What do you think about 3 d printed coral reefs?

[CuzzA]

So, my buddy has created a reef for aquaculturing live rock for aquariums. He dumped a million pounds of quarried limestone rocks on to the site which was nothing but a barren sand desert.

It's now a thriving reef ecosystem growing coral, sponges, gorgs, tunicates, crabs, fish, you name it.

The process was typically pretty slow for new rock to acquire life at an acceptable rate for sale, usually a year or two, until this year we dumped 40,000 pounds of man made rock. The rock is produced in Fiji, by Walt Smith International. The rock attracted life at an amazing rate. It was ready for harvest in 6 months or less. Mind blowing. We wondered why. Well, we theorize it has to do with volcanic sand they are using to produce the rock. After all, that is what many islands and atolls are made from, volcanos.

So, if you want to create an artificial reef. Find some hard bottom at the correct depth where the proper amount of light will reach the coral and start dumping 10's of thousands of pounds of Walt's rock and sit back and wait. If you're impatient you could frag corals and epoxy them to the rock.

Before you know it, you'll have created a reef. It may even look natural in 20 years.

 

[Z Gear]

Coral polyps don't have to settle on other coral. Actually they won't survive if they do, the established colony will kill and/or eat them!

The 3d printed coral look cool, but that is likely the only major benefit. Most artificial reefs are not designed to replicate a living coral reef, but rather to add additional substrate, foraging areas and habitat to hide in. In fact putting artificial reefs too close to natural reefs is detrimental to the natural reef and the artificial reef doesn't work as well either. "Too close" is very dependent on site specifics though.

What the printed structures are made of is another issue altogether.

-Chris

Wow, I did not know that. I guess that is why I wanted others to chime in on this especially those who are educated in this field. It looked to me that this was very promising and another possible solution besides fragging.

 

[drrich2]

We have a model for this; dead coral, like bleached dead staghorn coral stands. In nature, what happens over time to dead hard coral remains? How often does the same kind of coral begin anew from it due to random floating colonization?

 

[Z Gear]

We have a model for this; dead coral, like bleached dead staghorn coral stands. In nature, what happens over time to dead hard coral remains? How often does the same kind of coral begin anew from it due to random floating colonization?

My thinking was that if an oasis was created with attractive/healthy looking coral, That looked and felt like real coral. Which means it would have to have right surfaces (pitted or orifices) that were designed for coral polyps. In addition let the fish and other creatures do there part in this new neighborhood, I am pretty sure that if they are attracted to this reef that eventually life will find it's way.

We are facing a major problem with our reefs so I believe all ideas should be tried and tested. Since technology has given us the ability to do this, why not explore it all the way, and try make a connection with nature. My thoughts on this might seem pretty basic and perhaps simplified, but my intuition still tells me that we should keep pursuing this.

Frank G
www.zgear.com

 

[Scuba-Blue-13]

I've kept reef tanks for many years, am very familiar with Walt Smith's rock as I believe it is the only live rock allowed to be exported from Fiji anymore. Fiji was always the premiere rock in the hobby.

Keep in mind when looking at bleached corals in the ocean that it's not always dead. When a coral becomes stressed it expels it's Zooxanthellae (which is what gives it it's color) in order to try to survive. Many times (at least in the aquarium hobby) a completely bleached coral will return to it's normal shape/size/color after the conditions have been improved which caused it's initial stress.

The solution to saving our reefs is not printing fake reefs, aquaculture, or fragging (not yet anyhow; aquaculture and fragging would be steps 2 & 3) the solution is to clean up the environment in which the corals live first. The ocean's PH levels have been fluctuating for years as a result of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a by-product of us, our automobiles, our urban expansion (cutting down too many trees which convert CO2 to O2), ocean dumping, and other air pollution.

Society's life expectancy has nearly tripled in the last 200 years, the world's population is now over 7 billion people whereas 200 years ago it was less than 1 billion. (https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth/); that is a lot of extra people adding a lot of extra crap to the environment.

The oceans and reefs are sensitive to changes, a very harmonically balanced ecosystem, a small disruption to that balance can take a very long time for the ocean to stabilize and re-balance. Unfortunately it often becomes a lot like dominoes, one thing goes wrong, leads to something else going wrong, leads to many other things going wrong, leads to coral bleaching, die off, and loss of the reef ecosystem.

Unfortunately there are no quick fixes, it will be a long drawn out, slow process that will require shifting thought processes, behaviors, and human understanding/caring to happen.

 

[tursiops]

I've kept reef tanks for many years, am very familiar with Walt Smith's rock as I believe it is the only live rock allowed to be exported from Fiji anymore. Fiji was always the premiere rock in the hobby.

Keep in mind when looking at bleached corals in the ocean that it's not always dead. When a coral becomes stressed it expels it's Zooxanthellae (which is what gives it it's color) in order to try to survive. Many times (at least in the aquarium hobby) a completely bleached coral will return to it's normal shape/size/color after the conditions have been improved which caused it's initial stress.

The solution to saving our reefs is not printing fake reefs, aquaculture, or fragging (not yet anyhow; aquaculture and fragging would be steps 2 & 3) the solution is to clean up the environment in which the corals live first. The ocean's PH levels have been fluctuating for years as a result of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a by-product of us, our automobiles, our urban expansion (cutting down too many trees which convert CO2 to O2), ocean dumping, and other air pollution.

Society's life expectancy has nearly tripled in the last 200 years, the world's population is now over 7 billion people whereas 200 years ago it was less than 1 billion. (https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth/); that is a lot of extra people adding a lot of extra crap to the environment.

The oceans and reefs are sensitive to changes, a very harmonically balanced ecosystem, a small disruption to that balance can take a very long time for the ocean to stabilize and re-balance. Unfortunately it often becomes a lot like dominoes, one thing goes wrong, leads to something else going wrong, leads to many other things going wrong, leads to coral bleaching, die off, and loss of the reef ecosystem.

Unfortunately there are no quick fixes, it will be a long drawn out, slow process that will require shifting thought processes, behaviors, and human understanding/caring to happen.

Yes. This.
But meanwhile, lots of well-meaning or greedy folks can make a lot of money off of schemes that don't add value, but just waste time and money.

 

[Z Gear]

I've kept reef tanks for many years, am very familiar with Walt Smith's rock as I believe it is the only live rock allowed to be exported from Fiji anymore. Fiji was always the premiere rock in the hobby.

Keep in mind when looking at bleached corals in the ocean that it's not always dead. When a coral becomes stressed it expels it's Zooxanthellae (which is what gives it it's color) in order to try to survive. Many times (at least in the aquarium hobby) a completely bleached coral will return to it's normal shape/size/color after the conditions have been improved which caused it's initial stress.

The solution to saving our reefs is not printing fake reefs, aquaculture, or fragging (not yet anyhow; aquaculture and fragging would be steps 2 & 3) the solution is to clean up the environment in which the corals live first. The ocean's PH levels have been fluctuating for years as a result of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a by-product of us, our automobiles, our urban expansion (cutting down too many trees which convert CO2 to O2), ocean dumping, and other air pollution.

Society's life expectancy has nearly tripled in the last 200 years, the world's population is now over 7 billion people whereas 200 years ago it was less than 1 billion. (https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth/); that is a lot of extra people adding a lot of extra crap to the environment.

The oceans and reefs are sensitive to changes, a very harmonically balanced ecosystem, a small disruption to that balance can take a very long time for the ocean to stabilize and re-balance. Unfortunately it often becomes a lot like dominoes, one thing goes wrong, leads to something else going wrong, leads to many other things going wrong, leads to coral bleaching, die off, and loss of the reef ecosystem.

Unfortunately there are no quick fixes, it will be a long drawn out, slow process that will require shifting thought processes, behaviors, and human understanding/caring to happen.

But I have also heard that extreme rise in water temperature is also a major reason for the beaching effect on corals.
Is this not true?

 

[Scuba-Blue-13]

The ocean temperatures are increasing, this is true. The ocean temperature is rising as a result of carbon dioxide increases, the "green house gases" which are trapping heat and leading to global warming.

I did find it interesting however, that they are not increasing as rapidly as some would have you believe either. According to Nat Geo, the oceans surface temperature has only increase about .18 degrees F over the last century. That's 18/100 of a degree. (Sea Temperature Rise -- Pristine Seas -- National Geographic)

Now I do not claim to be a scientist, just someone with very detailed experience growing coral in a controlled environment. In my experience, I have found most corals to be a lot hardier than previously understood. While some are extremely sensitive to temperature and salinity changes, most adapt and continue to do well and grow with prolonged, slow adjustments. Some are even capable of surviving extreme rapid changes to temperature and salinity. I've even seen large coastal reefs that stick up out of the water throughout most of low tide everyday, so the coral is being exposed to direct sunlight and air.

I truly believe the issue has more to do with the acidity of the ocean, fluctuating PH and alkalinity levels, and damage being directly caused by human beings i.e. pollution, carelessness, ornamental harvesting, etc.

 

[chrisch]

The ocean temperatures are increasing, this is true. The ocean temperature is rising as a result of carbon dioxide increases, the "green house gases" which are trapping heat and leading to global warming.

I did find it interesting however, that they are not increasing as rapidly as some would have you believe either. According to Nat Geo, the oceans surface temperature has only increase about .18 degrees F over the last century. That's 18/100 of a degree. ....

Be careful with aggregate figures for the entire ocean. Corals are hard hit by rises that are local to them. Sea temperature has dropped in some places (where more melt water cools the ocean)

This from the EPA. Figure 2 shows distribution.

Climate Change Indicators: Sea Surface Temperature | Climate Change Indicators in the United States | US EPA

 

[Z Gear]

Be careful with aggregate figures for the entire ocean. Corals are hard hit by rises that are local to them. Sea temperature has dropped in some places (where more melt water cools the ocean)

This from the EPA. Figure 2 shows distribution.

Climate Change Indicators: Sea Surface Temperature | Climate Change Indicators in the United States | US EPA

Yeah I was referring to the rise especially along those affected areas. The pattern is much to obvious.

Another interesting fact that I just looked into is that some of these 3D coral reef experiments are being done by very well known and respected folks like Fabien Cousteau. I would have to allow some validity to the efforts of people like him, and their decision to pursue the mating of technology with nature.

Fabien Cousteau Helps to Bring 3D Printed Coral Reefs to the Caribbean

Frank G
www.zgearinc.com