Coral science fair

PokeFish

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I was planning on conducting a research study with corals as a science fair project.. does anyone have any ideas? I was leaning towards observing the corals' coloration in various lighting spectrums.

I did manage to get my LFS to agree to give me a couple of frags that aren't looking too well from their shipments so maybe something about treatments for coral injuries?
Just looking to generate some ideas
 
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And you could have a LED with adjustable spectrum to also show off the fluorescence vs white light as you said
thanks for the suggestions! I think doing a guide on corals would definitely be cool, but to win something I'd have to have an application for my research. For example, finding out what colors are more prominent in a coral under various spectrums will allow hobbyists to tweak their lighting in order to boost coral colors. Something along the lines of a project such as that :)
 

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If you have a spare camera maybe set up a long term time-lapse of their growth and measure that? Its something I've always wanted to do :)
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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thanks for the suggestions! I think doing a guide on corals would definitely be cool, but to win something I'd have to have an application for my research. For example, finding out what colors are more prominent in a coral under various spectrums will allow hobbyists to tweak their lighting in order to boost coral colors. Something along the lines of a project such as that :)

I don't mean to be a negative nanny, but I think setting up a study of any kind is going to be tricky. I've done some studies on organisms (such as the effect of iodine on macroalgae growth), but without multiple examples of the same organism, you'd be left with something you can do to individuals in one cohort of treatments, then switch something and monitor them all. In that case, each coral is it's own control, but it is still a very low power study since each will be N=1.

How much time do you have to accomplish the study?

Do you have a reef tank that can provide the same water (or modified) to different test tanks?
 

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I don't mean to be a negative nanny, but I think setting up a study of any kind is going to be tricky. I've done some studies on organisms (such as the effect of iodine on macroalgae growth), but without multiple examples of the same organism, you'd be left with something you can do to individuals in one cohort of treatments, then switch something and monitor them all. In that case, each coral is it's own control, but it is still a very low power study since each will be N=1.

How much time do you have to accomplish the study?

Do you have a reef tank that can provide the same water (or modified) to different test tanks?
Do agree with @Randy Holmes-Farley, maybe see if you can get multiple similar sized frags of the same species and of similar health and add them to the same system with same lighting and flow if you're doing growth. LPS take many months to grow so soft corals and SPS would be good candidates
 
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I don't mean to be a negative nanny, but I think setting up a study of any kind is going to be tricky. I've done some studies on organisms (such as the effect of iodine on macroalgae growth), but without multiple examples of the same organism, you'd be left with something you can do to individuals in one cohort of treatments, then switch something and monitor them all. In that case, each coral is it's own control, but it is still a very low power study since each will be N=1.

How much time do you have to accomplish the study?

Do you have a reef tank that can provide the same water (or modified) to different test tanks?
I only have 3 months :(

Yeah I do have a reef tank but why not just add fresh saltwater to different test tanks?
 
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Do agree with @Randy Holmes-Farley, maybe see if you can get multiple similar sized frags of the same species and of similar health and add them to the same system with same lighting and flow if you're doing growth. LPS take many months to grow so soft corals and SPS would be good candidates
I could try experimenting with GSP
 

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You are going to need to start with healthy corals to have control. Weak or bad-looking corals will just be too random.

Get a large hunk of chalice or other coral from some locals and break them up. Miami Hurricane, plating monti, etc.

The big issue with some of these is that they grow in most any reasonable conditions to the point where they can become weeds in some systems. These might not be conducive to determining if small nuances matter - they do not likely matter to abundant corals. Basically, if you can just keep them alive, they are going to thrive. You see this some with some professional studies where people use Pocilipora, porites, etc, which are really easy to keep and many have no faith in what was tested since the species are so un fussy.

You might have to find some more difficult corals to see if nuance matters.

If you just want to experience and go through the process, then go for it. Sometimes the journey is better than the destination.
 

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I think it would be neat to see how much feeding coral influences growth/health. Maybe two frags of the same zoa or paly, and one of them gets fed every 2-3 days, the other gets no feeding and relies only on photosynthesis. This would give you some quantifiable data like the number of new polyps, spread of connective tissue/matting, maybe polyp diameter, and stuff like that.

Maybe you could post in a local reef group on here or Facebook and explain your project/idea and ask if anyone is willing to give you some frags, sell you some for super super cheap, or maybe loan you some with the promise of return after your project.

Unfortunately, I think working with sickly or damaged frags might make it hard to get meaningful data. But if that’s all you can get your hands on, maybe you could do a project like looking at wounded corals healing responses under different conditions.
 

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I only have 3 months :(

Yeah I do have a reef tank but why not just add fresh saltwater to different test tanks?
You would need to cycle something unless you use live rock, live sand and water from your existing setup. I'd day 3 months is a good period to observe some faster growing SPS and LPS like monti cap, leptastrea, galaxea, duncan, stylo and maybe an acro if you can handle that
 

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I think it would be neat to see how much feeding coral influences growth/health. Maybe two frags of the same zoa or paly, and one of them gets fed every 2-3 days, the other gets no feeding and relies only on photosynthesis. This would give you some quantifiable data like the number of new polyps, spread of connective tissue/matting, maybe polyp diameter, and stuff like that.

Maybe you could post in a local reef group on here or Facebook and explain your project/idea and ask if anyone is willing to give you some frags, sell you some for super super cheap, or maybe loan you some with the promise of return after your project.

Unfortunately, I think working with sickly or damaged frags might make it hard to get meaningful data. But if that’s all you can get your hands on, maybe you could do a project like looking at wounded corals healing responses under different conditions.
Zoas are always a pain to feed, maybe OP can use duncans instead?
 

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Here's how I did the iodine/macroalgae study I mentioned to see how one might do something similar:


and here's how I tested the impact of aluminum on corals at different aluminum concentrations:

 
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You are going to need to start with healthy corals to have control. Weak or bad-looking corals will just be too random.

Get a large hunk of chalice or other coral from some locals and break them up. Miami Hurricane, plating monti, etc.

The big issue with some of these is that they grow in most any reasonable conditions to the point where they can become weeds in some systems. These might not be conducive to determining if small nuances matter - they do not likely matter to abundant corals. Basically, if you can just keep them alive, they are going to thrive. You see this some with some professional studies where people use Pocilipora, porites, etc, which are really easy to keep and many have no faith in what was tested since the species are so un fussy.

You might have to find some more difficult corals to see if nuance matters.

If you just want to experience and go through the process, then go for it. Sometimes the journey is better than the destination.
Yeah definitely... getting a healthy specimen makes way more sense if im experimenting with growth or whatnot.
If this is the case with such hardy corals, would an experiment that tests out the affects of various parameters on their growth, like an elevated alkalinity level, be a good idea?

And yeah this is my first ever experiment/research project and im not looking to make any scientific breakthroughs. Just want to go through this process so I know where to start later on
 

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Zoas are always a pain to feed, maybe OP can use duncans instead?

You might be right. In my head I was imagining them being in separate small tanks. But maybe Duncans would be good because you could use meaty food that one could eat, and minimize the chance of the other being able to consume out of the water column.
 

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Yeah I do have a reef tank but why not just add fresh saltwater to different test tanks?

Raw seawater likely will not support coral growth since it won't have the needed N and P in it, unless you add them.

It also has other differences that may not be optimal. Most notably is lack of bacteria and lack of organics to bind trace elements.

Ron Shimek found that copper in new Instant Ocean was far more toxic than the same amount of copper in reef tank water. He only believed my after he tested it for himself. lol
 
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