A great video of the floating reefscape of Robertus

The floating reefscape of Robertus from Holland is an original example of how a simple idea can completely transform the appearance and health of a reef tank. You’ll notice when watching this video that there are only two bases of rock touching the bottom of the tank and the rest is just like a castle of coral in the sky (water). In a modestly sized tank such as this it is not difficult to find one or two pieces of rock that can bridge a 2-3 foot span but with many reefers still hung up on using as much live rock as possible, there’s not enough ingenious reef aquascapes like this one going on. As an added bonus, the lifted coral platform allows plenty of water movement throughout the entire tank, keeping food in suspension and helping to keep the sand bed nice and clean. Furthermore, the floating rock platform produces a really cool cave for the fish to swim through and it also allows for the placement of some moderate light corals underneath the archway and on the sandbed where diffused light is enough to sustain them. As if the reefscape alone wasn’t enough, this work of art is covered by an interesting variety of colorful corals with lots of complimentary colors and shapes. The stonies are tucked in all over this floating arch and hanging off the sides which gives the impression that the corals are really competing to grow on this little bommie as if on a real reef. That nice sized Gorgonia ventalina seafan standing upright just left of center adds a really nice touch. Now last week there were a lot of comments regarding some criticisms of the DTOQ; we are confident that Andrzej will grow his tank out nicely but crazy steroidal ZEOvit colors aside, when you view the tank of Robertus it is clear what an original and well aquascaped reef should look like. Follow the break for another clip of this tank from a couple months ago, with a better view of the rock before all the corals were laid down.

This is a view of Robertus’s reef tank from two months ago where you can more clearly see the floating reef arch that supports all the corals that are growing on it today.

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Jake Adams

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.