Acrylic Frag Racks

[rskarvan]

I have made 10 of these frag racks for two 6'x2'x1' frag tanks. The acrylic is 0.22" thick and the rods used as legs are 0.5" thick. The racks are 12"x18" each.

The issue: the racks get blown around by the two XF-250 Gyres that are in each tank. I have turned down the gyres to 30% and the racks don't budge much, but the tall racks still get tossed up every once in a while. The rack leg heights are 2", 4" and 6". Any ideas on how to fix this?

I've thought about siliconing a dab on the bottom of each leg to give them some grip on the bottom of the tank (bare bottom), as well as giving some small additional weight. I'm not sure if this will really help or not, and as such I have not tried it. I might try it on one rack when I get some time.

Thanks for reading and any help!

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Suction cups on the legs might help.

 

[rskarvan]

not a bad idea at all; something i feel like i should have thought of haha. i will probably be moving the rocks around with some frequency, so being able to move them without having to remove the suction cups as well would be nice, but i suppose there's really no good reason to be moving the racks around enough for suction cups to be much of a burden.

thanks for the suggestion!

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

not a bad idea at all; something i feel like i should have thought of haha. i will probably be moving the rocks around with some frequency, so being able to move them without having to remove the suction cups as well would be nice, but i suppose there's really no good reason to be moving the racks around enough for suction cups to be much of a burden.

thanks for the suggestion!

No problem! Something like the soft rubber one's that come the aquarium heaters would probably work best, the clear plastic ones get hard in saltwater and will stop working as well as they did when new.

 

[kyleinpdx]

fishing line a piece of rock to one of the plug holes to act as an anchor?

 

[Bigfish of La.]

Nice looking racks. Do you use a laser and do you make for others?

 

[rskarvan]

fishing line a piece of rock to one of the plug holes to act as an anchor?

This isn't a bad idea either. I might try this if the other options don't work. Thanks for the response!

 

[andrewkw]

Since you have some live rock in there, what about drilling holes in live rock and using them to anchor the racks? You'd probably have to break up the existing rock you have or use other but that would look neat imo.

 

[rskarvan]

Nice looking racks. Do you use a laser and do you make for others?

This was my first time making these racks. I got the project idea from FishOfHex. I have gotten a lot out of his videos.

I used acrylic sheets from Lowes: 0.22" x 18" x 24". These sheet were around $22 and some change each. I had each sheet cut in half to make 2 sheets of 18" x 12". I used some egg crate to align the holes and then used a 1/2" step drill bit to make the holes. If you are making multiple you can go through a few sheets at a time with the help of some clamps. I started by using a paddle bit but that ended up breaking on the acrylic some how...The acrylic rods are from TAP plastics. I used Weld-On #4 to bind the rods. It is important to get the acrylic rods to have as smooth and straight of an edge as possible.

Haven't made for others, as I don't think shipping would be worth it. Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[rskarvan]

Since you have some live rock in there, what about drilling holes in live rock and using them to anchor the racks? You'd probably have to break up the existing rock you have or use other but that would look neat imo.

I like this idea a lot actually! Thanks for the suggestion!