What is biofouling?
Biofouling is the accumulation of marine organisms, including algae, barnacles, and microorganisms, on surfaces underwater. This buildup can negatively impact performance, efficiency, and structural integrity.
What is antifouling?
Antifouling, in contrast, encompasses the methods, technologies, and various coatings used to prevent or reduce the accumulation of biofouling. In simple terms, biofouling is the issue, while antifouling provides the solutions designed to mitigate it.
Does biofouling happen just in seawater
Biofouling can occur in all types of water. This includes freshwater and seawater. Wherever there are moisture and a supply of microorganisms, surfaces can become taken over with by bacteria, algae, and other organisms.
How does biofouling affect water quality monitoring?
Biofouling can significantly affect water quality monitoring by accumulating on sensors and equipment, which interferes with measurement accuracy and reliability. The buildup can block sensor surfaces, distort readings for key parameters leading to inaccurate water conditions. It can also contribute to drift, reducing data consistency and increasing the need for maintenance.
It is therefore essential to have effective anti-fouling to improve data integrity and accuracy but also to reduce site visits and running costs.
How can you ensure biofouling does not affect water quality monitoring
To prevent biofouling from affecting water quality monitoring, it is essential to use effective antifouling design and cleaning technologies that protect sensor accuracy and reduce maintenance.
Next-generation anti-fouling
The proSONDE delivers superior antifouling performance that far exceeds any of its competitors through a combination of advanced design and intelligent features.
This gives you reliable data with lower maintenance requirements.
proSONDE’s Big 4 unique Antifouling features
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1. Flush Mounted Sensors
All of our sensors are flush mounted, including conductivity and pH. This means there are no gaps, crevices or awkward angles/faces that can cause fouling hotspots. By having one continuous flat surface it ensures that the wiper can effectively clean every part of the proSONDE face.
2. Copper Bulkhead
Our unique copper bulkhead ensures that the voids in between all of the sensors will never be fouled. Copper with its biocidal properties, will inhibit the growth and attachment of microorganisms, algae, and small marine organisms. When exposed to water, copper releases ions that are toxic to many fouling species at a microscopic level, preventing them from settling. This creates a protective zone around the equipment, reducing build-up, maintaining sensor accuracy, and extending sensor life with less frequent maintenance.
3. Copper Guard
To further inhibit any biofouling, the replaceable copper mesh within the guard will slowly oxidise to release copper ions around the measurement space preventing microscopic fouling species from inhabiting the measurement space and sensors. The integral mesh aperture is smaller than the self-draining sediment port in the bottom of the guard which ensures that the guard will never fill with sediment. Furthermore, this same copper mesh can also be utilised within the standard proSONDE flow cell.
4. Fully Programmable Smart Wiper
Perhaps the cleverest anti-fouling feature is the proSONDE’s wiper; which is no ordinary wiper. It is fully programmable for direction, speed, rotations and even arc angles that can be used as a scrub function. Furthermore, with a planned firmware update the onboard machine-learning module will also allow the wiper to intelligently wipe the sensors based on fouling rates, sensor types or user preference.
