The subject of algae growth is likely one of the most frequently discussed among the freshwater and saltwater aquarium hobbies. Although we know that light and nutrients are key factors affecting the growth of unwanted algae, new research on the purpose of seasnake coloration can now help us better understand why algae grows in some places but not others. For a decade, I have personally noticed that new marine aquariums almost always grow algae on the plastic surfaces of the tank: the pumps, the overflow, the locline and most other plastic surfaces. Concurrently, Justin Credabel has noticed that algae prefers to grow on dark surfaces before lighter ones and in retrospect, I now realize that my observation of algae growth pioneering plastic surfaces also happened to all be black or dark gray. Scientist investigating the coloration of Sea snakes have shown pretty clearly that algae prefers to grow on black and dark surfaces over light ones, and that sea snakes balance the amount of dark color on their bodies. Keep reading to find out how seasnake researchers made this discovery and how this affects marine aquairum know-how.
某些海洋物种的某些人群具有带状的图案，范围从非常轻到非常黑暗，介于两者之间。悉尼大学生物科学学院的进化研究人员Rick Shine和Adele Dr Pile博士想知道为什么颜色模式存在这种差异。Shine and Pile知道，一些海洋的藻类经历了一定程度的生物污染，因此他们制作了非常轻巧，非常黑暗和带状图案的海景模型。研究人员将这些海蛇模仿在中间的水中持续了两个星期，以查看藻类在不同模式上的生长如何不同。颜色不同的海蛇模型表明，藻类优先定居在较深的蛇上，而浅色区域上半彩色的蛇的深色部分。像所有爬行动物一样，海景是冷血的动物，必须从环境中获得体热。由于海蛇活在水中，其焊接比空气快25倍，因此它们经常在表面附近游泳以吸收来自阳光的热量。海洋皮肤的深色有助于吸收热量，但它也鼓励藻类生长，从而降低了游泳速度。由于热量和藻类之间的相互作用，许多海景将差异分开，半白色和半黑。
So what does this mean for out tanks? The first conclusion that I draw from the research is that all of our powerheads, Streams, Korallias and Vortechs, are all colored black and the perfect color to吸引藻类孢子和增加biofouling of these devices. I like to keep my flow devices free and clear to keep flowrates high but I don’t exactly want to have to clean them any more than I have to. I am not advocating for white powerheads and flow devices but if submerged parts could be light to mid gray to reduce biofouling, what a simple change that would be. If you have frag racks, your white eggcrate will reduce algae growth while the black ones will encourage it. Who knows, maybe you想为了种植珊瑚藻，在这种情况下，您应该使用黑色表面。您对这种有关结肠化和藻类增长的新知识所做的事情取决于您，这项研究确实强调了珊瑚礁水族馆的必要性，使水族馆成为来自各个科学领域的跨学科学习者。感谢Justin Credabel提出了这一值得的话题并将这项研究引起我们的注意，可以在此中阅读更多内容科学每日文章。
