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Most of the zoanthids come atached to a ceramic tile, while the ricordea/mushrooms do not. However, the ricordea usually have a small amount of coralline rubble underneath the polyp which allows for attachment with super glue (and sometimes epoxy if there is enough rubble) .
Here are some step by step instructions:
1) If you don't have a dedicated/protected frag growout system, get yourself a plastic 'tupperware' tray that is only about 2-3 inches deep, and about 5-7" in diameter, to be placed on the sand bed of your aquarium.
2) Fill this plastic tray with a thin layer of sand or gravel.
3) Next find some small chunks of live rock rubble. Thumbsized pieces of rubble work well since they are large enough to stay in place, but small enough to be chinked into your live rock scape.
4) Get yourself a piece of plastic bridal netting or citrus net bag (The kind of bags that oranges come in at the grocery store). Basically you want a piece of material that is going to allow water to flow through it into the tray, but will prevent your soft coral frags from coming loose and slipping through the net into the rest of the aquarium.
5) When you have received your ricordea polyps from us, acclimate them sa you normally would, but then place them down into this frag tray.
6) Once the corals are added to the tray, you will stretch this netting over the open top of the tray, and secure it in place using a few rubber bands.
7) Wait a few days for the ricordea to become acclimated and relaxed in your aquarium. Be sure that they are all expanded and healthy looking before you move onto the next step.
8) Get yourself some super glue gel. Any old super glue GEL from the supermarket/Home Depot will do, but it is more cost effective to get yourself a bigger bottle at your aquarium store or online. Here is one such super glue made specifically for corals. Regular super glue is too thin and runny... be sure to get GEL.
9) Get yourself some latex/nitrile gloves to protect your fingers from coral slime and super glue
10) When you are ready to glue your coral frags onto your live rock rubble (or frag plugs if you'd prefer), get some paper towels ready on a work table. Get yourself a couple of bowls filled with water from your aquarium.
11) Be sure that the room temperature is at least 70 degrees so that your corals don't get too cold during the attachment process.
12) Remove the pieces of live rock or rubble chunks from the aquarium that you want to attach your ricordea polyps to. Place them on the table and tamp them mostly dry with a paper towel.
13) Remove the ricordea polyps from your frag tray and place them in one of the bowls of seawater.
14) Remove one of the ricordea polyps from the bowl and place it onto a few sheets of paper towel to blot off excess water from underneath the polyp. Ensure that there is some coralline rubble or other substrate attached to the bottom of the polyp. Only use super glue on the polyp if you can glue it to it's rubble attachment. Super glue will not attach direct to the coral polyp, and the polyp will not appreciate being covered with glue. If there is absolutely no rubble attached to your polyp go to step 23.
15) Place a dab of super glue onto the piece of live rock or rubble chunk.
16) Place a dab of super glue onto the coralline rubble/substrate on the underside of the ricodea polyp.
17) Put the ricordea polyp onto the live rock such that your two dabs of super glue are pressed together lightly. Hold the live rock chunk and polyp together carefully and dunk it into the second bowl of seawater that you have set up. Keep the polyp submerged for at least 30 seconds.
18) Your super glue should now be cured and the polyps should be attached to the live rock.
19) Place the ricordea polyp and live rock chunk back into your frag tray. Place the citrus netting back over the top of the container to ensure that the polyps can't become loose, dislodged, and and float away.
20) Repeat these steps until all of your ricordea polyps are now attached to chunks of live rock and are back in the frag tray
21) Leave your ricordea in the frag tray for at least 10-14 days to give them time to grow over the super glue and get a firm natural attachment to the live rock chunk that they are on.
22) When you are confident that your ricordea are firmly attached, you can remove them from the frag tray and they can be placed into your reefscape where you'd like.
23) If for some reason there is not any, or not enough coralline substrate on the bottom of the ricordea polyp to be able to super glue it onto a live rock chunk, you have a couple of alternatives.
- You can just leave the polyp in your frag tray ontop of some live rock rubble and allow the polyp to passively attach down over the course of 2-4 weeks.
- Or you can use a small piece of citrus net bag to envelope over the polyp on a piece of live rock, such that the polyp is loosely (but firm enough that it can't escape it's position) sandwiched between the netting and the live rock you want it attached to.
2) Use a couple of rubber bands to wrap the live rock chunk and netting such that the ricordea polyp is held firmly in place. You don't want the netting so tight that is cutting or squishing the polyp.
3) Leave the netting in place for at least 2 weeks before cutting off the rubber bands. Don't peel off the citrus netting right away.
4) Allow it to slowly loosen on it's own such that it frees itself from the polyp over the course of a day.
5) When it looks like the netting is free and the polyp is still attached in place, you can remove the netting.
6) Keep the ricordea polyp on its live rock inside the frag tray for a few more days to ensure that the attachment is complete.
Alternatively, you can glue multiple polyps onto one much larger piece of live rock, instead of onto multiple rubble chunks. A piece of citrus netting loosely wrapped over the the rock and secured with rubber bands will ensure that the super glued polyps do not come off the larger rock and float away (assuming that this rock is too big to fit inside the plastic tray described above). When simply gluing these polyps onto one big rock, you can expect about 80% success rate for staying attached, first time around. For the one or two polyps that might come loose, you'll want the citrus netting to keep the polyps from getting blown around your aquarium. The citrus netting can be removed from the rock after about a week, and the polyps should be securing attached.
Notes - If you don't have any suitable pieces of live rock chunks to attach your ricordea polyps down onto, go to your LFS and look in their live rock holding tanks. There should be a bunch of broken chunks sitting at the bottom of their tanks.
I got this information here: http://coralmorphologic.com/xcart/pages.php?pageid=10
Here are some step by step instructions:
1) If you don't have a dedicated/protected frag growout system, get yourself a plastic 'tupperware' tray that is only about 2-3 inches deep, and about 5-7" in diameter, to be placed on the sand bed of your aquarium.
2) Fill this plastic tray with a thin layer of sand or gravel.
3) Next find some small chunks of live rock rubble. Thumbsized pieces of rubble work well since they are large enough to stay in place, but small enough to be chinked into your live rock scape.
4) Get yourself a piece of plastic bridal netting or citrus net bag (The kind of bags that oranges come in at the grocery store). Basically you want a piece of material that is going to allow water to flow through it into the tray, but will prevent your soft coral frags from coming loose and slipping through the net into the rest of the aquarium.
5) When you have received your ricordea polyps from us, acclimate them sa you normally would, but then place them down into this frag tray.
6) Once the corals are added to the tray, you will stretch this netting over the open top of the tray, and secure it in place using a few rubber bands.
7) Wait a few days for the ricordea to become acclimated and relaxed in your aquarium. Be sure that they are all expanded and healthy looking before you move onto the next step.
8) Get yourself some super glue gel. Any old super glue GEL from the supermarket/Home Depot will do, but it is more cost effective to get yourself a bigger bottle at your aquarium store or online. Here is one such super glue made specifically for corals. Regular super glue is too thin and runny... be sure to get GEL.
9) Get yourself some latex/nitrile gloves to protect your fingers from coral slime and super glue
10) When you are ready to glue your coral frags onto your live rock rubble (or frag plugs if you'd prefer), get some paper towels ready on a work table. Get yourself a couple of bowls filled with water from your aquarium.
11) Be sure that the room temperature is at least 70 degrees so that your corals don't get too cold during the attachment process.
12) Remove the pieces of live rock or rubble chunks from the aquarium that you want to attach your ricordea polyps to. Place them on the table and tamp them mostly dry with a paper towel.
13) Remove the ricordea polyps from your frag tray and place them in one of the bowls of seawater.
14) Remove one of the ricordea polyps from the bowl and place it onto a few sheets of paper towel to blot off excess water from underneath the polyp. Ensure that there is some coralline rubble or other substrate attached to the bottom of the polyp. Only use super glue on the polyp if you can glue it to it's rubble attachment. Super glue will not attach direct to the coral polyp, and the polyp will not appreciate being covered with glue. If there is absolutely no rubble attached to your polyp go to step 23.
15) Place a dab of super glue onto the piece of live rock or rubble chunk.
16) Place a dab of super glue onto the coralline rubble/substrate on the underside of the ricodea polyp.
17) Put the ricordea polyp onto the live rock such that your two dabs of super glue are pressed together lightly. Hold the live rock chunk and polyp together carefully and dunk it into the second bowl of seawater that you have set up. Keep the polyp submerged for at least 30 seconds.
18) Your super glue should now be cured and the polyps should be attached to the live rock.
19) Place the ricordea polyp and live rock chunk back into your frag tray. Place the citrus netting back over the top of the container to ensure that the polyps can't become loose, dislodged, and and float away.
20) Repeat these steps until all of your ricordea polyps are now attached to chunks of live rock and are back in the frag tray
21) Leave your ricordea in the frag tray for at least 10-14 days to give them time to grow over the super glue and get a firm natural attachment to the live rock chunk that they are on.
22) When you are confident that your ricordea are firmly attached, you can remove them from the frag tray and they can be placed into your reefscape where you'd like.
23) If for some reason there is not any, or not enough coralline substrate on the bottom of the ricordea polyp to be able to super glue it onto a live rock chunk, you have a couple of alternatives.
- You can just leave the polyp in your frag tray ontop of some live rock rubble and allow the polyp to passively attach down over the course of 2-4 weeks.
- Or you can use a small piece of citrus net bag to envelope over the polyp on a piece of live rock, such that the polyp is loosely (but firm enough that it can't escape it's position) sandwiched between the netting and the live rock you want it attached to.
2) Use a couple of rubber bands to wrap the live rock chunk and netting such that the ricordea polyp is held firmly in place. You don't want the netting so tight that is cutting or squishing the polyp.
3) Leave the netting in place for at least 2 weeks before cutting off the rubber bands. Don't peel off the citrus netting right away.
4) Allow it to slowly loosen on it's own such that it frees itself from the polyp over the course of a day.
5) When it looks like the netting is free and the polyp is still attached in place, you can remove the netting.
6) Keep the ricordea polyp on its live rock inside the frag tray for a few more days to ensure that the attachment is complete.
Alternatively, you can glue multiple polyps onto one much larger piece of live rock, instead of onto multiple rubble chunks. A piece of citrus netting loosely wrapped over the the rock and secured with rubber bands will ensure that the super glued polyps do not come off the larger rock and float away (assuming that this rock is too big to fit inside the plastic tray described above). When simply gluing these polyps onto one big rock, you can expect about 80% success rate for staying attached, first time around. For the one or two polyps that might come loose, you'll want the citrus netting to keep the polyps from getting blown around your aquarium. The citrus netting can be removed from the rock after about a week, and the polyps should be securing attached.
Notes - If you don't have any suitable pieces of live rock chunks to attach your ricordea polyps down onto, go to your LFS and look in their live rock holding tanks. There should be a bunch of broken chunks sitting at the bottom of their tanks.
I got this information here: http://coralmorphologic.com/xcart/pages.php?pageid=10