Product Review: Tunze Coral Flex 104.75

Last weekend, Roger of Tunze was in town for a fish store's event. When I asked him what was new-to-the-market, he showed me their new two-part putty, Coral Flex. $20 later, I was on my way home. If you don't know why you'd want this, it's used to secure corals to the rockwork so they feel stable and grow. Corals that rock in the flow tend to grow very slowly, but when rock-solid grow more readily.

Initially I liked the packaging as well as the softness of the putty components.



Each end of the tube has an unscrewable lid, to access the two parts.



In the instructions, it recommends gloves which is good advice. I know of one person that does extensive fragging and fragging demos, and due to his frequent use of putty ended up in the hospital due to toxic shock. Kneading the dough between our fingertips or in the palm of your hand will allow toxins to enter our skin and bloodstream, so this precaution isn't unfounded. I have a box of surgical gloves I got from a dentist years ago, which I use whenever I mix putty.

Coral Flex is very easy to mix, it is softer than Silly Putty. Once fully mixed so no marbling is visible, it's ready to use. But use it quickly because the clock is ticking. I usually don't mix up too much at a time, but with the Tunze product you better limit the mass because in a minute it will harden up.

If you have the coral in question ready to go, take a little bit of each, combine them into a uniform orange color, and apply it to the base of the frag (or frag plug). Immediately position it in the rockwork where desired, pressing the putty snugly into the rock's porous texture to get a good hold. You may have about 15 more seconds to make tiny adjustments, then you are done.



I didn't think I'd like the orange look, but honestly it isn't all that bad, barely noticeable. With greater attention, any excess could be quickly trimmed away to remove it from sight if desired.



The putty itself is soft, slightly tacky, and moves about easily in the container. The instructions recommend to close the lids quickly to avoid degradation due to contact with air, so I closed the lids after each part was obtained for the particular frag about to be glued down to the rockwork.

As with other putties, I noticed that the protein skimmer was affected. Instead of it overflowing, the bubble's collapsed down the neck into the body. I used enough putty to secure six frags for this review, which amounts to about six cubes of fishfood for lack of a better measurement scale.

Less than hour later, the skimmer is returning to normal. The corals are still in place as positions. I glued down five frag plugs as well as two bare Acropora sp branches with similar results. Under water, it didn't melt, get mushy, or dissolve into the water column.

Tunze has a different type of two-part putty priced at $10 for those that prefer the traditional sort, but I think hobbyists will appreciate Coral Flex as part of their coral mounting options.