DIY Frag Rack?

[Ryan S]

I'd like to make a frag rack to put inside of my 135g tank. I was leaning towards egg crate + suction cups, but I am told the suction cups are weak and won't last long. (I already have plenty of egg crate). I don't know where to get aquarium safe magnets that would work, so I was thinking of buying this for $15. Could I make a frag rack larger than that or cheaper than $15? What do you guys think/recommend?

[Der ABT]

if you have any left over float mags you can just use those

you can actually just cut it long enough to go accross the tank to and just be held in there.

otherwise if you get a magnet strong enough, N52 neodimium (kjmagnets.com i think) or the n48s they can work to. If you worried about reef safe, just cover them in silicon and water will never touch em

you can make a PVC hanger and have it use the edge of the tank to stay up and put the eggcrate on that, just need some 90s and some piping

 

all depends on the work you want to do

i have heard good things about the blackrock racks though

[Noobalicious]

http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=164

[Origami]

Daniel's the guy that runs blackrockreef. I have a couple of his second generation racks. They're nice, but he's made some improvements in the latest generation. They're custom molded and have a built-in stabilizer that extends below the rack making it more difficult for the rack to drop out like a trap-door if it becomes heavily loaded. He can ship the second gen racks with a stabilizer that you can mount with some super glue, but it's really not much more than a piece of egg crate cut in a certain way. With the right mag-float, you can probably hold a bigger rack more securely than a mag-rack, but it won't look as clean as Daniel's stuff.

[Ryan S]

http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=164

 

would these small ones be strong enough?

 

$0.95 each: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D84PC%2DBLK

[Ryan S]

so now I am down to:

 

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/new-ma...ns-wonders.html

 

vs.

 

http://www.blackrockreef.com/products-2.html

 

vs.

 

DIY

[John]

I got one from blackrockreef and it's awesome (as awesome as frag racks go I guess)

 

I would recommend not getting the magnets stuck together (or finger pinched in between them). I had to use two pair of plyers to seperate them...very strong...

 

I got the one on sale $15 free shipping, it is medium, but with your tank you're probably looking for something bigger...

Edited January 7, 2010 by John

[Sikryd]

Blackrock reef has the BEST frag racks out there. I have 3 of them, and would never try anything else. They are cheap, VERY well made, and are black which blends into the background.

[discretekarma]

Not to confuse things but I just thought I'd put out another option. This option isn't one that mounts to glass but looks more natural. I wanted something for my tank a few years ago so I went out and bought a few really flat pieces of live rock from one of our local retailers and drilled about 20 1/2 " or 5/8" holes in it. Works great. I have them still. And it looks better than frag racks.

 

If you go the eggcrate route, you can just get the stuff cheap at home depot in 2'x4' sheets. It's made to go over office lights so their the same dimensions as a drop ceiling tile.

[discretekarma]

I just read again and saw that you mentioned having plenty of eggcrate but it still may be useful for anyone else looking for where to buy it cheap.

[discretekarma]

Here's a pic of the ones I made a few years ago. I'm sure there are plenty of people who do this. I just figured I'd bring it up as another idea. Depends on where you want to put them though.

 

 

[Ryan S]

Your rocks look great, but I need egg crate to put higher up in my tank.

 

Based on this information on this sight, for the medium rack:

 

http://www.mag-racks.com/sizesdimensions.htm

 

it doesn't look like it will hold very well on my 135g tank, which has pretty thick glass (maybe 1/2"+? I am not home so I can't measure it).

Edited January 7, 2010 by Ryan S

[Noobalicious]

Ryan, if you are going to the Mr. Coral social, i can bring the 2 magnets i have left from KJMagnetics so that you can see how strong they are. They are pretty dang strong when trying to pull straight apart or sliding off each other...a couple sets on a rack would probably hold 25 pounds or so.

Edited January 7, 2010 by Noobalicious