DIY Group Project-Invisible rock lifts

[Fly Guy]

Geoff asked me if i would lead a DIY group project for making my invisible rock lifts.

I said i would.

I think I would like to myself say why they are so much better than simple PVC lifts, as the material cost is signifigantly more. To give you an estimate, you are looking at $20-40 material cost for a 48 x 18" aquarium. The variance in cost comes solely from how much of a sandbed you have and how tall you need to cut the 3/4" cast acrylic rods.

1. They do work better than pvc lifts as they provide much less restriction under your rock so you can get more flow to all parts of your rock, and eliminate any place for detritus to collect if you have good flow under your reef, and if it does collect, you can get to it all to blow it out. This is the most important benefit IMO.

2. They look much better as well, although this is much more subjective, as many people who have pvc lifts also have their tanks set up so that they arent so visible if at all.

3. The completed project of one of these lifts i have designed creates the most super solid, immovable frame, that also grips your rock as though you glued each rock to the frame. There arent any creatures that can compromise this by moving as much sand as they want anywhere they want to, and unless you really stack something hanging the center of grabity over the outside edge of it.....your rock will never slide off if it.



It is not at all complicated to do. There are a few power tools necessary.

1. Table saw

2. Drill press----this can be replaced with simple drill.....although drill press makes it much easier

3. Table or bench grinder----this is what you make the teeth in the top of the rods with

The rods can be purchased at Mcmaster -carr, that is where i buy mine. The 1/2" acrylic used to make the base can be obtained as scrap at your local plastics place. OR for those of you who dont have access to a local platics place to obtain the scrap, i would be willing to sell you the scrap for what it costs me which is 1.50 per pound. You can figure 4 or 5 lbs for a 48 x 18 size.

For BB people this can also be done, no frame needed.....your starboard IS the frame, however you will need to get a 3/4" thick piece of starboard

How much interest is there in a DIY project with my rock lift design??

I would also ask we should identify WHY is it important to lift your rock off of the substrate.


If not familiar with my rock lifts.....you can find more out HERE










.

[DevilBoy]

im intrested in it. but i dont have a table saw. is there an alternative besides using a table saw?

[Doug1]

Originally Posted by DevilBoy

im intrested in it. but i dont have a table saw. is there an alternative besides using a table saw?

Theres ALWAYS an alternative, tho using the power tools Bill suggests will simplify the pre fab prep and cut down on the time it takes to build this, and by projection, virtually any project. Hopefully anyone that doesnt have the power tools listed but has other basic power or hand tools and is mechanically inclined enough to "See" the project, will be able to adapt the tools and materiels they have access to to create a reasonable facsimile of the finished product.
Those that arent handy or comfortable around power saws and stuff , you may want to print out the directions, if you have a friend or relative that has the tools and skills to whip one of these up for you.
Assuming Bill hasn't patented the device(since he's sharing on line) if you can grasp the projects concept, ie what and how it does what it does, it should be easy to build, and or adapt to your tanks situation

Good Job Bill, I have seen bit and pieces buit the whole how to thread will be educational

[Fly Guy]

Devilboy........The first one of these I ever made I used a frame made out of pvc fittings that went under the sand.......i drilled holes in the pvc fittings and it held the rods. Unfortunately, doing it that way is much more expensive as it requires a TON of fittings. The end result was comparable.

Since then i have made and sold about 20 of these lifts. I have refined the design to use the acrylic as it is MUCH cheaper to use acrylic for the frame as well is much easier to actually build.

Like Doug said not in so many words......there are many ways to skin a cat. The major benefit to these lifts is the rods themselves for both the fact that they do not obstruct flow hardly at all, and the teeth in them that grip your rock like glue. Whatever concoction of parts you could make a frame out of to hold them securely, will suffice just fine. ; )

The scrap acrylic is just cheap, easy, and rock solid. Do you have a handheld saw?? That could suffice as well, much in the same way that a hand held drill could be used instead of a drill press.

[DevilBoy]

well i do have a drill and a dremel...

[darthteddy]

Cant wait to see this one....

Will Weld On Be required for this build...Im a stark advocate against it....AKA i cant buy it anywhere near me

:P

[Fly Guy]

Yes..weld-on is VERY much required. Do a search on ebay..theres a gal on there usually selling it. Weldon 16 is perfect for this.

Ive got a lift im making in the next couple of days.....ill be taking some more pics of the process.

[Geoff]

along the lines of better flow, this system keeps dead spots from forming like inside the PVC lifts.

acrylic comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes. you might be able to order it in the strips you need. it may be a stock size at a plastics supply place.

G~

[Fly Guy]

ok.......parts needed.....

1. 1 1/16" minimum width strips of 1/2" acrylic. Strips can be however long your scrap is. The longer the better and easier it is...but no big deal...you will simply glue the ends together and use crossbars to hold the whole thing together

2. a bunch of 1 1/2" long strips of acrylic........i cut these the exact same width as the strips above. You will need one of these for each rod. They go under the rods to distribute the weight on the floor of your aquarium

3. Good old weldon # 16. # 4 or #40 would work just fine as well. # 16 is just the easiest to work with and does fine for this application

4. 3/4" cast acrylic rods, cut to length for how much of a lift you want from the FLOOR of your tank. The base of the rod will sit 1/2" above the floor of the tank on top of the small pieces mentioned above in part #2. So take into account that 1/2", how much sand you plan on having and how much of a lift above the sand you desire your reef to be lifted. The tips of these rods are then grinded to form 4 very distinct teeth, which hold your rock like glue pretty much however you throw it down on top of them. Well get into more detail on that later.


5. am missing one part in this picture.....it is of a strip of 1/2" acrylic scrap 2" wide and long enough to hold every row of rods together. There will be a minimum of 3 of these used IMO...possible more depending on how much scrap you have to piece together and the overall size of your rock lift.

[Fly Guy]

So after cutting all of your parts up minus the rods.......that can happen anytime before or after or while you are waiting for glue to set at any time during the build..............the first thing you want to do is lay out all of the long strips necessary for the size of your tank. At this point before doing anything you need to take into account for any overflow boxes OR if you have an acrylic aquarium with sizable eurobracing. In some cases you may need to actually make two smaller lifts to fit it past the bracing. It doesnt affect the preformance or function in any way...just something to consider.

In this step You want to lay out the strips as if they were going on the floor of the aquarium. I cut spacers you can see in the pic. These are kinda important..not totally necessary but they will make the next few steps much easier and more orderly. I then measure the entire length of my first row and divide by the number of rods i plan on having in this row. Then whatever the result is....is how far i will space the holes. I like between 4 and 5", that works for most everybodys rock size. Keep in mind this isnt the gap you will have in between the rods as the next row back will be staggered the same distance apart, making all of your supports only a few inches from each other. I make the marks with a permanent marker simply by making dots where i will drill.



When finished with marking where my holes will go......i then go out to my drill press and drill the holes...drill all the way through. I like to use a 3/4" spade bit for two reasons. 1. they are cheap 2. The nature of the spade bit wallows the holes out just BARELY bigger than the 3/4" hole necessary, making for a hole that both the rod will fit into without extra work, as well as a hole that is snug and allows no room for leaning around.

You can notice that on the sides of a couple of the rows there are extra holes. Many of these holes and rods arent necessary. But you dont know which ones until you go to stack your rock. At that time you simply pull out the rods you dont need and save them for if and when you decide to reqquascape, and you can replace them. The rods just sit in place. They are not glued nor do they need to be.

[Fly Guy]

Next...we are going to glue the strips to each other for hoever many ti takes for the length of your aquarium. If you are requiring two smaller lifts to fit into your aquarium.......you just do this twice on a smaller scale. I use a straight edge of some kind to make them follow a straight line together. To be sure....this wont be the strongest bond in the world especially if your cuts arent perfect....thats ok...it doesnt need to be....were just setting up the next step


the first row glued


all of the rows glued



Let that set for 15 minutes or so.......go take out the trash or start cutting your rods to length ; )

Now in this pic you can see the part #5 i forgot to take a picture of in the beginning

in this pic all of my glued together strips, the cross bar, good old weld on 16 and all of the strips slid in place with the spacers.

[Fly Guy]

I then glue and lay my first crossbar across any seams i have linking the strips together...wieght it down and wait 15 minutes. At that time you can do the other crossbars as well depending on how much space you have to work with.....on this particular lift i do one at a time as i cant fit 3 buckets of salt across the lift




After gluing all of the cross bars, i then take those 1 1/2" strips and glue them onto every hole that isnt already covered by the cross supports. No weighting down is necessary for this glue job..just glue and stick and press down on it again after 15 seconds of placing it.....you can get away with setting 8-10 at a time..then go back and press them again for good luck
here is a pic of the finished rack part of the lift......(we have been building it upside down FYI ...that little bit of knowledge is REALLY important if you are trying to account for off center overflow boxes.....(ive NEVER made the mistake of messing that up before ).....

kind of a crappy pic....sorry.....imagine there are two other support bars besides the one in the middle......they are out of the viewing pane in the first pic......i will also post a couple of more pics of little different design before i started putting extra rods on the ends to make sure you get it.......the first pic is still upside down of course......the second and third one is rightside up with rods and all.

[darthteddy]

Sweet lookin...Im gonna try this but out of things i can get locally....

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by darthteddy

Sweet lookin...Im gonna try this but out of things i can get locally....

The only KEY part of these lifts, if you can accomplish holding the rods securely in place are found HERE part # 8531K21

Check this first pic out.....a PERMANENT rock lift support with much less work involved..i havent shaped the teeth yet but you get the idea......same thing..two half inch pieces of acrylic glued together, with a hole drilled through the top side, then each rod holder glued to the bottom of the tank........i regret doing it to be honest as that is apic of the build on my current 225. I have since decided that sand SUCKS for any kind of tank sps/lps/softy/whatever ...lol.......

But we all know what opinions are like

If any0one is interested in that very simplistic yet fairly PERMANENT way to do it......i just drilled a bunch of holes in some 1/2" scrap....then i glued it to a another half inch piece of scrap.......then simply cut each individual support out of the sheet on a table saw and glued them to the floor of the aquarium.


also a pic of my invisible rock lift BB style..used the starboard to make the frame..took a 3/4" piece so i only had to drill 1/2" through to support the rods

a coupla pics of both my dsb and my bb tank using these.......no corals in the BB yet besides one guinea pig milli while i get my reactor and everything running perfect...i just threw the rock in the BB tanbk last week last week

[three90s&125sump]

Show off!!!