Coral Propagation
A Bench Reference for Fragging, Mounting, and Grow-Out of SPS and LPS Corals
★★★★★4.2 · 5 reviewsby Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
A bench-ready guide to fragging and growing corals with exact procedures, tables, and troubleshooting. No fluff — just what you need at the frag station.
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About this book
Coral Propagation: A Bench Reference for Fragging, Mounting, and Grow-Out is the manual you'll keep open next to your frag tank. If you've tried cutting corals and lost more than you kept, or if you want to move from 'just fragging' to a structured grow-out system, this book gives you the exact steps and values that work. It skips the aquarium basics and dives straight into the practical details: how to choose a donor colony, which cutting tool for which coral, what water parameters to target during healing, and how to mount frags so they thrive.
Every chapter is formatted for the wet bench. You'll find tables for cutting angles by coral type, a lighting schedule for newly cut frags, a nutrient dosing chart for grow-out, and a troubleshooting guide that matches symptoms to causes and fixes. The procedures are numbered and give specific values — not 'adjust as needed.' Whether you're fragging a single acropora or setting up a dedicated frag system, this book is your step-by-step companion.
This isn't a coffee-table book. It's a working tool, designed to get splashed and flipped through quickly while your hands are wet. If you're serious about propagation, this is the reference you'll reach for every time.
Reader Reviews
Timothy Lee
★★★★★I've been fragging for a couple years but always had hit-or-miss results. This book finally gave me the exact cutting angles and dip times I was missing. The troubleshooting table in the back is worth the price alone — I've saved two acros that were dying and couldn't figure out why. Only reason I'm not giving five stars is I wish there were more photos, but the tables and procedures are spot on.
Charles Allen
★★★★★As someone who set up a frag tank in the garage, I needed specifics. This book has them. The chapter on mounting saved me from buying a bunch of different glues that would have been wasted. The grow-out water parameters table is now taped to my sump. It's a little dry in places, but it's a reference, not a novel. Exactly what I wanted.
Michael Moore
★★★★★I bought this after killing a batch of montipora frags. The first aid chapter alone made me realize I was dipping too long and with the wrong concentration. Now my survival rate is way up. The project chapter on going from one colony to a full frag rack was a great roadmap. I'd recommend it to anyone who's past the beginner stage and wants to get serious.
Nancy Jackson
★★★★★I'm a hobbyist who's been keeping corals for years but never tried fragging until recently. This book broke it down into manageable steps. The tables are clear and the procedures are numbered with exact values — no vague 'adjust as needed' nonsense. The business chapter was a nice bonus, though I'm not sure I'll sell. It's a solid reference that lives next to my frag station now.
Donald Scott
★★★★★Finally, a book that treats coral propagation like a real discipline. The author clearly knows what they're doing, and it shows in every chapter. The troubleshooting section is genius — I had a persistent issue with frags detaching, and the fix was a different type of glue that I hadn't even considered. This book has paid for itself many times over. It's the only coral propagation book you'll ever need.