The Global Coral RepositoryMr. Don Meeks
Engineer

“Donald Meeks is a Master plumber, electrician, carpenter, and blacksmith. He has lived most of his life at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. His skills, experience and ingenuity have been invaluable to creating the operational aquaculture and facility infrastructure of the GCR. He has designed innovative aquarium tank systems that allow for high density coral populations. These tank systems were also designed to allow for coral survival if power were lost for more than three days. He has also redesigned the concept of a refugium, creating much more efficient refugiums that can handle the increased eutrophic load of culturing corals at high density. He designed and tested culture substrates that increase coral growth rates by 600% (compared to commercially available substrates), as well as a high-volume production process for these substrates. Many of coral maintenance tools we now use in our coral aquaculture protocols he invented and built. For example, he invented a vacuum filtration system that “spot” removes tank debris in our high density tanks. Finally, Donald built a coral transport system that resulted in 100% survival of coral during three days of transport. The coral arrived at their destination stress free.

Donald is a fan of Blue Grass Music, and has a new found passion for gourmet restaurants and cafes.”