How To Make Your Own Frag Mounts

 

Wouldnt be cool if you could make your own that was recessed for the old frag mount? Dont you hate it when your frag starts to grow over the frag plug? You snapped off the baseof the plug and glued it to a rock, then you got this ugly bump where the plug was. It just doesnt look that good, you get the 'mushroom' effect as the coral encrusts down the sides of the plug or mount. Plus there are gaps between the mount and coral encrust in which flat worms can lay eggs and you will forever be trying to get rid of them. I found this as a problem for a long time, I hated the look and wanted something different. The solution was a rather simple one since at this time, no one on the market makes these why not make a mount in which a plug could sit in. I tried several different formulas until I was happy with this one, plus it is very simple to make a bunch in one sitting with little mess.

Anyone can do this at home with just a few simple tools they probably already have in a scrunge bin, you know those old fish aquarium parts that are store in some box. Pretty much that all you will need, plus some Portland Type II cement that can be found at the local hardware store.

Tool You Will Need

Portland Type II cement A container to mix the cement mix - I use DVD spindle holders Filler - like crushed coral, aragonite, reef sand, PVC shaving will also work                        Mixing spoon 1.5" piece of PVC cut to a 1" length Drill with a variety of drill bits A piece of 1/4" acrylic cut to a 2"x2" square or circle A large table for your work area 5 gallon bucket with RO/DI water for curing

Making The 'Biscut' Jig

This is pretty simple and it was my first attempt and worked out pretty well. What you are going to do is make a mold for your mounts. I like to have mounts that are about 1.5" in diameter and about 1" thick. This works out well for just about any SPS frag, as well as zoanthid and montipora disc so they can encrust across them.

Simply cut a 1.5" piece of PVC about 1" long, the cut really needs to be straigt and clean or you will get lopsided mounts. 

Next find a piece of acrylic or plexiglass, wood would probably even work. I happen to have the filter cap from an old Two Little Fishies phosban reactor and it was a perfect fit for me. Notice the pictures below, you are going to need to drill a series of hold in the acrylic. The reason for the holes is so the cement will release from the mold and 'plop' into place. If you dont drill the holes the cement will eventually get stuck inside the mold.

You will also need to drill a good size hole in the middle of the acrylic, one is used to hold the mold and the other side make an indent into the mold so later your frag plus will fit in.

Once the PVC is cut, holes are drilled, glue the two piece together, you can use weld-on if you have or superglue.

The Mold for you frag mounts	Side View	Bottom View

Mixing Up The Cement

The next thing you will need to do is make a mixture of cement. Making cement is a piece of cake, I basically do this by site but a general guide is 1 part cement, 1 part water and 2 parts filler. I also use this same recipe for making my live rock.

For a filler I like to use a mixture of Caribean Sea Aragonite and Sea Sand. This gives the mount a grainy look with some sea shells when done and looks very similar to a piece of live rock. You can use other fillers if you like, PVC and acrylic savings work great because they are reef safe, very light weight and attract coraline algae more rapidly than just crush coral and cement. Other people have used rock salt, noodles and even macro algae, but I think it makes the mounts more brittle so I just stick with the sand and aragonite mix.

First I add all the dry ingredients in together and mix them up. Slowly I will start adding water and mixing until I get a clumpy mix, like oatmeal. If you add too much water the plug wont be very porus and tends to gather algae, if it is too lose, it tends to fall apart.

If you do add too much water just add either some more filler or cement to thicken up to mixture. You can tell it is a good mix if you can make a ball in your fist and it holds together.

Just remember that a little bit goes a long way went making mounts, a half filled DVD spindle holder will do about 30-40 mounts.

 

Making the Mounts

If you have ever make cookies or biscuts then your in luck because its basically the same. Take your mixture and fill up the mold. When the cement has reached the top of the mold just simply flip it over and 'plop' it onto a workspace. Refill and startover again, this goes pretty fast.

Fill the mold	Plop the cement to a workspace	Instant Mount

 

Finishing Up and Curing

As you can see below I used some foam insulation to lay out my mounts on, you can use the same thing or plastic also works. Just spread out some plastic paper or whatever and plop out the new mount (like makin biscuts). Once you have either run out of cement or have done enough mounts for your liking, I like to sprinkle some sand or aragonite over all the mounts, this give the mounts a little texture and also makes them look better. Additionally, if you not satisfied with the size of the "dimples" in the middle of the mount you can use your finger or better yet a frag plug to make the indentation bigger or more to you liking. I take the head of a frag plug and push it into the new mount so there is a recessed area.

Once your all done, let the frag mounts site for 24 hours before removing. After 24 hours, pick them all up and place them in a bucket of RO/DI water for about a week, chaning out the water daily. This needs to be done so they cure and release any phophate into the RO/DI water. If they arent cured them they will get a lot of algae on them in the system. Sometimes I will just take a few and add them into my sump after a week a curing just so they are completely done.

When your ready to mount plugs, just snap off the stem of the plug, add some epoxy and superglue and stick it into the recess dimple of the mount. If you just want to mount a frag then just epoxy and glue in the recessed area and stick in the frag.

Thats it, your all done. Enjoy your fragging with the new mounts!! 

 

 

A few completed mounts