The Reef Balls themselves were built in Antigua by the Stanford Development Company Ltd. and assisted by trainers from Reef Innovations (Reef Innovations is a Reef Ball authorized contractor based in Orlando, Florida). Captain Bailey skillfully operated the barge and tug daily and Vernon Krump provided the construction site, equipment and labor for Stanford. The construction site had an average of 100 workers building Reef Balls 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Using Reef Ball Foundation and local concrete experts, a special concrete mix was developed that allowed the Reef Balls to be cast and deployed within 24 hours while still retaining the special marine friendly formulations needed to create a perfect biological reef. The Reef Ball Foundation uses special additives to make the concrete's pH match that of natural seawater so that corals and other marine life can grow on the Reef Balls easily. The outside surfaces of the Reef Balls are textured so that coral larvae can easily attach and grow into adult colonies. Even the holes in the sides of the Reef Balls are designed to create whirlpools so that the corals can grow faster since they rely on currents to bring food. Reef Balls have been used in over 3,500 projects worldwide with over 0.5 million Reef Balls deployed in 47 countries. Reef Balls are the most advanced designed reef modular system in the world and have been reef builders' material of choice for over 10 years. Reef Balls can be adapted for a wide variety of reef building needs, but the Antiguan project was the first project to use nearly all of the technologies developed by Reef Ball in a single place.
Casting 24/7 in over 40 complex mold systems using a large variety of specialized techniques such as creating special anchor holes, 'Layer Cake' style reef balls, and 8 different sizes of Reef Balls...building over 2000 Reef Balls in 3 weeks of intensive production and 3600 Reef Balls in 4 months.
