A Trip to the Ocean @ Biosphere2

[seawillow]

It shall be interesting to see if you do here anything...

[JohnO]

[quote author=Matt Rogers link=board=General;num=1071478746;start=0#9 date=12/16/03 at 00:52:57]John that would be my first guess too, but seeing it on such a scale kind of knocked me for a loop... any guesses on how they accomplished such a mess?

I wish I knew more!

I wrote somebody at a Columbia, but I haven't heard back.. I'd love to have their perspective.. I gave them two weeks before I posted this thread by the way.

[/quote]

If they are trying to make a completely natural, self sustaining environment then they are fools. It simply can't work, regardless of what they use it will always be artificial and need artificial devices to keep the water quality within reasonable parameters.

In my opinion the bigest hurdle they face is the buid up of Phosphates, which by it's nature is difficult to remove without artificial filtration

Cheers

John

We could turn them in for cruelty to animals....

[Matt Rogers]

heh. Well I just hope they turn it around. That's what I am interested in seeing.

John - good point on phosphates. I wish I could have snagged some water to do tests. Damn. Wish I thought of that!

[Matt Rogers]

Check this out, Bob Goemans lives near Biosphere and he had this to say:

Hi Matt,

Yes, I can see the Biosphere from my home. However, its only two little
white dots as it is about 40 miles away.

As for their "Ocean" if that's what you want to call it, I've tried for
years to reach someone that cares. About five years ago while visiting the
place I met their general manager, who by chance we had met about 5 years
prior to that. We discussed the so called ocean and I explained my ideas
for correcting it. I know those ideas were transmitted upwards, but
apparently went no further. Then just last year while flying to New York,
just happen to be sitting next to the Columbia University (CU)
President(Owner of the place). After introducing myself, I presented my
thoughts about the "Ocean" which were received with some interest. However,
I believe CU has now sold the place and I'm not sure what its current
status is now.

And as this date 12/03, that 'ocean' has not looked any different for at
least the past five years! Shame on them!

Cheers,
Bob Goemans

[Craig Manoukian]

It's a real bummer that's for sure!

[karlas]

it does look like hair alge but also it kinda seems to me theres a major cyano problem some of it looks pretty red. that tank definitly needs intervention. let us at it well fix it

[inwall75]

Yikes!!! You aren't kidding Matt. That's absolutely amazing. I don't believe I would be giving tours in that condition.

I'm sorry your trip was a bummer.

[sihaya]

Wait... is this the algae turf scrubber I've heard so much about? lol

[inwall75]

Yes it would be. It incorporated dump buckets and turf algaes over a screen to remove Nitrates and Phosphates from the water column in the main tank.

It would appear that some of the algae made it into the display tank.