Electricity zaps corals back to life

[Myka]

"The metal structures submerged in the bay off Bali's northwestern shore are fed by cables that send waves of low-voltage electricity, which spurs the coral to revive itself. "

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...oral-pictures/

[burrows14]

Wow! thats awesome!!! I wish i had my diving certificate Ive always wanted to travel there

[Haloreef]

Yes I remember seing this on TV a couple of years ago and wondered if it would have a hobby aplication. But electricity seems to really like me... and it hurts too. So I will leave it to some one else to play with.
kEITH.

[danny zubot]

This reminds me of the time my light ended up in the tank. I came home to a dark, rust colored reef with 250 watt flowing through it. (the breaker didn't trip) Everything survived, even the fish. So now I'm wondering if I should drop a 9 volt cord into me tank to see if my corals explode! One way or another something would explode for sure.

[muck]

AHA!!!
Marie, you must have a current leak into your tank causing your SPS growth to explode!!

[Atomikk]

This is quite similar in principle as the BioRock project.

http://www.biorock.net/
http://blog.fragd.it/2008/05/10/bior...roject-part-1/
http://blog.fragd.it/2008/05/13/bio-...roject-part-2/

It is a very unique method of accelerating growth in stoney coral species.

[StirCrazy]

I hate it when reporters can't be bothered to do enough research to make there articles true. the electricity doesn't zap them back to life or cause them to rejuvenate themselves. It is the same principle that fishermen use with there black box, by inducing a low voltage/current signal into there metal lines it can actually attract the fish.

there was a bit thing on coral balls years ago, these were ball shaped steel grids, by running the power through them it attracted free floating coral larvae and because the electricity effectively neutralizes the inherent electrical signature of the steel when in water it becomes a hospitable place for coral to grow.

Now they could have said metal grids running electricity are revitalizing or zapping the "reefs" back to life. as this is true, many coral spawn that would just float away and die are no colonizing the grids, causing an increase in growth density in the areas. there is some research that you can actually create a better environment for growth this way also.

Steve