How a marine aquarium is created-Part 2: The stone structure

10.07.2018

After a break of almost 10 years, we are making a new saltwater aquarium. It was an exhibitor at Interzoo, namely the Aqua Medic Armatus 400. Here you can see the development from the beginning in many videos that are gradually coming online. Part 2 now deals with the stone structure.

The stone structure in the reef aquarium

I am actually more the type who would have liked to use live stones. If only for the reason that these tanks are usually much more stable than those with other rocks. Of course, you also have to put up with the so-called "pests" that are brought in with them. Just to name a few, these are bristle worms, crabs, glass lice, etc.

There are now plenty of substitute materials, but they usually mean that the run-in phase can take a little longer. Just to name a few, Real Reef Rocks, Natures Rocks, reef ceramics from various companies, there is now a sufficient selection on the market.

Since May, there has been a lot of new material on the market.

Since there have been no imports from Indonesia since May 2018 (two ministries are arguing about jurisdiction there), no dealer had any really fresh live rock left at that time. If you are going to use live rock, then use really fresh rock, i.e. not rock that has been lying in dark filter systems for months. Conditioned LS that has been sprayed is best.

Of all the life that is on a stone, a part dies during transport. For this reason, all living stones should be reconditioned before they are used. Good dealers do this :-)

Conditioning means that the stones are prepared for "aquarium life". This is done to remove unwanted residues. Showering (spraying) will drive most bristle worms, crabs and other unwanted inhabitants out of the stones. Bristle worms, copepods, various larvae and higher algae are not removed by conditioning. Dead sponges and other dead growth are also gently removed by hand.

So now good advice was expensive.

At Extremecorals there is an interesting and at the same time cheap rock which we have now used. It goes by the name of aquarium rock and is grey. The price per kilo was 2.90 EUR.

We'll see how it goes with it. In any case, it was nice to put together. Well, there's always room for debate about the taste of a stone structure. Apart from the space for corals, the sleeping places for fish were important to us, and that they have enough crevices and hiding places. There are some really great tanks where I sometimes ask myself where the fish are supposed to sleep ....

Now a few photos of the preparations, dryings at Claude Schuhmacher from Extremcorals. It was very important to run a good phosphate adsorber as soon as possible after adding the stones. As is well known, these adsorb not only phosphate but also other heavy metals.

We used silicone to attach the stones, which are quite easy to work with, in some places. Please make sure that it is an aquarium silicone, i.e. not one of the usual ones for bathrooms, which contains fungicides. However, there are also special adhesives for stones. In addition, the hole that we had to cut ourselves was glued twice with silicone. It is always important to avoid letting moisture penetrate the wood!

Of course, there is also a video of the stone construction:-)

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