IceCap Dragon Stone, 44 lbs
SKU: IC-RDS
MSRP: $ 115.49
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Available Through Authorized Retailer
- Iconic Dragon Scale Texture: Features a heavily pitted, cratered, and grooved topography carved by natural water erosion, perfectly mimicking ancient dragon scales.
- Bulk 44lb Hardscape Assortment: Packaged in a heavy-duty 44-pound box featuring a random, curated variety of shapes, dimensions, and weights to assemble complex layouts.
- 100% Chemically Inert Core: Structurally safe clay-mineral composition will not buffer, harden, or alter aquarium pH, total hardness (GH), or carbonate hardness (KH).
- Premium Plant & Moss Anchor: Deep surface pockets and porous tunnels provide an exceptional structural foundation for rooting live epiphytes, mosses, and carpeting plants.
- Natural Shrimp Breeding Cover: Innumerable micro-crevices and intersecting holes form perfect protective hiding zones for newborn dwarf shrimp and delicate nano fry.
- Highly Malleable Custom Shaping: Clay-based physical properties allow hobbyists to safely break, chisel, or downsize larger pieces into ultra-detailed accent rubble.
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IceCap Dragon (Ohko) Aquascaping Stone 44lb Case (IC-RDS-2)
The IceCap Dragon Stone 44lb Case (SKU: IC-RDS-2) is an authentic, all-natural hardscaping material distributed by CoralVue to provide a highly detailed, globally celebrated geological foundation for custom aquarium displays. Achieving a high-end, award-winning underwater landscape requires hardscape materials that feature deep textural character and complex spatial variety. Standard smooth river stones or heavy metamorphic blocks lack structural interest and can often look out of scale in detailed aquatic environments. The IC-RDS-2 serves as a premium, pure alternative, bringing the legendary aesthetic of traditional Japanese Iwagumi and Scaper layouts straight into your glass display. With its deeply eroded, scale-like contours and warm, organic clay tones, Dragon Stone instantly instills a sense of age, energy, and biological maturity.
Because this premium material is packed as a raw bulk 44-pound case, every box contains a completely unique, randomized selection of stone sizes and weights. This broad distribution allows aquascaping hobbyists and retail builders to execute foundational design principles flawlessly: choose heavy main stones (Oyaishi) to establish a strong focal pinnacle, medium pieces (Fukuishi) to construct flowing transitional slopes, and smaller rubble fragments (Suteishi) to accent the foreground sand boundary. Furthermore, because Dragon Stone is formed primarily from hardened natural clay and mineralized soil matrices, it is entirely inert. It will not leach minerals or alter your water chemistry, making it perfect for soft-water planted layouts or sensitive dwarf shrimp breeding centers.
Key Features
Accentuates Live Colorations: The rich, warm tan, gold, and earthy brown background creates a natural contrast that makes the bright greens of live plants and the brilliant colors of nano schooling fish stand out vividly.
Highly Porous Structural Webbing: Complex internal cavern paths maximize open surface area for beneficial nitrifying bacteria to colonize, enhancing your system's biological filtration.
Easily Customizable Proportions: Can be safely split using a standard hammer and chisel to create custom miniature crags, spires, and matching accent rubble for precision nano detailing.
(Note: This catalog item covers a 44-pound case of unwashed, raw natural stones. Because these are real geological formations, natural variations in shape, texture, size, and weight distribution are expected).
What’s Included:
(1) 44lb Bulk Box of Mixed Size IceCap Dragon Hardscape Stones
Technical Specs:
Official Manufacturing Title: IceCap Dragon Stone, 44lbs
SKU / Factory Part Identifier: IC-RDS-2
Total Packaging Weight: 44 lbs (20 kg) bulk shipping case
Average Piece Size Metric: Assorted mixture spanning roughly 4" to 12" per stone
Average Piece Count Per Box: Varies by natural weight distribution (typically 8 to 14 pieces)
Primary Material Composition: 100% All-Natural Fossilized Clay Mineral Matrix
Water Parameter Impact: 100% Inert (Does not alter pH, KH, or GH values)
Aquarium Layout Suitability: Optimized for Planted Tanks, Iwagumi, Caridina Shrimp, and Community Setups
- Open your IC-RDS-2 shipping box outside or in a garage space, as unrefined natural clay stones hold dry soil deposits and small transit crumbs within their deep pockets.
- Place the stones inside a large utility bucket and submerge them in water. Use a small screwdriver, bamboo skewer, or rigid brush to pick packed clay sediment out of the deep craters and crevices.
- Rinse each piece thoroughly with a garden hose or tap faucet to remove loose clay dust. Warning: Do not use soaps, bleaches, or chemical cleaners.
- Arrange your dry stones on a soft towel or a cardboard template cut to your tank's footprint to safely map out your design before transferring the heavy stones into a fragile glass aquarium.
- Position your bottom-most foundation rocks carefully onto the glass floor inside the tank. Pro Tip: Lay down a plastic light-diffuser grid (egg crate) or a thin layer of substrate beneath heavy stones to distribute weight evenly.
- Stack your secondary stones into position, making sure each piece feels completely stable and balanced. Slowly add your aquarium substrate around the rock bases, place a plastic wrap sheet over the stone core to diffuse the water stream, and fill the tank gently to prevent washing out your hardscape structure.
Pro Tips:
- Take Time to Thoroughly Clean Out the Deep Clay Pockets Prior to Housed Setup. Because true Dragon Stone is a geological formation born from ancient clay beds, the deep pockets and craters are naturally packed with dried clay mud when harvested. If you put the rocks into your tank straight out of the box, this mud will dissolve into your water column, creating a heavy, stubborn brown cloud that can choke out your filtration system. Spending 10 to 15 minutes per rock picking out the soft clay holes with a screwdriver and rinsing them well guarantees your tank water stays crystal clear from day one.
- Use Small Bits of Foam or Cotton to Lock Custom Stone Joints Safely. Dragon Stone is highly customizable and can easily be chipped or chiseled down to build intricate, gravity-defying cliffs or towering canyon walls. When stacking pieces into complex configurations, tuck tiny pieces of cigarette filter, cotton balls, or filter floss between the rock contact points, and drop a few drops of cyanoacrylate-based superglue gel onto it. The liquid glue will instantly react with the fibers, generating an iron-clad chemical bond that locks your custom stone towers together permanently.
- Tuck In Epiphytic Plants Directly into the Stone Craters Without Using Glue. One of the greatest design benefits of Dragon Stone’s unique, pocketed texture is that it provides ready-made planting spots. Instead of wrestling with liquid glue or tying thread around rocks to attach plants, you can simply take small divisions of low-profile epiphytes (such as Bucephalandra, Anubias Nana Petite, or Micro Sword Mosses) and press their roots gently into the rock’s natural holes. The rough, porous clay walls will grab onto the roots instantly, allowing them to anchor and spread across the stone faces naturally.