Hello,
Starting immediately, we, G.A.R.F., are going to run a weekly contest called "I GREW IT MYSELF" on the Thiel Technologies site, one of the larget infob@se sources on Reefs on the Net, and we are looking for ideas about how people grow, and trade or sell, their reef invertebrates.
The entries should be between 600 and 1000 words. We want the theme to be "Creating a Zero Impact Reef - I grew it myself and so can you."
We, G.A.R.F., will give away the following to winners:
This is quite an opportunity for many hobbyists out there to win free prizes. The janitors and the rock are free. The winner need only pay the freight. To claim your prize after you have been advised that you are a winner, you need to get in touch with GARF to claim your prize.
Entries, both text and graphics if any, should be sent to Thiel Technologies who will forward the entries to GARF.
Sally Jo Headlee of GARF, will be the sole judge. Decisions are final. All entries will belong to GARF, and may be used for education and other purposes, with the proper credit given to the author of course. This applies to winning and non-winning entries and graphics.
The aticles will be judged on the content not the Grammer and writing style. We are very interested in sharing how people trade and sell there corals. Pictures will be given credit, but not all winners will be picked out because of the pictures/graphics included.
Thank you.
I have made the aragocrete rocks by several methods and I am not sure if one of them is too good.
I have been mixing a relatively dry mix as suggested by " the rocker" and am happy with the results. However, in an effort to really get a really high porosity and light weight form, I used as aggregate 2 parts "Perlite" one part aragonite sand and one part crushed oyters shells.
This does indeed make a very light form with very good porosity, but I am not sure if the Perlite might be introducing some unwanted silica into my water. Any thoughts on the Perlite as an aggregate additive?
A couple other thoughts on aragocrete.
1)I have found the coralline algae most definitely prefer the crushed oyster shell to any other materials I have put in my forms, including plastics of various types.
2)The reactions involved in concrete curing form calcium hydroxide, and hence the high pH problems some have found. The major portion of the reaction should be complete within a few days but concrete continues curing for weeks and even months - at very slow rates. My thought is actually that of trying to use the setting of concrete to add calcuim hydroxide to the tank in a controlled matter. Perhaps a new small marble sized piece each week. Haven't tried this, but in the right amounts it might work.
3)Another way to make original looking pieces of aragocrete is to add crushed ice to the mix and when the ice melts it leaves behind many irregular interstices. I have carried this out successfully (after quite a few attempts) by adding table salt and sodium carbonate to the cement mix. This accelerates the first of the three reactions that occur when cement sets.
This first reaction is usually suppressed in normal cement by the addition of gypsum, but the salt and sodium carbonate over ride the gypsum's effect.
If you try this, you can't mix for very long as the "false set", as it is called, will not last long and continued mixing just gives a paste that slumps down when the ice melts. Pieces I have made this way using white cement have been well recieved as they look very realistic after some algae has grown on them.
As to how much salt and sodium carbonate to use, well I'm not sure what's best. I used about 2 parts salt and one part sodium carbonate to about 30 parts cement. And by the way, you can make sodium carbonate very inexpensively by cooking baking soda in the oven or about an hour at 400 F.(Use a cookie sheet). Its much cheaper than buying "Buffex" or its equivalent from your local dealer.
4) On the subject of what shapes are good, some the the first pieces I produced (about 7 months ago I think), I made by pushing three to four deep holes in moist aragonite sand (use finer size to hold its shape better) and filling the holes with my mix. Then covering the the three holes and surface of the sand with more mix. This made a platform on a tripod base that is great for stacking and placing corals. It leaves almostal the substrate beneath uncovered and accessible to water flow. I put my open brain types on them.
I made the legs 6 to 8 inches and about 1.5 thick. (I think much thinner would have been too weak.)
STATE THE PROBLEM
See which of the cuttings of the mushroom will grow the fastest.
HYPOTHESIS
The cutting with the mouth will grow the fastest.
EXPERIMENT
Materials Used: mushroom coral, razor blade, ruler, bowl, toothpicks, paper towels, salt water, sand, netting, rubber bands, salt water aquarium
OBSERVATIONS
2/8/98: The mushroom slimed out after I cut it. The base skin started covering over the cut.
2/11/98: The mushrooms got smaller.
2/14/98: The mushrooms formed a circle.
2/17/98: They started growing their mouths. Doesn't look like they have grown any. They started expanding their tentacles.
2/20/98: All the cuttings have grown and section 1 has a complete mouth.
DATA
Date Mouth Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 2/8/98 2.5 cm 2.0 cm 2.6 cm 1.8 cm 1.6 cm 2/11/98 1.6 cm 1.6 cm 1.7 cm 1.3 cm 1.0 cm 2/14/98 2.1 cm 1.6 cm 2.3 cm 1.5 cm 1.1 cm 2/17/98 2.1 cm 1.6 cm 2.5 cm 1.5 cm 1.5 cm 2/20/98 3.0 cm 2.3 cm 3.0 cm 2.0 cm 1.8 cm ____________________________________________________________ TOTAL 0.5 cm 0.3 cm 0.4 cm 0.2 cm 0.2 cm GROWTH _____________________________________________________________
CONCLUSIONS
I thought the cutting of the mouth would grow the fastest. The cutting with the mouth grew the fastest.
The two biggest ones grew the fastest and the two smallest ones grew the slowest. The medium sized cutting grew slower than the bigger ones and faster than the smaller ones.
The two bigger ones grew fastest because they had more algae and they got more food.
Aaron Blackerby, 3rd Grade, Carrollton, Texas