Easy & Cheap Diy Magnetic Frag Racks Anyone Can Build!

[DESERTHEATRACING]

Hey guys, been meaning to do a writeup on this as I get asked about them in pics of my tank all the time. To start off, I am NOT the inventor of this, has been done a million times before. I first saw one similar in a buddies tank so I built my own with 100% success! I use these for new corals that I want to keep a close eye on and corals that I may not want and would like to see what color they turn in my tank. You can raise and lower the rack so you can get the corals easy rather than going for a practical swim if they are at the bottom of a deep tank.

 

For this build am am using the medium sized magfloat 125 model. I use these on my 90G oceanic tech tank that has 1/2" glass. They hold fine on glass this thick but you have to move them very slow & with a cautious hand as 1/2" is at the very limit for this size magfloat. For thinner glass on a smaller tank, this would hold amazingly tight to the glass so have no fear.

 

Supplies:

- One magfloat 125 $9.95 online or $2-$5 for a used one from a fellow reefer

- White or black eggcrate. I use the white from home depot. Forget what I paid for it but it is cheap. Pre-cut a 5x18 square - retangle shape peice of eggcrate before you start.

- 3 pack of superglue gel from a dollar store.

 

 

Optional Supplies:

- Acetone & papertowels

 

 

Step 1:

Snap off a few plastic tabs from the eggcrate & glue them to the edge of the magfloat. This will keep the rack level as the magfloat plastic has a slope to it.

 

 

Step 2:

Add glue alone the edge of the magfloat by the cleaning material. Just run a small bead here. Then put some glue on top of each of the leveling tabs

 

 

Step 3:

Line up and stick the eggcrate to the magfloat as pictured. Be cautious not to have the plastic stick out were the cleaning material is or it could weaken the magnets ability to hold if it is not perfectly parellel to the glass. Press firm on the eggcrate to make sure it locks on tight.

 

 

Step 4:

Run beads of superglue around the inside of each square so that it has no chance of breaking loose " I have had mine built for 5 months with a ton of frags on them, no issues "

 

 

 

Step 5:

Give it about 10 minutes to setup. The pick up the whole rack and run the glue area under water to make the superglue setup fast. Then while wet, place the rack upside down on a papertowel so the glue can dry. Only takes about 10 more minutes once you have gotten the glue wet.

 

 

Now put the rack in the tank & set your small frags on it & enjoy the simple cheap frag rack you just created!

 

 

Optional:

Use acetone & a paper towel to remove the ugly magfloat logo. Takes a little scrubbing but the logo comes right off. You can see the logo removed in this pic.

[Keelklan]

This a pretty cool idea so I thought I would return it to the top!

[davidr2340]

Helluva DIY bro... I can't believe nobody had any comments on this 'till now!

 

Great job!

[vellefromhell67]

Thats awesome!! Great job man, thanks for all the visuals

[clownfish05]

Pretty sweet

[Izzue]

Yep

 

Nice write up....

 

Never thought about leveling like that...kudos...next time Ill use

your method.

 

Izzue

[Orphicdragon]

Good stuff, great write up

 

That leveling step is the shizzle.

[DESERTHEATRACING]

Thanks

[thewire]

sorry for reviving old thread..here is my super cheap frag rack..

Use hold Hydor Koralia magnet holder

 

[hlander]

sorry for reviving old thread..here is my super cheap frag rack..

Use hold Hydor Koralia magnet holder

 

 

How do you frag your zenia?

[thewire]

How do you frag your zenia?

That one was a funny one. I tied one of the xenia frag on to the plug with a rubber band but it fell off after like a week or so. A small piece of tissue was leftover on the frag. I left it in the tank and it just been growing since...crazy

 

Normally you can let the xenia sit on sand for a week or so, and then you can glue the base of it with mixture of sand and xenia on to the plug

[subtraho]

Very nice! I did something similar using a pair of these and some zip-ties to attach them to the eggcrate.

[pdowden]

Sweet idea

[RyanR1212]

very good idea.. i did the same thing but didnt put the little plastic tabs between the rack and magfloat and it does make a difference. mine is not level and it kinda pisses me off... so make sure you do that its an important step!

[DESERTHEATRACING]

Glad to see this post is still helping people

[mrbigshot]

if anyone is looking for magnets try http://www.kjmagnetics.com/ they have epoxy and rubber coated so somthing will work.

[rollei]

I like to use old heater suction cups to mount my frag racks. There is little chance of tumbling frags compared to the possiblity of accidentally removing the outside magnet on a magnet based frag rack.

[Navymedic]

Nice idea, I'll give this a try

[Earl T50]

Great idea, but I like getting smaller magnets. Thanks

[disaster999]

mag floats are expensive. getting cheap neodymium magnets online and encase them with 5 min epoxy would work much better and stronger.

 

its a little bit more work tho

[cody6766]

I used plastic weld to do mine, but the concept is the same. It works like a champ. I've also used magfloats to make a floating rock, stuck to the back glass. I just epoxied the foat to the rock and it worked just fine.

[MeepNand]

Neodymium magnets on ebay are only a few $ for big packs.