Power underwater cutting tools?

[Greg Hiller]

Hi,

I'm new here, so I'm sorry if I'm not asking this in exactly the right place. I looked around at some of the sub-forums and did not see any particular place where this might make the most sense to post.

Anyhow, I'm a diver, but what I'm looking for is some info only partially related to diving. I also have a saltwater coral reef tank and the corals can grow very quickly. Some branching corals in my tank can get quite thick and need to be pruned on occasion. Does anyone (maybe a diver that works on oil platforms or something like that would know) know of where one might purchase battery powered tools that can be used underwater? I'm looking for a rotory type tool that would allow me to cut some branches of my corals. I have diamond tipped bits for my Dremel tool, but I can of course only use it out of the water.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doc]

Pruning your Corals?

This is in your own tank at home, right?

Why not remove the small blocks of nature that you purchased (now euphamistically called "live rock" at your fish store) and give them their much needed whack-back on the kitchen table? On Soft Corals, you could use a weed whipper, I guess.

Dremel makes a mechanical 3' flexible extender for their tools. Dremel 225 Flex-Shaft
You can keep the motorized tool outside of the tank as you trim those "fast growing corals"

But you're asking for "battery powered" which is used for working outside the range of "normal power" sources. Is your "tank" located far from an outlet? And is it really deep? (Like 60 feet?)

BTW, somebody, somewhere, sliced up a live coral reef for your amusement back home. Sorry, but that's the awful truth.

After they were ripped from the ocean floor, the survived considerable amounts of time in air, your acquisitions will withstand a few minutes of further abuse on your kitchen table while using any kind of saw.

They are going to die off comparatively quickly in your tank at any rate so there is really no big concern.

Share your discovery- if you have found a way to make "Corals grow very quickly", maybe you could share this with the rest of the world, as Corals seem to be declining worldwide.... but you wouldn't be interested in harvesting them from the ocean, would you?

Hey Louie... what'cha in for, Bank Robbery?

No, I'm doin' 10~15 on a Felony Murder rap... for cutting coral.

Think about it.

 

[Garrobo]

I'd look for a pee newmatic cutter. Water and electricity aren't fond of each other.

 

[RAWalker]

Why not a flex extension for your Dremel tool?
That way you can keep the electric tool out of the water.

 

[Doc]

 

[alewar]

For trolling to be really effective, you must create a user account and post some useful things first, get some thanks, and _then_ start trolling. You are doing it wrong

 

[kanonfodr]

I'd look for a pee newmatic cutter. Water and electricity aren't fond of each other.

Bingo, for hacking up the foundation of the entire underwater ecosystem there's not power like air power.

BTW, I'm sure there is some way you can actually transplant the clipping to another tank or something, please don't just waste it. After all, we only have 85% of the coral we started out with in 1985 and if you've found a way to make coral grow "very quickly" the rest of the planet would love to know your secret.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Garrobo]

Speaking of transplanting coral, if you are interested in participating, contact Amoray in Key Largo or look at their website. I've signed up for this month's workshop. They have a nursery in which they grow (I think) staghorn and maybe elkhorn coral which they plant on the reefs now and then with the help of interested divers. Might as well do something useful if you're diving in the area.

 

[DCBC]

An Aqua-Air C025 or Husqvarna K2500 would do the job, but it's overkill (but since you mentioned the oil industry). We don't use batteries however...

 

[Greg Hiller]

If I were a troll, would I have used my REAL name? Sheesh! I don't hide behind a screen name on any board I participate in.

Thanks for the responses. Actually ALL save one of the corals in my tank were grown from small fragments, most less than 1-2 inches long, nearly all of which I obtained as trades from local hobbyists in the Boston area. Many have grown in the space of 4 years to be more than 12 inches in diameter. Yes, this type of growth is in fact possible. The aquarium hobby has come a long way folks. You guys see to have a very distorted view of it. If anyone is interested in seeing my tanks, there are some photos on my web site greg hiller dot com (had to put in spaces). On there are also photos of my fragment tanks. Yes, that means I am constantly harvesting pieces from my tank and growing them out for sale. Hence the reason for my question. When I harvest pieces (again IN MY TANK) I like to do as little damage as possible to the established colony. In some cases the original colony has naturally encrusted across many rocks, making it difficult to remove from the water.

Here's a photo of my 110 gallon system before I moved it:

greg hiller dot com /images/ 110-new.jpg (I had to put spaces into the URL, I would have imbedded the image, but since I don't have enough posts I was not allowed to do so).

You can start to understand the problem of pruning when looking at that photo. One of the Acropora had grown from near the bottom of the tank all the way to the surface. FWIW, I've written numerous on line articles about coral propagation, a search on "greg hiller frag of the month" will turn up many of them. Complete with photos of how to do it, with photos showing growth post propagation. The PROBLEM is doing it underwater. :cool2:

Regarding live rock. In fact NO live rock was used in my tank. My the coral structure was built largely from bleached, rainwashed coral boulders and fragments that I picked up on the beach, well above the waterline from various locations that I went on for vacation. Live rock is completely unnecessary for a successful tank. The sand in the tank was collected from an area of the ocean where the calcium carbonate saturation state is high enough to cause natural precipitation (oolitic sand). The rock in the tank was seeded with encrusting organisms (sponge, filter feeders, etc.) by using some small pieces of rock from other older tanks.


Back to the topic:

I had actually considered the flexible Dremel tool shaft, but never tried it. The depth of the current tank is 30 inches. I'm a little worried about lubicants in the shaft of the tool causing a problem for the tank critters. I was just hoping that there would be a small, battery powered tool that would allow me to make small carefully controlled cuts, or at least scores on the base of some of the Montipora and Acropora colonies.

Any other ideas, please post. I did some extensive searching, but was unable to find anything small enough that would be useful for my purpose.