Sealing your own magnets with JB weld? and Best idea to cover my center overflow?

[padova335i]

Any issues with this? I want to make my own, because Im paranoid that the pre made ones may leak at some point.. (are leaking magnets poisonous to are reefs?)

Also, I have an over flow in the center of my tank that is 12 x 12 its a 360 viwe tank.. So instead of adding rock wall (which I still may do, and then add corals on top of that) I was thinking of just using the magnets

The problem is that the MH light directly above the overflow does not directly hit the front and rear sides.. So the rock wall can possibly puch the corals out more to receive light.. I also have the option of adding an LED light bar on each side to add for coral growing..

No idea what to do, I will add pix later
thanx guys!

 

[Islander84]

i have visions for this thing . depending on exactly what you wanna do i could help you with a very nice porous wall around it that has 0 ph cure time like all the other diy rock and its white not gray. here is my rock background thread the end of it is where i discovered the right system i went through alot of headaches messing with this stuff. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1967765


here is a link to some pics of tank with rock and water so that you can have an idea of what finished product would look like.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1998825

 

[padova335i]

looks great. thats def a project that I will prob end up doing.. It will take too long for the corals to cover the overflow and if in some spots corlas can grow i can still have the nice rock wall.. No how would I Attach the rock wall to the center overflow box? internal magnets? I can make a couple inside the roack wall coated w/ jbweld?

OR, I could JB weld it right to the overflow box?Either way I have tro make sure it is extremely secure

i have visions for this thing . depending on exactly what you wanna do i could help you with a very nice porous wall around it that has 0 ph cure time like all the other diy rock and its white not gray. here is my rock background thread the end of it is where i discovered the right system i went through alot of headaches messing with this stuff. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1967765


here is a link to some pics of tank with rock and water so that you can have an idea of what finished product would look like.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1998825

 

[Islander84]

ok here is a list of things you will need:

50 lbs bag of crushed oyster shell shouldnt cost more than 12$ i got mine from a place called rural king make sure it doesnt contain anything but crushed oystershell.

50 lbs bag of quickwall made by quickrete from home depot...lowes doesnt carry it. 50 lbs is as small as you can get. $15

some kind of screen material to filter out fiberglass strands from quickwall unless you want to leave it in for added strength either way it wont pose any harm to tank by leaving it.

couple tubes of geII 100% clear silicone

small hand held gardening tool

5 gal bucket and a milk jug cut in half

some eggcrate if desired dont have to have it

garbage bag or piece of plastic



if you decide to use the eggcrate make sure you spray it down with vinegar and then rinse it off to remove releasing agent from factory which leaches phosphate..( thats why people say eggcrate leaches phosphate....think about it plastic doesnt contain phosphates)

if your wall has 4 sides then measure each side and cut eggcrate to exact size minus half an inch or so. lay those pieces out on the garbage bag couple inches apart. spread the mix over the eggcrate to the thickness you desire for your walls. then rough up the mix a little by dragging gardening tool on its side and drop a couple of splatters of mix sporadically over wall to give it a more natural look. you can even get creative and use small baloons to make caves and stuff. make sure its cover up to edges of eggcrate. let sit undisturbed for at least 4 days. spritzing with water twice a day.

for your mix use your milk jug half as the measuring cup start off with 3 parts COS(crushed oyster shell) to 1 part quickwall and throw in a little aragonite sand(cup or 2) if you have any laying around if not no big deal stir up the dry mix really well...then slowly add water maybe a third of the milk jug to start and stir it up really good..you want the mix wet but chunky so that it stays porous it seems like it would be weak but it gets extremely hard!

after your pieces are dry...assuming your tank is empty and overflow is clean and dry....silicone the crap out of the pieces to the wall lay some towels or something in tank bottom incase one falls...i used long pieces of pvc to help support walls they arent real heavy and the silicone should hold it up but i like to overkill with caution! wait for at least a good 8 hours so it is holding pretty strong and mix up another small batch and start slapping it on the corners to join them together and wherever it needs it. after it dries there will be no way this can fall or come apart it and hope you dont ever want to remove it ...it wont be fun my rock wall is a part of my tank forever but once covered in coraline it will be awesome! plus it adds to bio filter

hope it works out for you! ill be on stand by if you need any help

 

[padova335i]

Thanks, it doesn't sound too bad.. I def would like to do this soon.. My only problem is that the tank is up and running.. ugh.. so I will have to let the walls cure first in a vat or something... Thats why I was thinking of adding the internal magnets to hold it up onto the overflow box.. Ill probably make the front and rear long sides of the tank(overflow) the side have the pumps and eductors installed on them.. But those aren't so bad since light hits both sides well.. On those I will just attach corals and let them grow..

Im prob going to have to use the magnets somehow inside of the mix so i can hold them against the overflow box.. Now off to think of some kind of design.. Maybe I will incorporate some pvc pieces on the bottom of the wall too add sleepin/hidding spots

Thanx again for the help, now I just have to somehow sit down one sat or sunday and do it!

 

[jeff@zina.com]

I want to make my own, because Im paranoid that the pre made ones may leak at some point.

Wouldn't you think the commercial ones would be more secure?

Jeff

 

[padova335i]

Wouldn't you think the commercial ones would be more secure?

Jeff

well, if they are just covered in concrete mix? then no.. if they are seal w epoxy then concrete, then yes

 

[Islander84]

you could still do as discussed and build the 4 walls and then after they are dry in about 4 days just build a box out of wood to replicate your overflow box then wrap the wood with saran wrap and stand the 4 walls up right around it and join ends together. make sure there is enough room between walls and box to slide it off then slide it onto over flow after it dries....rinse it off with water before you put it into tank but no need to ph cure the quickwall is formulated for potable water holding tanks

 

[padova335i]

you could still do as discussed and build the 4 walls and then after they are dry in about 4 days just build a box out of wood to replicate your overflow box then wrap the wood with saran wrap and stand the 4 walls up right around it and join ends together. make sure there is enough room between walls and box to slide it off then slide it onto over flow after it dries....rinse it off with water before you put it into tank but no need to ph cure the quickwall is formulated for potable water holding tanks

thats a great idea man.. The problem is i have eductors sticking out of the box on the sides.. i'll be adding pix later today to explain better.. how much will each wall weight? its going to be 25 x 12 more or less... I'll prob make these walls not too think and have the bottoms maybe a little thicker..

*another one of my ideas was slowly building the wall up by stalking some larger rocks on the bottom then using jbweld to attach rock to rock and also to the box