An octopus's garden...in the shade

[seasteading]

It seems quite likely that our large sea-cities will be free-floating, for various reasons. First, there are not very many seamounts to anchor to in international waters (> 200nm from any place a rock sticks its nose above water). Second, the need for an exit from unhappy nation-neighbors and the dictates of dynamic geography to be modular

Comments

[denshi]

I assume you already know the link between iron oxide and plankton blooms? Rusting iron containers gives you much of the nutrient lack.

[coliningus]

For many types of reefs, nutrient poor is good. In the home reef aquarium much of the fight to get stony corals to grow is getting nitrates, phosphates and silicates to as close to zero as possible. As long as the water is fairly warm and there is a ton of sun, it seems like it would go well. In fact, breeding of exotic fish might be a neat way to make some extra money on a seastead.