DIY: magnetic coral frag plug
After a few SPS colonies of mine were accidentally fragged due to the fish bumping into them, I needed a place to mount the frags. As I didn’t already have a frag rack, or anywhere to mount them, I browsed online to see if I could pick one up. I came across hundreds of different styles, but found nothing that fit my needs. After deciding I wanted to make something custom, I browsed on YouTube to gather ideas. Searching for DIY magnetic coral frag came up with no results that I was looking for, so I decided to make something myself. I use scrap ABS plastic sheets for a lot of my projects, and this particular piece will come in very handy. I also use Rectorseal EP-200 Epoxy putty for a lot of my projects you can check out in previous videos. These are ceramic magnets I picked up from Amazon a while back. I believe the pack came with 50 magnets for $18 shipped. Ceramic magnets are supposedly reef safe, but just in case I will coat them in the putty. You can see the size similarity between the aragonite frag plug and the frag plug I made. Version 2 was made the same way, but with this version I can mount a frag, and have the frag grow onto the plug. The great thing about working with ABS plastic is, nothing really sticks to it that well. So it was really easy to separate the epoxy from the ABS. Stay tuned for the next episode where I clean up the frag plug, install it in my tank, and mount a frag to it.
After a few SPS colonies of mine were accidentally fragged due to the fish bumping into them, I needed a place to mount the frags. As I didn’t already have a frag rack, or anywhere to mount them, I browsed online to see if I could pick one up. I came across hundreds of different styles, but found nothing that fit my needs. After deciding I wanted to make something custom, I browsed on YouTube to gather ideas. Searching for DIY magnetic coral frag came up with no results that I was looking for, so I decided to make something myself. I use scrap ABS plastic sheets for a lot of my projects, and this particular piece will come in very handy. I also use Rectorseal EP-200 Epoxy putty for a lot of my projects you can check out in previous videos. These are ceramic magnets I picked up from Amazon a while back. I believe the pack came with 50 magnets for $18 shipped. Ceramic magnets are supposedly reef safe, but just in case I will coat them in the putty. You can see the size similarity between the aragonite frag plug and the frag plug I made. Version 2 was made the same way, but with this version I can mount a frag, and have the frag grow onto the plug. The great thing about working with ABS plastic is, nothing really sticks to it that well. So it was really easy to separate the epoxy from the ABS. Stay tuned for the next episode where I clean up the frag plug, install it in my tank, and mount a frag to it.