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The DIY Frag plugs/disks/rocks thread.


Daemonfly

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Did you cure your frag discs? It's recommended you cure cement discs for about 6 months or until they do not affect Ph levels. You can do this in a bucket that you change the water out of every week or so. Or in the basin of your toilet. May want to give homemade plugs another try.

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Did you cure your frag discs? It's recommended you cure cement discs for about 6 months or until they do not affect Ph levels. You can do this in a bucket that you change the water out of every week or so. Or in the basin of your toilet. May want to give homemade plugs another try.

 

 

Yes I did cure my frag discs, but, when it comes down to it, the main store I supply likes the boston aqua farms plugs over anything else, and will give an extra $5 per frag for them, since I get em at store cost(I'm told) which is ~$4 a bag of 20, that makes the cost about 20 cents a piece... I'm not gonna worry about the time wasted making frag discs, curing them, and then betting my frag tanks happiness on them again.

Edited by rbrusletto
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  • 4 weeks later...

When ever you are at your lfs just look through there Base / Dead rock bin. 1.99 lb and its natural looking. Put your frags on those the same way you would put it on a plug.

 

bzphotog

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  • 5 weeks later...
The Propagator
Yes I did cure my frag discs, but, when it comes down to it, the main store I supply likes the boston aqua farms plugs over anything else, and will give an extra $5 per frag for them, since I get em at store cost(I'm told) which is ~$4 a bag of 20, that makes the cost about 20 cents a piece... I'm not gonna worry about the time wasted making frag discs, curing them, and then betting my frag tanks happiness on them again.

 

Pics or it didn't happen !

 

:P

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reefpets.com
Yes I did cure my frag discs, but, when it comes down to it, the main store I supply likes the boston aqua farms plugs over anything else, and will give an extra $5 per frag for them, since I get em at store cost(I'm told) which is ~$4 a bag of 20, that makes the cost about 20 cents a piece... I'm not gonna worry about the time wasted making frag discs, curing them, and then betting my frag tanks happiness on them again.

 

I agree with this, I do enjoy DIY stuff but with the cheap price of plugs I just dont see the need in making them and curing them to save 10 cents per plug. Curing plugs for 6 months is insane in my opinion and thats why I like the ceramics, rinse them off and they are ready to use.

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  • 3 months later...
TheFilterguys.com

 

honestly the plugs from these guys are great! cheap, no need to soak em and the owners are stand up guys ( I overpayed on shipping so they refunded me the extra 5 dollars). A+++

 

Nice I was thinking of using the jello shooter cups from the party store instead of the small dentist cups

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  • 2 weeks later...

Man I need a new frag plug solution, ordering them is not always an option and no LFS here within logical driving distance works. I may just use plastic screws.

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Carlton'sTank

I have played around with a few different types of plugs. The tiles from lowe's are nice, but they are heavy and weight down racks that are suctioned on. Buying them sucks, because they kill you on shipping. I want to make my own, but I don't want them to go in the back of my toilet for 3 months...that kind of defeats the purpose for me.

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If you don't want to do the toilet tank for a couple months there are a couple different things you can do. Steam curing can cut out 2-4 weeks of the curing time, and for frag plugs it can be accomplished in a double boiler on a stove. Just don't get them over about 160F; the cheap corallife digital thermometers measure up that high no problem, I've gotten mine up to 162 but it'll probably go even higher.

 

After that you can CO2 cure them in a 5g bucket, I'm experimenting with using a 2l bottle about 3/4 full of water with a cup of sugar and a packet of yeast attached to an air stone and its keeping a whole bucket full of DIY rocks at around 7 pH. I've been to busy/lazy to cast any new rocks in the last couple weeks but it looks like I should be able to do smaller rocks and frag plugs from casting to ready to use in 10-14 days.

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SpankythePyro

Dixie Cup

Wooden Dowel

Aragonite sand (or inert silica sand)

Wet Casting Sand (anything you want)

Cyanoacrylate Superglue

 

1.) Casting sand into dixie cup

2.) Push wooden dowel in to create plug

3.) Do not fill w/ casting sand all the way to the top

4.) Fill in plug sand

5.) Drop in some superglue

6.) Wait for it to set and remove :)

 

Make sure to cure them in some test water and watch for the pH, Alk, Cal, and Phos.

 

I would not go with CO2 curing concrete, it is not the optimal way and can often do more harm than good.

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  • 4 months later...
Too expensive, I picked up a 12lb bag of sand and about 250g of super glue for about 35 bucks so we'll see how this goes.

 

 

Any updates on how this went? I've still gone with the method of selling one frag, to buy a ton of plugs.

Plus one of the LRS pays $5 more for frags on their custom plugs(which are really nice diy, and cost $0.25)

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Any updates on how this went? I've still gone with the method of selling one frag, to buy a ton of plugs.

Plus one of the LRS pays $5 more for frags on their custom plugs(which are really nice diy, and cost $0.25)

 

Yeah, he got everything, made a pictorial how-to thread, deleted the pics and post several hours later because he decided to pursue it for profit then was later banned for unrelated offenses.

 

It appeared to work quite well, just lay down 1/4" of sand in a plastic tray and drip on tubes of cheap superglue. When they dry they just pop off if you use the right kind of tray, I believe his was polypropylene. Most of the clear rigid storage bins you'll find are polypropylene, the recycling number on the bottom is 5.

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  • 5 months later...

If someone could make silicone frag plug molds that would be awesome. Sell them for like $25 a mold. Each mold could do probably 20 frag plugs then they can just pop out since the silicone is bendable. Someone on here I'm sure can do this. I take a free one since I had the idea;)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

I have never fragged a coral before but the smashing of liverock sounds so much easier and faster and the benefit of keeping it all natural. What is the major Pros with DIY plugs versus liverock for frags?

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rumble

pro, its free (if you have a lot of rocks lying around), looks natural

con, some shapes wont stay still on egg crate or will just fall out.

 

frag plugs

pro, it fits in egg crate. reusable (super glue a live rock ontop of it with the frag, break the rock off the plug and reuse it again)

con, sticks out like a sore thumb in display tanks

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  • 2 months later...

I use for sps frag plugs a acrylic rods. i get them for cheap at this sighn place that have a acrylic scrap section. for the rack i use a acrylic to and drill holes in it to fit the rods i just heat up the rod so it kind of globs and wont fall through the hole. when the acro grows over the acrylic it look ways legit. kinda diy and easy win win won

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