To achieve this I will be using a porous ceramic 'rock' made in Germany by Korallenwelt.  I first experimented with these ceramic materials on my 'No Rules' aquarium and was very pleased with the effect.  For me the main advantage of ceramics over live rock was that by using this artificial material I can avoid accidentally introducing non-native fauna and pests into the biotope, and once covered in coralline it is indistinguishable from the real thing.  And this rock quickly becomes 'live' and populated by denitrifying bacteria.  The main downside is its cost!

The aquarium will have a floor area of around 3.5 square metres (38 square feet).  For the substrate I intend to use SeaChem's 'Grey Coast' media if I can source it somewhere.  I used something similar on my pilot Hawaiian project and I rather liked the effect of a dark substrate - it seemed to emphasise the colours of both fish and corals in my opinion.  Grey Coast media is made from magnesium calcite and Anthony Calfo reportedly found it helped maintain magnesium levels in his system which would be a bonus.

Corals

I explained in the Why a Biotope? section how the number of coral species found in Hawaii is very small.  I also explained how I had anyway wanted to move away from the 'polka-dotting' approach of cramming as many different species into an aquarium as possible.  This all led me to adopt a rather different approach to the norm when I started populating the pilot biotope aquarium with corals.  I "planted" groups of frags from a single species in different areas of the aquarium, the aim being that in time they would grow and fill out, effectively forming a large coral stand of a single species.  The idea behind this was not only to look a little more natural but also have a greater visual impact.  These stands would also provide the backdrop for a few single individual corals - e.g. a bright pink Pocillopora damicornis.  The system was not running long enough for it to reach its full maturity, though I think the concept was working out well - this picture was taken a few months before the system was finally broken down in Spring 2007.  You will find more detail on this pilot in the Other Projects section of this site.

I have decided that I will be taking an even more minimalist approach with this larger biotope upgrade, and intend to have a total of just seven individual corals from four families (Acropora, Montipora, Poccillopora and Porites) in the whole aquarium.  Each coral will thus have plenty of room to spread and grow and mature.  This does mean that I will have to live without a great show of corals for a couple of years but I will have plenty of fish to look at in the meantime, and the end result should be very pleasing.  

You will find more details on the aquarium, the equipment and the stocking in the Aquarium Details page.