Fig. 2.

Apparatus for buoyant weight determination of entire coral colonies in the field: the laboratory balance (1) is positioned within an acrylic glass housing (2). On the bottom of the housing, a pressure compensation cylinder (3) is mounted and filled with air. A plastic-coated copper wire (4) extends the underfloor weighing hook and holds the transplanted coral (5) during the weighing procedure. The housing is placed on top of a large cube (6), made of an aluminum-frame with acrylic glass walls and leaving enough space for manipulating the coral. To minimize disturbance during weighing, a removable front plate (7) is mounted on the cube with stainless steel screws on the frame and pear-shaped holes in the plate (8). Lead weights (9) on top of the cube stabilized the apparatus.