1]

WOW! I'm amazed!
So many creative, practical and refreshing ideas to turn 'useless bits' into value.
I'm discovering new things everyday!

Happy reefing

 

[Henry1]

written by Palmetto

I eat them

Tell us more about it. 8O