Reef Ball Foundation Photos and Project Description Database

Assembled unit that has not yet been fitted to its base.

Units after then have been assembled the first time.

Setting up the molds the first day.

The first step after the molds are set up is to add sand to the bottom of the Reef Ball molds. This makes a rough bottom with holes for starfish, lobster and other bottom dwellers and also gives the unit resistance from lateral movements during storms by increasing the friction on the bottom of the unit with the sea floor. In the Cayman Islands...because natural reefs are nearby, addtional horizontally stablizing anchors are also added after the units are deployed.

Todd Barber explains to KC Skinner about the importance of documenting all we do with photographs because we are trainers and hope to leave our skills with the local people to continue the project sucessfully.

Everyone helps prepare the molds.

Next, sugar water is used to coat the inside of the molds to create an enviromentally friendly mold release as well as to create a rough surface texture on the Reef Ball which makes larval corals recuit and survive better on Reef Balls.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Next, the internal bladders are added to the Reef Balls and inflated to the desired size to create the reef ball of the weight specified for the project. In this project, we wanted Reef Balls just slightly heavier than normal (for better stability) but not so heavy that a floating deployment would be difficult. Reef Balls in this project weight about 1.2 times the weight of "standard" reef balls.

Inside of a mold.

This pictures demonstrates an internal bladder in the wrong position...it will be centered to make sure the Reef Ball has even thickness walls.

Air is added to the center buoy. The volunteers are surpised the bouy is inflated more than they expect.

As you inflate the center bladder, you have to adjust the side balls so there are no weak places and sometimes we add rocks to the top to control the thickness of the final casting at the top.

Inflation of the center polyform buoy.

On the larger sized Reef Balls (picture is a "Pallet Ball" sized Reef Ball) the bottom side bouys also need to be inflated to create larger bottom holes because the units are very thick at the bottom for stability.

A look inside revelas how the side balls are positioned and shows the black rubber stopper that will create a hole for corals to be attached once the Reef Ball is in the water.

We dropped a screw cap into the mold and had to deflate the center bladder to get it....right when the concrete truck was on the way!

Waiting on the concrete truck to arrive.

The cement truck arrives from National Concrete...a very nice concrete company to work with.

We do a final check of the molds as the concrete truck driver surveys the situation.

Waiting for the microsilcia to mix well....

After 50 pounds of microsilica, 1/2 pound of polyethelyine fibers and a 1/2 gallon of high range water reducer were added (one yard concrete volume) to the truck....we do a test pour into a wheel barrel to see if the conrete is the right "slu,p" [slump is a measure of concrete liquidity].

Here comes the test!

Is it here yet?

Opps...too thick....we add a wee bit more high range water reducer and repeat the process.

Okay, concrete is right time to start pouring.

We start the first mold.

We have to teach our concrete driver that our molds don't hold as much concrete as an empty form.

The concrete begins to flow.