Homemade frag bases.

[reef diver]

These are a DIY frag base, easy, cheap, and no cure time neccesary. All you need is instant-thinset glue, such as krazy glue. Wear Gloves for this, as it bonds extremely well, fast, and to skin. Just take a small handfull of sand, preferably old sand, place into mold and let it dry. Then wash it to remove any dead organisms/silt/salt, and let re-dry. Then re place into mold, squirt the glue over the area u want the base to be on. Be sure to fully cover the area! While the glue fully cures lightly shake the mold, this seems to encourage full penetration of the glue into teh sand layer. Rinse with water, save the extra sand and viola! New frag base!

 

[howardj]

Thats kinda confusing.. what mold?
neat idea though.. very cheap and easy, like you said

 

[mscarpena]

Great idea. You make your own mold. Thanks for that tid bit. I won't be buying anymore frags, I'll be making my own.

 

[reef diver]

I just used a small fishfood container cap, just the right thickness and size. I need to find a glue that has more per container, the Krazy glue I used only makes about one base about the size of the largest base (the one in my hand) I need one that will fill the cap, and BTW to break the piece out of ur mold, just bend it like an ice cube tray, after u leave it for an HR to fry

 

[mscarpena]

Try buying marine grade epoxy. There are some that people use to put together plywood tanks. It is really expensive, but you would have to see what would be cheaper.

 

[d0 thy d3w]

u can make a tank from plywood??? wouldnt it like...eventually rot and leak or sumthing?

 

[mscarpena]

Nope you paint the entire inside and out with epoxy paint and the front is glass. There are many plans on the web. I have thought about it many many times.

 

[reef diver]

Yeah, but I wouldnt feel comfortable, just IMO, btw u couldnt use epoxy for these, and the reason I use sand, is that corals stick to it fast, just because of its "rubbly" texture, and its composition.

 

[mscarpena]

I was saying to mix sand with the epoxy because you were looking for more stuff per tube than the super glue. Sorry should have been more specific.

 

[nietzsche]

could you do this with portland cement mixed with something like crushed oyster shell?

 

[zeke92]

can you use normal glue ike elmers for this or does it have to be special frag glue?

 

[thirty5]

Ok i will give out my idea that i was going to try to do....
There is marine safe LIQUID Silicone. You take a cookie sheet. Spray some sort of oil on it. Cooking oil something. But be careful not to get all over. Then you pour the liquid silicone in the tray. But only make it like 1/4 in thick. Then you take crushed coral and pour over the top and make sure that you cover everything. Let it dry and then you peel it out of the tray. The good part.... THen you can Cut the mat that you just made into any size piece. Then you can also cover lets say the whole mat with mushrooms or zoos or whatever, then when you want to frag.. WOW you use a heavy duty scissor and you cut the frag off the mat. You will not be cutting the coral you will cut through betwen the pieces. This will allow you to put the frag in more places without having a huge disk. If you have to a little epoxy on the back and you can glue to the rocks.

 

[mscarpena]

The only problem I see with that is well one major one that liquid Silicone is a lubricant and will not dry. Unless you are talking about silicone caulking. Silicone caulking is very light and might blow around unless you were to mix a lot of sand in with it. It is also very messy and thick and will not penitrate like super glue will. I think you would be better off with super glue.

 

[thirty5]

I have access to a LIQUID silicone that has the same properties of the kind in a tube. Dries solid. So it will work. Just takes a little bit longer to dry. I am not big on the look of a big frag disk in a tank. This way you dont need much to show as far as the frag holder. And all you need to do is get the epoxy that is in the dbl tube and you mix a tiny amount to glue to the rock.

 

[mscarpena]

Sounds good then give it a try. I was unaware that they made liquid silicone. Let us know how it works out.

 

[thirty5]

Unfortunatly the can that i had must have had a pin hole in it somehwere now it is a can of silicone that has hardened. I will have to find it again and buy a new can. DAMMIT!

 

[mscarpena]

I hate it when stuff like that happens. Good luck and I hope it was not too expensive.

 

[thirty5]

I actually got it free. but there was no label on it, so i have to find out where the original person got it from

 

[maxalmon]

You can also take a bowl, fill it up with DRY sand, then use liquid not gel superglue and simply drop maybe 5-6 drops onto the sand. The glue spreads thru the sand really quick. Give it a minute or so to dry, lift it out and you have a blob of really hard sand thats kinda cone shaped.

 

[reef diver]

BAsically thats what im doing, just with thinset,
Originally Posted by nietzsche
could you do this with portland cement mixed with something like crushed oyster shell?

YEah prob is is teh cure time is near to 4 months
On teh liqid silicone note, That would not work with stony corals such as acropora montis, porites etc. Because silicone is too "rubbery" because thats what it is rubber, the frag would eventually just get pushed off, no matter how good the glue u used was, UNLESS you put LOTS of sand in, in shich case the base is EXTREMELY brittle