aquarium research project

[LekicINC]

hello all,
I take care of the marine bio lab and the prof. has asked me to do an independent research project. It is a small 1 credit assignment. Does anyone have any suggestions, its really wide open.

Thanks

[sir_dudeguy]

you mean like a science project?

if so...maybe you could do something like get a 10g tank...use it as a central sump (meaning there are other systems hooked up to it) and put like 3 different 2 gallon tanks or something connected to it...this way they all have the same exact water so that wouldnt be a variable...but then put different lights on each one and put like...idk...xenia from the same exact colony in each one. Then since you'e got dif. lights just find out which one grows the best coral color/size/etc...

pretty simple i know lol, but its all i could think of

[sir_dudeguy]

or maybe you could do something w/foods. I remember when i was in like 7th grade (ya i know...really simple lol) i got 3 seperate 2 gallon tanks and had 3 goldfish in each of them (the feeder goldfish). Tank one i fed regular tropical fish food...tank 2 was goldfish food, and tank 3 was bloodworms or something...couldnt remember.

But anywasy, after a couple weeks, the ones on golfish flake stayed the same, the ones on tropical food all grew black spot patterns, and the ones on the bloodworms were just fatties lol. they were all fed the same, same water, bla bla bla...you get the point...

[LekicINC]

thanks sirdude, I actually may be thinking along the lines of something that simple even though it is for undergrad college work! I would like to do something that has not been tested yet. I was thinking perhaps doing something with starfish preference in harlequin shrimp. I really like the xenia idea.

The only necessity is that it can be done in the lab, and it is relatively cheap, meaning I dont think I could use metal halides for growing any corals...but perhaps I could look at spectum and kelvin rating?

Thanks agian,
any more

[sir_dudeguy]

oh, i wasnt even thinkin of metal halides lol. I was thinkin more one of those coralife 50/50 mini pc's that screw into a clamp lamp, one bulb that is the same wattage but just 10K and another one that is 65K...but that would prolly be pretty hard to find those 3 lights in the same exact size bulb, wattage and everything...

but ya you could do K rating. Observe how the corals grow under dif. K rating of the same intensity light...i already know what will happen tho lol. Ones under 65K will grow faster but less color...10K will give more color but less growth.

Or maybe you could do something w/algae??? See what levels of what cause algae to grow most. That could be done easier imo. Get like 12 one gallon containers and put them in different groups of like 4. Then try and get like the nitrates in one group up to a certain level, the phosphates in another group a certain level, and then maybe in another get BOTH up to a certain level...keep the same light on all of them for the same time period and same distance from the tank, etc...

[sir_dudeguy]

and ya srry i knew it wsa for college or something lol. Just the best i could think of off the top of my head

[hansmatt]

along the xenia line...there seems to be a debate about water quality preference for xenia. Maybe you could run to identical tanks with a light bioload (a few chromis or something in each), same initial water quality, but run one with no skimming and one with. You could use identical xenia quite easily and avoid the genetic variation. Rack the xenia in same position, with same flow etc. Find a way to quantify the water quality with reg. parameters and figure out a way to measure organic solids that are skimmed.not skimmed.

[LekicINC]

That xenia idea sounds very interesting. I have two questions
How to ensure identical water quality without connecting the systems. And how to quantify the organic matter that is skimmed by a protien skimmer. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!

I was reading a journal about agression displays in hermit crabs. I was wondering if I could do something similar for marine hermit crabs. They basically quantified the results of displaying certian behaviors before fights. I.E. thoughs that wave claws in this fashion were more likely to evict another hermit crab from its shell.


Any other project thoughts?

[carpediem360]

here this site might give you some ideas or head you in some direction you might not have thought of yet. http://www.garf.org/

[hansmatt]

I'd quantify growth of the animal, by %change in mass throughout experiment. Start with the same initial water, and add only RO top off. You could dehydrate skimmate, but I don't know what that would tell you. What you would need for that would be a way to measure organic materials while suspended. Perhaps take water samples then do a mass spec, or even a simple spectrophotometer measurement of absorbtion at a particular wavelength, but what that would entail I couldn't tell you. I think that the more definitive measurement would be nitrates, PO, ammonia, pH, ORP, etc, all of which can be readily quantified.

Behavior is interesting, but I feel that it is difficult to quantify. Exactly what behavior occurs seems to be so dependent upon individuals.

[toonces]

eric borneman is doing a lot of research on elegance corals. i saw that $$ might be limiting for you, and that you might be limited for lighting. however, you might want to look into it and see if it's something you're interested in..

the thread was called "the elegance coral project" or something of that sort, and should turn up with some searching...it wasn't in the main forum.

[Samala]

What is the professor's area of specialization in marine bio? (Assuming he works within the field if he has a marine lab.) Designing something that will take advantgae of his knowledge is the best possible gameplan if you are being mentored as an undergrad. You'll get the most out of it.

>Sarah

[Hormigaquatica]

With the xenia thing (since its an easy coral to work with) there are lots of largely untested ideas out there as to things that affect their behavior.

control tanks w/ xenia under unaltered conditions
experimental tanks w/ varying incriments of iodine added on a regular schedule.
OR
experimental tanks w/ varying pH values
OR
experimental tanks w/ varying KH values

you could see how any of the above affect the coral by either seing if the pulse rate changes between situations, or if youre more interested in growth, just check the dry mass of the colonies after however long a period of time you have to work with.

[LekicINC]

thanks everyone,
My professor speciality is green algae, but she is helping me with this project because she teaches marine bio. It seems like xenia seems to be an interesting field. Perhaps I could do three tanks with the same water, same lighting, etch and then change one variable, say pH and see if there is a difference either growth or even pulsation since pulsing is still such a mystery right?

Thanks for everyones input! and thanks for the website. Anymore suggestions woudl be great since these all have been fantastic.