Help Dana help the reefs and help Dana help you!

revhtree · Jul 5, 2017

Hey R2R members take a look at this and consider donating! This is good for the hobby and good for us as a community since @Dana Riddle is now a contributing expert here and will be sharing results from the lab!

https://www.gofundme.com/coral-research-laboratory

From the GFM Page:
With the coral reefs of the world under various stressors, studies of their responses is most easily done in artificial environments where physical and chemical parameters are easily manipulated. My small laboratory has recently moved, and finishing the laboratory has exceeded my budget of $4500. Once completed, the lab will allow cutting edge experiments involving instruments (which I have already purchased out of my pocket) and techniques such as UV/VIS/IR spectroscopy, PAM fluorometry, chlorophyll analyses, water quality analyses through colorimetry, and so on. Results will be published on various online publications, which allows free access to those interested throughout the world. Credit will be given to each donor in every publication. The lab, ideally, would be completed within several months' time. I have a 35-year background in water analyses, and have been purchasing laboratory equipment for the last 26 years. Now retired, I need some assistance in getting the laboratory completed. Items would include cabinets, plumbing and electrical upgrades, and general finishing of the 800 square foot facility. Thank you for your consideration!

revhtree · Jul 6, 2017

Bump for the morning crowd!

Dana Riddle · Jul 6, 2017

Thanks for posting this! Let me add some details... I've always purchased equipment out of my own pocket and made sure I could make an instrument pay for itself through small amounts paid by writing. In Hawaii, I had the lab but not enough time to pursue all the experiments I had in mind. Now that I'm retired and back on the mainland, I have access to corals that were not obtainable in Hawaii. I have the equipment and the time, but the lab is not complete and will not be for some time at the current pace (the finishing of the lab is pay-as-you-go out of my pocket. I've paid for the HVAC installation and a couple of other smaller projects.) Realizing completion is months, if not a year away, I swallowed my stubborn pride and asked for assistance. I have a great number of projects in mind - effects of nutrients on rate of photosynthesis (PAM fluorometry), impacts of various factors on coral coloration (metals, nutrients, etc. as measured by Ocean Optics fiber optic spectrometers), effects of nutrients on coral bleaching recovery (preliminary work completed), determination of water velocity on photosynthesis in strongly branching corals (PAM fluorometry, electronic water velocity measurement), and so on. I would always consider performing experiments suggested by stakeholders if a proper experimental protocol can be established. These experiments can take up to a year to complete. The results will be published on the internet and would be free of charge to review. It isn't much, but I will list every donor at the end of every article published. Thanks for any consideration you can give to this matter!

kireek · Jul 6, 2017

How wonderful! I hope that you can do some research on coral pest sometime.Best of luck with your endeavour!

Dana Riddle · Jul 7, 2017

kireek said:
How wonderful! I hope that you can do some research on coral pest sometime.Best of luck with your endeavour!

Go to Advanced Aquarist and use the search function to find articles I've written on red bugs, black bugs, parasitic copepods, and nudibranchs. At least 6 articles, if poor memory serves me.

kireek · Jul 7, 2017

Dana Riddle said:
Go to Advanced Aquarist and use the search function to find articles I've written on red bugs, black bugs, parasitic copepods, and nudibranchs. At least 6 articles, if poor memory serves me.

I will check those out.Thank you!

Mike&Terry · Jul 7, 2017

We made a donation yesterday. Glad to see the campaign is off to a GREAT start!

revhtree · Jul 7, 2017

Already close to the goal!

Sistawolf · Jul 7, 2017

This is awesome! Over the goal now! Good luck! I'm excited for you. It never hurts to ask for help sometimes..

Dana Riddle · Jul 8, 2017

Mike&Terry said:
We made a donation yesterday. Glad to see the campaign is off to a GREAT start!

Thanks again Terry and Mike! The fundraiser is going well and their have been many offers of equipment donations and services (not the least of these is ICP testing.) The number of experiments now possible has exploded over the last few days - thanks to supporters like y'all (I'm slipping back into my southern roots now that I'm back in Georgia

Dana Riddle · Jul 8, 2017

Sistawolf said:
This is awesome! Over the goal now! Good luck! I'm excited for you. It never hurts to ask for help sometimes..

Thanks! I thought I might have gotten a couple hundred dollars (which would have been greatly appreciated!)

stevieduk · Jul 8, 2017

revhtree said:
Hey R2R members take a look at this and consider donating! This is good for the hobby and good for us as a community since @Dana Riddle is now a contributing expert here and will be sharing results from the lab!

https://www.gofundme.com/coral-research-laboratory

From the GFM Page:
With the coral reefs of the world under various stressors, studies of their responses is most easily done in artificial environments where physical and chemical parameters are easily manipulated. My small laboratory has recently moved, and finishing the laboratory has exceeded my budget of $4500. Once completed, the lab will allow cutting edge experiments involving instruments (which I have already purchased out of my pocket) and techniques such as UV/VIS/IR spectroscopy, PAM fluorometry, chlorophyll analyses, water quality analyses through colorimetry, and so on. Results will be published on various online publications, which allows free access to those interested throughout the world. Credit will be given to each donor in every publication. The lab, ideally, would be completed within several months' time. I have a 35-year background in water analyses, and have been purchasing laboratory equipment for the last 26 years. Now retired, I need some assistance in getting the laboratory completed. Items would include cabinets, plumbing and electrical upgrades, and general finishing of the 800 square foot facility. Thank you for your consideration!

Hello Dana , you are just the qualified person Im needing to ask a question of.
We keep hearing about the coral bleaching on the barrier reef due to higher water temperatures, which kills or severely weakens the algae in the coral. My question is , with science these days, would it not be possible to extract some of the algae from the coral , genetically modify it so that it lived in warmer water and then replace it back into the coral ?

maroun.c · Jul 8, 2017

Thanks for all your contributions to the hobby. Very happy to hear the donations are getting close and can't wait to see the lab in action. I'm from Lebanon from the middle east and it was a nice surprise to see donations coming in from Dubai and Saudi Arabia... countries that so far were off the reefkeeping maps and which I'm sure will soon be a highlight in reefing as I see the hobby progress in this part of the world. This is only to state how far your work have gone.

Sharvey103 · Jul 8, 2017

Just made a donation. Please let us know where and when you publish.

Daniel@R2R · Jul 8, 2017

Saturday bump!

Dana Riddle · Jul 8, 2017

stevieduk said:
Hello Dana , you are just the qualified person Im needing to ask a question of.
We keep hearing about the coral bleaching on the barrier reef due to higher water temperatures, which kills or severely weakens the algae in the coral. My question is , with science these days, would it not be possible to extract some of the algae from the coral , genetically modify it so that it lived in warmer water and then replace it back into the coral ?

This is actually being investigated (I *think* there was some work done in Hawaii)... The most temperature-tolerant zooxanthellae clade known is Symbiodinium thermophilium and it is only slightly different from some of the zoox found in corals commonly kept in our aquaria. With that said, there are some opposing any genetic modifications, even if results are favorable.

Dana Riddle · Jul 8, 2017

Sharvey103 said:
Just made a donation. Please let us know where and when you publish.

Thank you! The contractor will be here Monday, much earlier than I thought. Still, I will put as much 'sweat equity' into the project as I can in order to maximize return (and it will get the lab up and running sooner!)

Dana Riddle · Jul 8, 2017

maroun.c said:
Thanks for all your contributions to the hobby. Very happy to hear the donations are getting close and can't wait to see the lab in action. I'm from Lebanon from the middle east and it was a nice surprise to see donations coming in from Dubai and Saudi Arabia... countries that so far were off the reefkeeping maps and which I'm sure will soon be a highlight in reefing as I see the hobby progress in this part of the world. This is only to state how far your work have gone.

Thank you for your kind words (and donation!)