by Richard E Unger Jr.

Hello fellow reefkeepers! I was asked to share my DIY frag rack design with everyone. I initially got the idea while sitting in the garage pondering how to build a frag rack for some pruning I planned on doing later that night. After many failed attempts due to the racks having low strength and just being plain being ugly, a wall shelf caught my eye in the garage. The weight of the shelf is sustained via the vertical supports. This would allow me to attach the corals to live rock right from the start without causing the rack to fail.

So then the hard part happened... how do I get some legs on the rack? Again the trials started. I tried super glue, silicone, etc... to get the supports in place. Just like with the initial legs idea, a light bulb went off! I'll use heat!! So with some basic tools and 10 minutes you can build a killer frag rack any size you want for a few bucks! Below you will find my step by step instructions. Enjoy!

Instructions

1. Get the tools ready. A good pair of snips, heat gun, dremel tool with sandpaper grinder (rough grit), and some "egg crate" the size you want the rack to be + extra for vertical support.

2. Take the "egg crate" and grind down the little edges from when you cut the size from a sheet.

3. Get the heat gun nice and warm. Once it has reached a high temp you can start passing the row of squares that you decided you would like the bend for the support beams to be back and forth SLOWLY! Keep then flip for a quick pass of the otherside so that they will bend with out craking(if you don't do this you will crack the "egg crate") After you heat both sides nicely bend the support leg down evenly.

4. Repeat step 3 on the other side of the "egg crate"

5. Now you should have both support beams bent and cooled.

6. Now that you have the support beams bent pass the edges of the rack over the heat gun to remove the frays from when you grinded down the leftover sharp tabs that resulted from cutting the peice out.

7. Now grind half circles from the "egg crate" so you can glue in suction cups.

8. After the half circles have been cut you can glue or epoxy the suction cups into place. I get the wal mart kind that have a silver hook on them. When you remove the hook you have a nice slot in the suction sup to over lap the half cirle that was cut for extra assurance. You can get away with two suction cups on the corners of the shelf, but i like to have four, two on the top shelf and two on the bottom suport beams. If super glue is used I like to pass some water over the wet glue to get it hard faster than letting it lay around. Your reefers you already know that!

9. When the rack is dry test it on a window to be sure you have the suction cups secure. Spilling frags itsnt fun.... Below you will see the finished product! and yes they are that strong! If you have frags that weight more than my test sell me some.

Thank you,
Richard E Unger Jr.

Materials:

• Heat Gun
• Dremel tool
• Diagonal cutter, snippers, wire cutter
• Egg Crate (Light diffuser, often sold for flourescent fixtures in hardware stores, can be ordered in black online).
• Suction Cups
• Glue or epoxy

Further Reading:

• How to mount coral frags.