[Coral-List] Artificial reef - cement or metallic /w electrical stimulation?

[Bill Allison]

Hi Philippe,
You might want to consider:

1. Production of both concrete (reef balls) and steel (electro reef) have
large carbon footprints.

Transport of materials and transport and emplacement of the structures also
produce carbon dioxide and heat.

I have not seen a cost-benefit incorporating these considerations.



2. Re. electric current approach.

A negative current will draw cations and a positive current will draw
anions.

Presumably the Ca2+ and Mg2+ are of interest but there are other cations
out there.
The area becomes supersaturated with cations and whatever is in the
vicinity will be precipitated.
The amorphous mass formed is mostly brucite and unlikely to crystalize.

Good luck,
Bill


On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 7:24 AM, Philippe Sanchez <pipobs at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've been looking at some artificial reef projects, specifically in the
> UAE. Reef balls seem to be quite popular. A friend recently told me about
> increasing growth and survival rate by applying a small electrical current
> (I'd never heard of this before). I read the paper (Goreau, T.J. 2014) and
> it seems very promising. I wondered why this wasn't more well known??
> Perhaps it's too expensive for people to set up?
>
> Does anyone here have any experience working with such a project or can
> give some insight on the pros and cons of this innovative method?
>
> Thanks!
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