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Breeding Slate


AndyL
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Well I decided today I should really get some slates for my angels... Too much caviar of late...

I'm not a fan of the normal products used, The ceramic spawning cones/slates absorb meds (ie meth blue), are porous and never come completely clean... And I didn't really want to fudge around with unknowns.

I had some 3mm acrylic lying around (a 4' long x 8" wide strip), cut that into 8"x18" strips. Cleaned up the edges a bit. (They ain't perfect - but they don't have to be)

Then I layed them all out on my desk, with roughly 5-6" of overhang, and slapped some 2x4's down so they wouldn't move (much).

Got out the propane torch, warmed up the underside of the acrylic, then the top, took a couple minutes but in time each piece just 'dropped' to 90 degrees. I pushed it a wee bit further, and held with my finger for 5 minutes while the acrylic cooled.

At this point I decided it would be fun to flame polish the edges (I get so few instances to play with the torch, gotta make the most out of each).

Then, deciding I didn't like clear, I took them outside and gave them a splash of Krylon Epoxy Enamel (I've found it to be fish/reef safe - YMMV)

And le voila! We have spawning slates that can be sterilized as needed!

Andy

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Well the marble x silver pair likes em - I hate the paint... So now version two will be coming up - with a few modifications.

Going to leave it clear - so I can see the eggs before wiping them off doing daily tank maintenance... I'm also going to add a step - a place for wrigglers to collect near the bottom, to keep the wrigglers on the slate until they go freeswimming (help the parents in the loosing battle to keep them in place).

Andy

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