ANALYZING HORIZONTAL DISPLACEMENT OF CORAL SEEDING UNITS WHEN SUBJECTED TO VARIOUS CURRENT SPEEDS

In my research, I am exploring the fluid dynamics surrounding coral seeding units. I want to see exactly how they move through the ocean and how the ocean moves around them. After this analysis, I will expand my research to looking at how much force is necessary to move a seeding unit and how the currents affect them when they fall.

Emily '19: News

April 17, 2019

So, the valve on my tank is rusted shut, so most of the tank was able to drain, but there is still some sediment and water remaining at the bottom. My incredibly simple plan is to use a pool skimmer and a water gun to drain the rest as it is fast and accessible to me. Then, I will be able to plug in my flowmeter and heater to make sure that they work and finally, I will be able to begin testing next week! I do not anticipate the testing to take long and I am also going to be working on my manuscript during senior project, so I will have extended time to make poignant edits and prepare a comprehensive presentation for the Wildcat Colloquium in late May this year.

January 10, 2019

December 16, 2018

Over the past semester, I have experienced the nature of the scientific process firsthand. I have had data loss, project changes and many roadblocks on the construction of the project. However, I am happy to say that I finally have a solid plan. I will be testing the horizontal displacement of seeding units when they are dropped in a tank with various current speeds. Right now, I am trying to secure a few older tanks from a lab in Santa Cruz that did work with the flow rate in marshes. I am hoping to reuse these tanks, but if not, I have contacted an aquarium builder in Arizona to ask about the thickness of the acrylic that I would need in order to support about a 6'x8' tank. I am purchasing a flowmeter to measure my varying currents in the tanks more accurately. I am also going to make an Arduino-powered wave maker. In the coming semester, I will be looking at many facets of my project at once and planning on beginning testing, and hopefully the testing will go smoothly, in mid-February and ending in mid-March. I hope to continue my partnership with Cal Academy and reach out and make a connection with the lab in Santa Cruz.

Coming into the New Year, I am almost on track to finish my project and manuscript by late April, which is very exciting! This month, I am awaiting a response from Laird Henkel at the Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center (MWVCRC) in Santa Cruz to see if I am able to use a few tanks that they have available in storage. If this connection does not work out, I am researching making my own metal tank, as the tank does not necessarily need to be clear for me to conduct my project. This is far less expensive and easier to build than an acrylic tank. One of my main concerns with the tank is the thickness. There is no specific equation to determine the thickness of a tank, so I have emailed TRUVU Aquariums, and am following up with them to see if they can help with this issue. I am also ordering a flowmeter to measure how fast the currents in my tank are moving. To create these currents I am researching, different methods to build a simple, Arduino wave maker. My main obstacle here is determining whether a wheel-like structure or an undulating flat piece will be more effective in creating strong and accurate currents. However, once I decide which method I will pursue, the building of the actual device is fairly straightforward thanks to the amazing resource of YouTube. From there I should be on track to begin testing sometime in mid to late February if all goes smoothly.

September 20, 2018

February 12, 2018

Over this past week, I have begun my powerpoint presentation for my proposal. The process is more difficult than I anticipated; it’s hard to put too much text on one slide or make anything too visually distracting. I need to continue to dive into my Coral Husbandry book in preparation.
The next thing on the horizon is working with fellow MARC students, Maia and Brian, to clean out the tank rooms and create a budget proposal that will suit all of our needs for tanks. This process will definitely take some time, but hopefully it will be done not too long after spring break.

February 5, 2018

This week, my coral husbandry book arrived! I have just reading it and I am already learning so much about the intensity of the care that I will have to put in. I also had my Skype call with Alex Goad at the Reef Design Lab in Melbourne, Australia. He was able to provide a practical standpoint since he designs massive reefs and commercially installs them. After talking with him, he helped me realize that my project will probably be most successful if I focus on concrete. It is currently the most common and cheap material for building artificial reefs, but there are also many different kinds. I decided that I am going to vary the pH of the concrete based on how much cement is mixed in to make the concrete. I am very exciting to start researching this area of study. Within this month, I hope to start cleaning out the tank room upstairs in the science building to make room for the tanks and also talking with Shawn Cole, a physics teacher here at Marin Academy, that can help me with my science symposium project.
This week I hope to continue to filling out my applications and make a plan for staying in Marin during summer. Additionally, I really want to look through as many papers as possible this weekend in preparation for more edits to my proposal.

I am excited to be back! This semester I am going to be testing 4 new types of substrates that I was able to get on loan from Dr. Albright at the California Academy of Sciences. I will first be dropping them into the pool and using motion analysis to see the differences in their velocity and acceleration, just to get a baseline test for the motion of the various substrates. Then, I am hoping to test how much force a current must exert on the substrate for it to be disturb. To test this, I am hoping to find a nearby university with a flume I might be able to use for a few days of testing. I am also reading papers on current vectors and getting in touch with one of our physics teachers here at MA, Shawn, about his input on effects of currents.

This has been a slow week. After some telephone tag with the Reef Design Lab in Australia, I have set up a Skype call to talk with them this afternoon. Mostly I have been working on internship applications and sifting through more papers. The coral husbandry book is now on its way and I am excited to get started on reading it.
This week I plan to compile all of my notes and add them to my proposal to finish it. I also hope to start the book and finish at least one of my applications.

January 22, 2018

This past week I have been gathering information to enhance my experimental design. I had a call on Thursday with Dr. Vania Coelho from Dominican University who gave me wonderful tips on how to care for my coral and the realistic scope of my project. I have decided to limit my research to only two substrates so I can have a substantial enough sample size to see real results while still staying within my budget. I have yet to narrow down which substrates since I still need to read more papers, but I now have a very specific project which I want to pursue which should make the process much easier. I also need to analyze the cost of my project as I continue to revise my project proposal. Dr. Coelho taught me that I should also be careful with my expectations since corals are very delicate and can fail easily.

In the upcoming week, I plan to speak with Dr. Dave Lennon and Alex Goad at the Reef Design Lab, but I have yet to set up a call time with them since they are away this week. I hope to ask them more about their published work and their process of design, execution, and success.

January 28, 2018

January 11, 2018

After returning from a three week break, my plan is to continue to revise my research proposal and read more literature. I need to learn more about the exact details and procedure of the limited experiments that have been done with artificial reefs. Looking at the materials of each study will help me better narrow down my options for my testing substrates in the future. I also plan on continuing to reach out to mentors for guidance and begin the process of looking for a place to conduct my experiment and obtain coral. I want to buy and read a coral husbandry book so I know exactly what kind of care my coral will need, which will probably give me a better idea of what kind of coral I want to use as well. I hope to be collaborating with Dr. Vania Coelho to get my coral and continue to learn to care for it.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or thoughts.

Contact Me

March 27, 2019

I can’t believe I only have two weeks left of senior year! Luckily, for my senior project, I will be spending about 2 hours/day working on my project for three weeks. Next class (Thursday), I will finally be able to fully clean out my tank and get my extension cord from the maintenance department. I did my salinity calculations and have realized I need nearly 115 pounds of salt, so I will have to find that. I also need to get a splitter for my extension cord so I can have my heater and wave maker running at the same time, but other than that I should be all ready in terms of materials. I can't wait to start testing after the break.

March 20, 2019

This week, I will be making my final salinity calculations and finishing up working with the maintenance department to find a safe and usable extension cord for my heater and wave maker. Next class, I will also clean out the tank and drain it with a hose. I got a hose adapter since the valve on the tank is very large. I will drain it into our storm drains so as not to contaminate the garden. Then, I will fill the tank and add salt according to my calculations. Not much else is happening right now, but I should be ready to test right after spring break.

March 13, 2019

All of my equipment is on the way! I have my heater and wave maker and am just waiting on my flowmeter. Last class, I figured out the length of the extension cord that I will need to run all of these machines (it's 80 feet) and I am working with the maintenance department to obtain one. Additionally, I have found a hose adapter to empty and clean my tank safely and I am working with our gardener, Gina, to get the appropriate size of hose for that. I was sick and out of school on Monday, but I will be working on calculating the amount of salt I will need for making the correct water salinity.

March 6, 2019

I just arrived back from a week off of school and am excited to jump back into my project! I was in the desert the whole week with no service, so not many large achievements were made, but my various equipment items (including my heater, wave maker, and flowmeter) are on there way. In fact, my heater has just arrived. My next step is to figure out how to clean out the tank without contaminating the garden surrounding it and then the best way to run an extension cord through that area. That should happen in the next week and I then I can finally start to assemble my project as the final pieces fall into place. More on that next week.

February 20, 2019

I am on track to begin testing shortly after minicourse. My current key elements that need to be resolved are the scale models, the heater, the salinity, the top of the tank, and the wave maker. While that is a lot of moving pieces, most of the work will be in the setup and I am confidently ordering the supplies I need. First, I am purchasing a wavemaker (WP 60) from a Japanese company called Jebao. It is an industrial size made for large fish tanks. It will allow me to create at least three different types of waves, including random, which is a key part of my project and will allow me to add another variable to my project. Next class, I will be giving a presentation on illustrating my data and hope to get meaningful feedback from my classmates. I will also be (finally) cutting the top off of my tank, but I first need to email a few on-campus people in order to secure a reliable electrical outlet to plug in the Sawzall. Lastly, controlling the salinity and temperature will take a little bit of tinkering, but purchasing a heater to heat my tank between 73ºF-84ºF (the ideal coral growing temperatures) should not be difficult and I already have plenty of salt to create about a 35 PSU salinity.

February 13, 2019

It's raining here today, so my plan to cut the top off of the tank and wash it will need to be pushed to next week. Instead, today I will be looking into what type of pump I can obtain and how to secure to my tank to create a relatively even flow through the water. I am also working on revising my methods. Since I am pretty new to 3D design, I am having some trouble with mocking up my substrates, so I am working with Sachi to finalize my design and have it printed and weighted next week. I am also able to a significant discount on my flowmeter, so that's really exciting! Other than that, not really any big developments but I am really working hard to be prepared to start testing when I get back from minicourse on March 4.

February 6, 2019

This week I have been working on mocking up one of my substrates in order to make a scale model. Since corals grow in depths of approximately 20 feet, and my tank is 4 feet deep, I will scale my substrates to about ⅕ of their original size. In this case, I will need to expand my end data by the same ratio as well. My tank officially has a home in our science garden here at MA and I will soon be chopping off the top to open up the top. Before I fill it, I am designing a pump system to create my currents, but I will need to clean out the chemicals from the tank first.

January 30, 2019

After a couple of hiccups, the storage tote/tank is in the parking lot here at MA. Over the next few classes, I will be disassembling the top and creating the open format of the tank. I consulted with Sachi, one of the wonderful teachers here at MA, and I have decided to abandon the idea of creating a wave maker in favor of an adjustable pump to create a more regular flow. This way, there is less electronics work involved and my flow will be much for regular. I am also seriously considering downsizing my substrates; 3D printing the substrates at 1/5 of the size, since my tank is about 1/5 of the average depth of the areas where corals grow. I would need to weight the substrates, but theoretically, it would allow me to obtain more accurate results and simply size them up. Since it is almost February, I will soon be creating new goals, and hopefully, start testing in mid to late February.

January 24, 2019

I am getting a tank! This Friday, I will be obtaining a tank from a seller on Craigslist in Benecia. The tank has a total volume of 330 gallons and will be plenty deep enough for me to test my substrates. I am currently looking into constructing an effective Arduino wave maker in order to simulate currents in my tank. I am ordering a flowmeter to measure these currents and will hopefully begin testing in a couple of weeks. Once I get the tank, I will be using a Sawzall to cut off the top of the tank, as it is a repurposed chemical storage tote, to make it have an open container.

I also realized I will probably need to have a wave absorber in order to prevent the waves from reverberating off of the side of the tote and disrupting a laminar current flow.

January 16, 2019

This week, I emailed with Scott Clark at TRUVU Aquariums about how thick I would need my tank walls of acrylic to be to withstand the pressure of filling the tank completely. He answered back that for my desired tank size (about 4'x5'x2'), I would need to obtain 2" thick slabs of acrylic, completely custom-made, which would amount to $4,000-$5,000. With my current budget, I cannot afford to make my own tank, at least not out of acrylic. Currently, I am researching possibly designing a metal tank and using a camera inside of the tank to simply film the drops. Also, I am waiting to hear back from the lab in Santa Cruz and plan on purchasing the flowmeter today! My next step, after securing a tank is to begin creating a prototype for my wave maker, which will likely happen within the next week. Not much else is happening this week, so I will probably have more information next week.