diy frag plugs cheap

Discussion in 'I made this!' started by tazzy695, Apr 6, 2008.

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  1. tazzy695

    tazzy695 Feather Duster

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    hi all I am a cheap sob or so most people would say especialy when it comes to my fish tanks I am always looking to save a buck

    but I have several friends that I go to frag swaps with and we are constantly looking for frag plugs but no lfs around me cary them :( so I decided a couple of weeks ago to try a few different methods of making them one was rulled out due to cost and this was pouring ceramic to expensive to run the kiln mostly


    but here is my first sucessfull try at the frag plugs

    #1 I went down to my local walmart and purchased some sculpy bake hard modeling clay (this bakes to a stone like texture in your oven) $5

    #2 I got the clay worked to where I could roll it into a long roll about 1" diameter

    #3 I took a sharp parring knife and cut disks out of the long roll

    #4 I then took some of the remaining clay and rool a long 1/4" string out

    #5 I cut this into about 1/2" to 3/4" pieces

    #6 I then pressed the thin pieces onto the back of the disks to make a pin for them to be held in the egg crate frag racks so many of us use

    #7 I had the oven preheated to 275 degrees farinheight and baked the plugs for aprox 20 min

    #8 let cool and drop them in a container of the water to fully cure then they are ready to use I let them cure for 2 days in some fresh water then I drop them in the salt tank to cycle through and become like live rock
     
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  3. tazzy695

    tazzy695 Feather Duster

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    oh yea other ideas I have are pouring some tile grout into a mold

    and maby some other materiels like cement into a mold
     
  4. aquaboy

    aquaboy Panda Puffer

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    NO CEMENT! it will cause your PH to raise really fast. Otherwise, good idea!
     
  5. baugherb

    baugherb Giant Squid

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    Keep us updated on how they work out....
     
  6. tazzy695

    tazzy695 Feather Duster

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    well so far the ones made out of the sculpy are doing great I did a test batch of 4 plugs to see how well they would work and they work great

    my biggest issue I was worried about since the clay is 100% non toxic was having it disolve in the water and they have maintained their shape and if anything gotten harder

    I actualy have a frag of zoa glued to one along with another frag of anthiela glued to another

    as for the comment about the cement causing ph issues I already knew about this and was already planning on curing them for about 2 weeks or untill the ph stabalizes and they are not affecting it any more
     
  7. Tangster

    Tangster 3reef Sponsor

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    Unless the pottery clay is glazed then you better be careful in that you be putting algae food or different minerals into the water I have ours made from concrete and soaked in vinegar to lower the alkali in the cermet.. 1 in cement squares and or plastic Golf Tee's
     
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  9. tazzy695

    tazzy695 Feather Duster

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    yea i understand that I just didn't want the expense of using a glazing or the added expense of having to fire a kiln for several hours to make the ceramic version

    my next batch will probly be either cement or the tile grout

    the biggest issue is beeing able to mix it super thin without loosing to much strength