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Stesso

Fabricate Artificial Reef Structure

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1700 Gallon Saltwater Reef Aquarium

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What happens here

Much of the rockwork in the main aquarium is not natural live rock but is actually fabricated from inert materials. A framework of PVC pipes was built to allow for caves, crevices, and essential water flow throughout the structure. This framework was then covered with styrofoam and 'Great Stuff' spray foam to form the bulk and shape of the artificial rockwork. Once this structure was created and modeled to achieve a rough texture, and fully cured, fiberglass resin was applied. Finally, aragonite sand (plain old aquarium sand) was thrown onto the wet resin to provide a natural-looking, porous surface that promotes the growth of coralline algae and corals.

Goal: Create a lightweight and porous artificial reef landscape

Tools and materials

  • Aragonite Sand
  • Fiberglass Resin — Coating the styrofoam and foam structure to provide a hard, waterproof, and texture-able surface
  • Great Stuff Spray Foam Great Stuff — Expanding foam used to fill gaps, bond elements, and add volume/texture to the rockwork
  • PVC Pipes — Building the internal framework for caves and ensuring water flow within the artificial reef structure
  • Styrofoam — Forming the bulk and overall shape of the artificial rockwork

What they say

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some really cool things about this aquarium that you probably won't see anywhere else a lot of the rock work that you see in these pictures is actually styrofoam yes the main aquarium only had between 700 to a thousand pounds of live rock in it most of the rock was actually fabricated made out of great stuff styrofoam in a can and PVC pipes a framework was built out of the pipes to allow caves and crevices and water flow once the framework was in place great stuff styrofoam in a can was sprayed over the top of it and then modeled to create a rough texture once that was cured fiberglass resin and Auriga night just plain-old Quarian sand was thrown on top of that which allowed coralline algae and the corals themselves to grow it's basically an artificial reef right here it's an example you can see the caves in the middle of that mommy that was all made out of PVC this brief aquarium cost approximately $700 per month in electricity it was powered by 14 metal halide bulbs plus 12 eh-oh bulbs on a tynix to gain access to the aquarium the light canopy was

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