kim journal #1

Some important things I picked up today:

*The male clownfish jumped out of the tank last night.. if we are working on ornamentals we should consider how to prevent jumpers.

*There has been an alkalinity problem recently with alkalinity at around 2meq/L (rather than a more ideal 3.5-4 meq/L). Dave just added about a teaspoon per 20 L of super baking soda (I forget the company)... basically a combo of sodium bicarbonate, carbonate and calcium carbonate.

*The algae problem in the tank has been going on for a number of months. The following measures have been taken to solve the problem:
*Reduction in feeding
*Protein skimmer added to reduce organic materials in the tank
*A number of herbivores have been added to the tank, but nothing currently eats the algae
*This particular algae has been classified, and there are also cyanobacteria involved
*There is a special sea slug out there which probably would help a lot, but it is hard to ship
*Manual removal takes a lot of time and makes the corals angry (as evidenced by how many negative chemicals they give off)

*Shipping will be a big thing that the group will have to think about for a business plan

Group Introduction

This blog was created as a public space for Cornell's Coral aquaculture group to share information about the project. We are working to investigate the possibility of starting a coral farm business, using Cornell owned space, under the direction of Professor Michael Timmons. The group partners with Drew Harvell's lab, which studies disease in corals and manages the World Bank group on coral disease.

The project this semester has a number of objectives:
*chronicle species that are marketable for the aquarium market
*improve the operation of the coral lab
*plan for a larger-scale facility

I know that a blog is probably overdoing it for the needs of this project, but it seems like the easiest way for all of us to stay in touch and be synchonizing what we learned. It also provides a place for us to archive articles that we have found (I don't think we can upload, just cite).

-Kim