What is the criteria for growing coral?
For a design to be effective their is some basic criteria that need to be considered when creating your scaffold form, the growing criteria listed below is the generalisation of the most common conditions needed to grow a majority of coral species I’ve also include one of my own rough sketch’s of dendrophylliidae coral that I’ve adapted to act as a growing plate for nursing coral to give visual demonstration of how some of the species can be adapted.
Sunlight: Corals need to grow in shallow water where sunlight can reach them. Corals also depends on the algae (or more precisely zooxanthellae) that grow inside of them for oxygen and other things, and since these algae needs sunlight to survive, corals also need sunlight to survive. Corals rarely develop in water deeper than 50 meters. So your design should factor in how all sides will be able to get just enough light.
Clear water: Corals need clear water that lets sunlight through; they don’t thrive well when the water is opaque or cloudy. Sediment and plankton can cloud water, which decreases the amount of sunlight that reaches the needed algae. Can your design function in anyway that will prevent it from being effected by cloudy water.
Clean water: Corals are sensitive to pollution and sediments. Sediment can create cloudy water and be deposited on corals, blocking out the sun and harming the polyps. Wastewater discharged into the ocean near the reef can contain too many nutrients that cause seaweeds to overgrow the reef. Is it possible in anyway for you to have an external or attachment on your form that could protect the nursing coral form this impact.
Saltwater: Corals need saltwater to survive and require a certain balance in the ratio of salt to water. This is why corals don’t live in areas where rivers drain fresh water into the ocean (“estuaries”). This can effect what you might propose to make your design out of as some materials can’t withstand being submerged in saltwater for too long so how will this effect your design is you can’t use most natural materials.
Warm water temperature: Reef-building corals require warm water conditions to survive. Different corals living in different regions can withstand various temperature fluctuations. However, corals generally live in water temperatures of 20–32° C. Although this doesn’t appear to have much of an effect on most materials or design functions it could have an impact on your choice of bonding agents such as exproxy resin and other adhesives.