DIY, Making your own Frag Plugs

[Pyrojon]

Originally posted by eugeneK
Empty foam extra large eggcrate makes u a dozen very nice disks, just dont fill the holes all the way up about 1/3 is good. my grocery store had some spare, I made 200 disks and hid them in toilets all over the house, they been there since the spring ^^

Cheers!

Good deal eugeneK, nice job curing those disks. I always recommend the toilet tank method (if it's just water in the tank, no toilet cleaners please) and it's by far the best method most people have for curing their own aragocrete plugs.

Try chocolate cany molds. They are vacuum formed thin plastic and aragocrete will pop out of them fairly easily with no need for a mold release.

[Spiffyguy]

ok. Hey coma I am going to make up a small batch of nipple plugs. I don't want to buy a whole thing of cement though just for 10 or so plugs. any small batch cement you can recommend? Also I have a 55 that is full cycled. If I drop in a few, 3 or 4, of these plugs in the sump area you think that will jack up the ph? or should I soak them in their own pail.

Thanks

[comatose]

I use type II Cement. I don't know of any other cement since i have not tried any other types, if possible you can grab some or buy a few cups of cement from someone in your area.

I don't think 3 or 4 plugs in your sump will raise your ph, if you do keep an eye on your PH, but it might be better just to put them in your toilet tank area till you need them. or put them in a small bucket full of water.

[Pyrojon]

Spiffy,

You really ought to soak them in your toilet tank or a bucket of water for at least a few weeks if not longer, the longer the better. No need in taking chances in doing harm to your new reef system.

Good luck
Jon

[Spiffyguy]

ok thanks for the info. I will probably just soak them in a tub of ro water. Won't be that many at a time anyway. I hate to put them in the toilet tank. freaks me out that something in the water will get in them. I certainly don't drink my water, but I am paranoid lol.

[Spiffyguy]

i have been using a nipple as my form. any hints on how to keep the tip from breaking off? I have been letting them set for a day or two before removing them from the form and so far all but one has broken the tip off. They are still usable just missing the nice long tip.

[comatose]

What mix ratio are you using ?

you could try keeping them moist while they are curing, or have them cure longer before trying to take them out of the form, especially if the stems are very thin.

[Spiffyguy]

i messed with the ratio quite a bit. i do 2 sand,4 concrete, and then water to get it soupy enough to get everywhere. so far this has been the best mix. the concrete i got from a friend. it is fast set stuff, not that that makes a difference. I think it may be curing time. I made some up yesterday and will let it sit until monday and see if that works out well.

[Pyrojon]

Spiffy,

I don't know about the mix. I generally use a higher aggregate to cement ratio, but I don't use all sand as my aggregate so you may require more cement to get the job done.

Also, you may be mixing too wet. Generally, the wetter you make the mix the weaker your concrete will be once dried. Try mixing your normal ratio with as little water as possible to make your mix more like mud, or creamy peanut butter.

I assume that when you are taking your plugs out of your molds they still appear wet, if not then this next comment may not apply.
In my experiance a basic concrete mix with no addatives will cure sufficiently in 48 hours, at least in volumes such as baby nipples. If your quick set stuff is taking longer then that to dry, then I would guess that it's probably too wet to begin with.

Good luck

Jon

[Spiffyguy]

i let them sit over the weekend and all of the came out except for one that broke. So it is just the length of time needed to completely dry. I am soaking the batch now in some RO changing it out every few days. Figure I will do that for a month and they should be good.

[2thdeekay]

After reading this thread, I'd like to offer compliments to Comatose (and others), for the information offered here.

I have been researching frag plugs for my sister & brother-in-law who own several LFS's in California, and had found www.bostonaquafarms.com, who sells coral frag mounts or "plugs".

However, after reading this thread, I realize that Pyrojon is "Boston Aqua Farms", and I haven't been positively impressed with Jon's (Pyrojon's) posts. I'm not sure I'd recommend Boston Aqua Farms.

Pyrojon really should identify himself as "Boston Aqua Farms", a mfr of coral frag plugs, especially on this "DIY" thread.

[d_carloo]

what kine of cement do you use Brant name (non toxic ) ???

[comatose]

Thanks 2thdeekay

d_carloo,
It's "Portland Cement Type II"

[Pyrojon]

Originally posted by 2thdeekay

However, after reading this thread, I realize that Pyrojon is "Boston Aqua Farms", and I haven't been positively impressed with Jon's (Pyrojon's) posts. I'm not sure I'd recommend Boston Aqua Farms.

Pyrojon really should identify himself as "Boston Aqua Farms", a mfr of coral frag plugs, especially on this "DIY" thread. [/B]

2thdeekay,
I'm sorry you feel that way. I believe that if you reread the thread you will see that I did identify myself as Boston Aqua Farms. Truthfully it was not my first post but rather, I believe, my 4th in this thread.
There are rules against commercial posts on RC and since I'm not a sponsor my post would have been frowned upon, however I did want to provide another option since many people reading this thread may not be inclined to go out and buy a 90 pound bag of cement in order to try it out. I simply pointed out that another option exists, I did not push my product and in fact never mentioned it again after my first post. Had there been other options out there at the time (I wasn't aware of any) I may have even posted links to those.

I may come off as abrassive but I feel that the subject matter of most of this thread (namely curing your plugs) is very important and I want to be sure that the people reading this thread have the right information. I believe that my posts speak for themselves, I am only interested in providing complete and correct information to ensure that anyone trying to DIY their own plugs has the complete/correct information to do the job right.

With that said, you may not like my posts but I guarantee that you and your Sister and brother-in-law will be more then happy with my products. I appologize if that was too commercial.



Jon

[2thdeekay]

Pyrojon,

Just as you admit, I thought your posts were abrasive. However, I'm pretty sure your frag plugs are just fine.

We probably won't be choosing your plugs, even though they may be of good quality. Thanks for your help on this DIY thread.

[Eklikewhoa]

I just got some BAF plugs and disc....have to say they are pretty nice and damp like mentioned. I have been meaning to make some myself but never really had the time to get out and buy the needed materials and such. Stopped by a LFS today and they had some for pretty cheap so I grabbed a bag.

Still deciding whether to toss them in the toilet or just leave them in a bucket of RO.

[mattb71]

how long do you leave them soaking in water? What are you looking for to know they are done and ready for use?

[comatose]

If your going to use them as soon as they are done soaking, then you can use them if the water they are soaking in where the PH stays below 8.6 after a week with no additional water changes.
it also depends how many your going to put into the tank at any one time, and how big your tank is.

me personally i have about 220 gallons in my tank, so i only let them soak for a month or less if i'm only going to only use 3-5 frag plugs.

if you have a smaller tank you may want to do what i mention above in the first sentence.

[mattb71]

thanks

[Spiffyguy]

hmm I just checked my ph and it is at 11! this is after a few water changes. Might have to look at increasing the water volume or sticking it in the toilet lol.

[comatose]

to refresh everyones memory about cure time.

Originally posted by comatose
since this is a hot topic, mainly about the cure time. i wanted people to feel at ease about how you go about curing your live rock or Plugs.

get a trash can that is 20% the water volume of your tank, so if you have a 180 gallon tank as i do, you would need a trash can that will hold about 25-30 gallons.
now fill it with water, tap water or RO water,(there is only a slight difference)and cure your concrete for a week using the normal method in part 1
Part 1: which is changing the water every day or more for a week to ten days.
Part 2: after part 1 change all the water one last time and let the concrete sit in the water with no water changes and test each day with a PH meter, if your PH does not go above 8.6 after a week of no water change then it is ready for your tank.
but if it does go above 8.6 at any point change the water once and start over with part 2 again and test each day again. when the pH stays at or below 8.6 your all set.

Concrete initially has a very high PH due primarily to the portland cement in the mix. As concrete cures, the PH decreases - as experience has shown. The concrete rocks are continuing to cure when you place them in the water - in fact this is the perfect curing environment for the concrete.

One other thing you might try is wiping the surface of the rocks dry after you remove them from the curing environment before you place them in the aquarium. Concrete that is kept moist will normally develop a 'slime' on the surface, and I suspect that this 'slime' might be quite high in PH.

[Pyrojon]

Originally posted by comatose
to refresh everyones memory about cure time.

Wow Comatose that's some really great information!
I wish I had thought to point that out.





Sorry I couldn't resist.

[jay24k]

Another fine display of a great attitude...

[Pyrojon]

I'm sorry, you must have missed the smily face.

You see that indicates that I was merely joking.
Sarcasm is so difficult to catch in a text based forum, I understand.

[2thdeekay]

Pyrojon apparently doesn't know when to quit.

Pyrojon is a mfr of frag plugs, who keeps posting on this diy thread. He makes negative/sarcastic comments, perhaps with the intent on developing customers, or perhaps just to hijack this diy topic.

If he makes more useless negative/sarcastic comments, everybody should know that his frag plug business is www.bostonaquafarms.

Why would anybody want to do business with this kind of guy? I wouldn't.