Magnetic Platforms for Reef Aquaria

Donya Quick

Introduction
In this guide I will describe how to make floating platforms with magnetic algae scrubbers and rocks or other aquarium-safe materials/ornaments. The interest in pursuing some kind of moveable ledge for my aquariums came about when I realized just how vertically challenged my aquascaping is. For various reasons including livestock and tools available, I have never felt confident creating the large piles of rocks seen in many marine aquaria. As a result, my tanks all have the same pattern: a few large rocks on the bottom of the tank with bits of rubble here and there around them. This isnt too noticeable in a 20gallon aquarium, but in a 55-gallon tank, the sheer amount of unused vertical space is hard to ignore. When the tank is stocked full of angry, coral-unfriendly bottom-dwellers but is also begging for corals with a brand new, 4xT5HO light fixture, the unused space is even harder to ignore.

Figure 1. Cave-loving animals, such as the peppermint shrimp visible only as feelers in this photo, will make use of the ledge aspect of magnetic platforms.

Some people make use of unused vertical of space for home-made frag racks out of egg crate or the more expensive, clear plastic varieties. These never appealed to me very much, probably because they are bulky and intended for temporary frag placement. Then, one day, someone mentioned the use of suction cups to mount individual corals a safe distance away from the bottom, out of reach for angry crabs. While I dont trust suction cups for their tendency to fall off at the worst and most unexpected times, I realized the perfect alternative was right in front of me: magnetic cleaners. And so, I started to fill my empty vertical space with the types of platforms I present here. The benefits of these platforms

have been three-fold: a place to grow corals in safety, a way to get more light-demanding species closer to the surface, and a way to provide other animals with ledges to hide under. This guide is aimed primarily at marine aquarists, although there is no reason that the same type of platform couldnt be used in a freshwater or brackish aquarium. In fact, magnetic platforms are sometimes sold for turtle tanks. However, the constructions I will be discussing are primarily intended for supporting relatively light loads. Although the idea could be adapted to something like a turtle tank, the designs I show here would almost certainly require reinforcement to safely support a moderately-sized turtle. The photos of actual platforms I present here are also not the most aesthetically pleasing tank additions possible. As with many things, functionality and appearance tend to be opposites, requiring some degree of compromise. I tend to favor functionality, so the examples I present here of magnetic platforms I have made are perhaps not the most beautiful examples of aquascaping to be found, but they have nonetheless proved to be incredibly useful to me far more so than my attempts at home-made plastic frag racks. Also, given slightly more attention to detail, one could improve the appearance of the platforms shown here with modifications such as extra small bits of rubble carefully placed to hide exposed magnet corners and/or some sort of complimentary tank background. On a black background, the magnets might not even need to be hidden much to blend in well.

Part 1: Materials
Magnets I have often found magnetic cleaners somewhat annoying for the fact that they can be difficult to move when too strong a magnet is used. For the purposes of constructing a platform with magnets, this feature is desirable. You want the strongest magnet you can find that meets your design goals. The stronger the magnet, the less likely the platform is to break free and fall from being bumped. A welldesigned platform should be able to move like an inverted magnetic cleaner (moving it from the in-tank and the out-of-tank part follows somewhat smoothly) while being non-trivial to rotate downwards or pull away from the side. My magnets of choice are the large-size, elongated Marina variety. Individual magnets of this type have cost me in the range of $7-8 at local aquarium shops. These work well on the glass thickness present on my 55-gallon tank. Before buying all of your materials, I recommend getting a single magnet of the type you are considering and doing a wet test with it to see how firm the grip is. When building your platform, it is critical that you KEEP BOTH THE SCRUBBING AND FELT SURFACES CLEAN. If you allow grit to be ground into either of these surfaces, you will have just made a lovely glass-scratching device. Make sure you thoroughly inspect and clean all surfaces that will touch the glass before they actually do. This is particularly important if you are using actual rocks, as small chips and dust are likely to get on the magnets. The Platform Itself When I set about making my first magnetic platform, the first problem I had to overcome was what material I wanted for the platform part. This is a constraint satisfaction problem. Whatever you use must have the following properties. It must be: - Lightweight. The farther out you want it to extend, the lighter it must be!

Structurally sound. In other words, you dont want it to be easy to snap in half from light pressure. Appropriately textured, or sufficiently rough. This is important for adhesives. Not so long that the leverage from the end substantially weakens the grip of the magnets (what happens if a large snail wanders to the edge?).

I have tried three objects that met these conditions: resin ornaments, limestone, and rhyolitic tuff (sold as tufa). Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Resin and other plastic ornaments win in the weight category. They are very light for their size, unbeatably so as far as rocks are concerned. However, they are problematic in other areas. Even if one ignores the fact that they tend to look completely unnatural and strange, they are rarely textured in a way that makes gluing easy. While they may glue nicely to the magnets when dry, gluing things to them while submerged is problematic and often requires several tries before the object sticks satisfactorily. Limestones main benefit is that it is the same material as regular live rock. Thus, its like adding to your live rock volume once colonized. Dried reef rock has the same advantages. However, aragonite tends to be rather heavy. Finding a suitably lightweight piece usually means finding a very thin and not very large piece. While not impossible, it can require digging through rock bins for some time at more than one store until suitable pieces turn up. Tufa-type rocks have the advantage of being lighter-weight than limestone on average and also textured in a way that makes gluing very easy. Disadvantages include that these are largely silicate rocks so you must take extra care to make sure that dust from them doesnt remain on the surfaces of the magnets that will be touching the glass. Additionally, these rocks can be more brittle than limestone due to their porosity. They do not hold up well to twisting forces. While not a problem for a platform once in the tank, if you need to move it or remove it from the tank, you will want to avoid just grabbing the rocks themselves if they are thin. I recommend using only dry rock and, therefore, avoiding live rock. The reason for this is that getting a good connection between the rock and magnet requires dry surfaces. This is a problem for live rock, which must be wet in order to remain live. If nothing else, it makes more monetary sense to buy dry rock and let it colonize/cure in-tank, since you will probably have to partially kill live rock in order to make a sturdy platform out of it. Glue The main concerns for the glue used is that it must be both strong and aquarium safe. Superglue (cyanoacrylate) has both of these features and works very well. I have used superglue exclusively on my platforms. It bonds the plastic on the magnets very effectively and also grips rock well when the surfaces are clean and dry. I prefer to use and strongly recommend superglue gel for constructing platforms. The reason for this is that the gel can be turned into small piles that allow for a larger connection. Gels can also be used to fill cavities more effectively and maximize the connection surface area that the platform object has with the magnets. Gels have a longer curing time, but unless you are under some sort of pressing time constraint to construct the platform, the extended waiting time should not matter.

Figure 2. Motivation for using superglue gel (bottom) over regular superglue (top). The glue, shown in red, will make a better connection with uneven surfaces like rocks when formed into a small mound. While the thin surface of runny-type glue will only catch the tip of the object, the gel will deform around the object and contact a larger area.

Part 3: Planning
Designing a magnetic platform requires some engineering. There are three designs I have tried in my own tanks: simple, single-magnet platforms; tall, double-magnet platforms; and long, double-magnet platforms.

Figure 3. Different types of magnetic platforms. From left to right: (a) a simple, single magnet platform; (b) a tall, doublemagnet platform; and (c) a long, double-magnet platform shown from the side (c1) and back (c2) respectively, where red indicates glued portions of the magnets.

Simple, single-magnet platforms are the most obvious design to try first and also the cheapest to construct. However, they are by far the weakest and least stable. This is because there is little to stop the in-tank magnet from rotating under strain. As a result, the platform must be quite light relative to the strength of the magnets. If you plan on anchoring anything large/weighty on top of the platform, I strongly recommend against this design. The easiest to construct are probably the tall, double-magnet platforms. This is because the shape and density of the rock are less critical. The use of two magnets also avoids the rotational problem of the single-magnet design. However, these platforms are also the least useful. They do not offer much of a ledge or much surface for anchoring frags relative to the size of the rock. They are primarily useful as an aesthetic feature or for perhaps a single frag. The third design has both benefits of the other two: it offers substantial space for frag placement and a ledge for animals to hide under, and the arrangement of the two magnets puts up significant resistance to any sort of rotation from pressure on the end of the platform.

Of course, this is not the end of possible designs. Any number of magnet and platform configurations could be used, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of the design used, the important things are to ensure that the platform is stable under whatever strain it is expected to experience.

Figure 4. A magnetic platform made from a resin ornament and encrusted with Zoanthids (left) and a platform keeping a coral frag safely away from a large hermit crab (right).

Part 4: Picture Walkthrough

Step 1: Planning. It is always a good idea to start with a plan, as it will affect what types of materials you gather (shapes of the rocks, etc.). The following MS Paint doodle was my original plan for this platform. Magnets are shown in gray, rocks in orangey-brown, and glued areas as black blobs.

Step 2: Materials.

I chose to use two large, long Marina magnets and acquired three pieces of tuff/tufa. I ultimately only used two of these rocks, but purchased all three because dry rock is cheap and I couldnt be sure at the store which two pieces would be the best fit. Step 3: Gluing the Magnets Take the in-tank portion of the magnets and glue them in the orientation you want.

Keep them away from the out-of-tank halves at this time. Once the glue is cured, turn the glued halves over (scrubbing side up) and place a Ziploc-type sandwich bag over them. Place the out-of-tank halves onto the in-tank halves to line them up, keeping the bag between them and ensuring that the bag doesnt wrinkle between the out-of-tank halves. The presence of the bag is important as it ensures that glue dribbles or uncured sticky bits from the previous gluing wont lock everything together by mistake. In a worst case, the bag would need to be cut to separate the in-tank and out-of-tank portions (the reason why you actually want two layers of plastic, not one). The important thing at this step is to MAKE SURE YOU GLUE BOTH THE IN-TANK AND OUT-OF-TANK PARTS THE SAME WAY. Using the method described above will facilitate this,

since you can line the out-of-tank side up using the other side as a template. The last thing you want to do is wait for the glue to cure and find out that the magnetic halves dont line up properly. When the glue has cured, remove the out-of-tank portion.

Step 4: Gluing the Rocks Turn the in-tank portion of the magnets scrubbing side down. Arrange you rocks as you want them and make sure the configuration has several points where the rocks touch the magnets and each other. Ideally you want to be able to balance the rocks in their final configuration. This is what I have done in the photo below.

If you cant balance your rocks, you will need to clamp them in some way during gluing. When you are certain you have a good arrangement, remove the rocks, place large mounds of glue at contact points on the magnets, and then place the rocks one at a time. Look at the construction from the side to see if there are any areas that could be filled with superglue gel to give a firmer grip between the rock and magnets. Use the tip of the glue applicator to spread glue and force it into small spaces. Be sure to place glue anywhere the rocks touch each other for added support. Wait several hours for curing before testing the stability of what you have built, otherwise the rocks will probably pull free and leave a gooey, stringy mess of uncured glue.

Part 5: Dry Test. Once the glue has cured, you can do a dry test by connecting the in-tank and out-of-tank magnet halves. YOU MUST DO THIS CAREFULLY!!! The magnets will exert a lot more force when in direct contact than with a pane of glass separating them. Particularly with the type of rock I have used here, the force from the magnets can be enough to damage the rock if the magnets shift suddenly in one hand while the rock is held firmly in the other. Hold the out-of-tank portion only and observe that the platform is steady. Push on the platform with your other hand to test its stability. If you encounter any problems at this stage, you need to resolve them before moving onto a wet test.

Part 6: Wet Test Now that your platform has passed a dry test you can move onto a wet test. Carefully separate the out-of-tank halves of the magnets and MAKE SURE THAT THE FELT AND SCRUBBING SIDES ARE FREE OF DEBRIS. Place the platform in the tank in an easily-accessible location where a fall would not damage anything and line up the out-of-tank halves on the other side of the glass. Once lined up, reach into the tank again and push on the edge of the platform.

On a platform such as the one that has been shown here, you should encounter significant resistance and not be able to make the platform rotate even with moderate pressure. If a light bump causes

your platform to rotate visibly, you have probably put too much weight on the magnets or the magnets are not powerful enough for your glass thickness. If your platform passes these tests, it should be ready for regular use. Good luck and happy reefing!