New Algae Scrubbers

Since I've been working on the new scrubber, I've not done much with the 25 nano model. So if anyone would like to test, build, and market it, I could sell you the patent application and you could take it over. It is a U.S. PPA which expires March 7, 2012. You would then file your own U.S. NPA.

 

"Assessing Evidence of Phase Shifts from Coral to Macroalgal Dominance on Coral Reefs"
Ecological Society of America, June 2009
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"Our database included 3,581 quantitative surveys of 1,851 coral reefs (or sites) performed between 1996 and 2006. Our analysis was based on quantitative surveys that measured the percentage of the substratum covered by living coral and fleshy or calcareous macroalgae between 1 and 15 meters depth."

[A simplified version of Table 1]

Caribbean -- Corals: 20%, Algae: 23%
Florida Keys -- Corals: 8%, Algae: 15%
Indo-Pacific -- Corals: 33%, Algae: 12%
Great Barrier Reef -- Corals: 31%, Algae: 9% "

"Overall, our results indicate that there is no general recent trend (i.e., post-1995) toward macroalgal dominance."

"Macroalgal cover on these 'pristine' reefs is similar to the regional averages for three of our four study regions, suggesting that macroalgal cover may currently be close to the historical baseline across most the world."

"Macroalgal cover and coral cover are widely assumed to be causally linked and inversely related. Yet we found only weak negative relationships between coral and macroalgal cover. Surprisingly, macroalgal cover has not increased appreciably on most of the world’s reefs that have very low coral cover. For example, 379 of the 1,851 reefs had less than 10% coral cover, but macroalgal cover was also low (less than 20%) on nearly two thirds of these reefs. In fact, more than half the benthic cover on reefs in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Oceans consists of organisms other than hard corals and macroalgae, possibly because other taxa, such as sponges and gorgonians, have been the primary beneficiaries of coral loss."

 

Study shows that corals prefer to grow when they actually touch turf algae

Note: Scrubbers are supposed to grow green hair, which is not covered in this study. But many people still think that scrubbers grow turf, and this study does include the amount of microbes related to turf. Brackets "[ ]" added.


"Microbial to reef scale interactions between the reef-building coral Montastraea annularis and benthic algae", Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, Nov 2011
Microbial to reef scale interactions between the reef-building coral Montastraea annularis and benthic algae


Page 2, Col 1, (a)

"This study was conducted on the island of Curacao, former Netherlands Antilles"

Page 4, Col 2, (b)...

The [...] coral-associated bacterial communities increased in tissues near [coralline] and [dictyota], but decreased for coral tissue adjacent to [halimeda] or turf algae.

Page 5, Col 1...

We found [anaerobic microbes] present in coral tissue near or at interfaces with three of the four groups of algae: 8.5 percent relative abundance at [coralline] interfaces; 2.2 percent relative abundance near [dictyota] interfaces, 2 percent relative abundance near [halimeda] interfaces; but absent near and at interfaces with turf algae.

Page 5, Col 2, (c)...

Every coral colony observed [on the natural Curacao reef] was interacting with at least one type of alga, with an average of 61 to 80 percent of the coral perimeter involved in any type of algal interaction. Interactions with turf algae were the most abundant, accounting for 32 to 58 percent of the coral edge. [In other words, the corals grew this way, touching the algae, naturally. And more of them grew and reproduced while actually touching turf algae, than grew anywhere else.]

Page 7, Col 1...

This study is the first to identify the types of bacteria present along coral-algal interactions, and we find that bacterial stress response pathways were reduced at coral interfaces with [coralline], [dictyota] and turf algae.

 

New scrubber update: The new design will not require a slot in the pipe. If you have not built one yet, and you have trouble with DIY, then you might wait for the new DIY plans to be posted; there should be no hard-to-cut pieces (like a slot), at least for the very simple versions.

 

Here is a comparison of the types of bulbs to use:

 

I have a lot of catch up here to do. Wow.
Love the last pic. Keep up the good work!

matt

 

I love these things too cool

 

You are just driving me crazy waiting!!! I'm dying to see this new scrubber.

 

Less than 2 weeks until the new design is posted...