` REEF AQUARIUM aragocrete glove rocks
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E-mail leroy@garf.org 1726 Merrill St. St, Boise, ID, 83705

MAKING MONEY WITH RUBBER GLOVE ROCKS

These are great rocks for hiding your power heads

This weeks project is going to be fun. I am going to show you how to make some great CAVE ROCKS using rubber gloves to make the hollow caves.

I have been making these rocks all week and I enjoy digging them up more than any other type of Aragocretetm live rock that I have made. Last week as we were finishing the 600 lbs. of 'TONGA BRANCHES®' and starting the 600 lbs. of Baja Arches® I made my first Glove Caves®. These rock weigh from 4 lbs. to 7 lbs. and they are 7 inches to 12 inches wide. They are very thin walled with 1 large hole and 3 to 5 small holes in each one. No one who has seen the finished caves in the lab has been able to figure out how I made them.

aragocrte live rock making
 You start this project by blowing up the rubber glove. You can make some very interesting flat Glove Caves® by only blowing the glove up with a small amount of air. We use rubber bands to tie the glove closed , and we have been able to reuse several of the gloves.

We make a round pancake shaped base of Aragocretetm in the beach box about 1/2 inch thick and place the inflated glove on it to start each cave.
It is important to make this base as thin as possible because the desired final effect is a cave with as thin of walls as possible.
We often put broken shells and small aragocrete rocks in the beach box before we put in the Aragocretetm for the base. These shells and rocks will then be on the surface of the cave base when it is dug up.
We then add some Aragocretetm around each finger keeping the end of the finger free of Aragocretetm .

MATERIALS:

CaribSea Aragonite Sandtm for Beach Box
CaribSea Aragonite graveltm for Aragocretetm
# Portland WHITE cement
Several old sea shells to put in base of cave
One rubber glove for each cave

Be sure that the fingers stick out of the aragocrete mix,
so you will get 5 holes in each rock.
That is where the power head returns the water flow.

cyanobacteria red slime
 The hardest thing to do in this project is keeping the Aragocretetm you use for the walls of the cave from flowing down into a pile on the base.
You can solve this problem by pushing dry gravel from the beach box up against the side of the cave as you build the walls.

When you have added enough Aragocretetm to cover the sides of the cave rock it will be 3/4 buried in gravel.
We have been leaving a hole about 3 inches wide on the top of the cave. This opening looks natual because you can make the walls very thin around it.

We use CaribSea Aruba shells on the surface of some of the caves and it makes them very bright and interesing.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix 5 parts - by volume - of CaribSea Aragonite graveltm with 1 part Portland cement to make the Aragocretetm
2. Make a thin base of Aragocretetm in the sand by pressing the Aragocretetm with your hand.
3. Place the inflated glove on the base.
4. Put some Aragocretetm around each finger leaving the ends exposed.
5. Build the walls of the cave by adding Aragocretetm and push the sand up around the cave to hold the walls up.
6. Leave a small hole in the top of the cave, and cover the cave with gravel.
7. Let the cave set for 48 hrs.
8. Dig up the cave and wash it.
9. Amaze your friends, and have fun!!
red slime diatom algae
 By making the beach box out of fine aragonite sand and then covering the top of the cave with aragonite gravel you can make a live rock cave that looks like it was formed in a natural way.
We have been placing small Mushroom rocks inside of these caves in our grow - out systems. We will move the rocks to new caves as soon as the Mushrooms start to grow inside of the caves. I am certain that there is a market for 4 lb. caves full of purple, blue, and red Mushrooms. I soak all of my Aragocretetm Living Sculptures® in fresh water for 4 weeks and I have not had any problems with pH. Be sure to cure them in fresh water before adding them to your systems.

TURNING ARAGOCRETEtm INTO LIVE ROCK

Coralline algae is one of the most important things to grow on tank raised live rocks. Coralline algae can not grow in a system until you introduce it by adding live rocks. The more types of Coralline that you introduce the more types you will find growing on your tank raised live rocks. In our research lab we have experimented with several different methods to aid the advancement of coraline growth. We have noticed that new coralline algae starts to seed itself in the first month and it usually is found on the bottom base rock where the lighting is not so bright. This may have something to do with the fact that all our tanks are started by adding GARF Grunge, which has an abundent mixure of small pieces of coralline algae.

Coralline algae adds color

CORALLINE ALGAE is a very important thing to have growing on your combination tank grown live rock.


  • Coralline algae prevents other algae from growing
  • The bright colors add value to tank raised live rock
  • Coralline covered rocks will seed reef aquariums
  • Mixed colors of coralline algae are rare in nature
  • Coraline algae sells the live rock

Several colors of Coralline algae can be grown on the same tank raised live rock. Calcium is one of the most important things to add to your live rock growing tanks. Calcium levels in your live rock grow out tanks should be kept at about 400 mg/L at a specific gravity of 1.024. We have found that by using CARIBSEA PURPLE UP in our make-up water we have had no trouble keeping both the calcium and alkalinity at the proper levels for rapid coralline growth. This simple method of treating our make-up water also keeps the strontium level in our grow out tanks high enough for the coralline algae to thrive.

LIGHTING


We have been lighting the live rock grow out tank with 2 ACTINIC 32 watt bulbs to each DAY LIGHT 32 watt bulb. These lights have produced the fastest growth of Coraline algae. We keep the lights on for 14 hours and the Coraline algae grows on every part of the rock that is exposed to the light.

ADDING INVEREBRATES

The best way to add value to your product is to grow several types of colored colonial invertebrates on each rock. You can start with very small cuttings.

Garf.Org - Making Reef Aquarium Lights For Less Money #2

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REMEMBER THAT THIS IS A HOBBY AND HAVE FUN!!!!

GROW YOUR OWN - SAVE A REEF

INDEX OF OUR RESEARCH
ALGAE CONTROL CENTRAL
REEF JANITORS ALGAE CONTROL CENTRAL

Use this site to solve your reef aquarium algae problems, and help support our research!!!

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