Your tank parameters for a college project

[@marko@]

As part of a class I am doing a "citizens science" project and want to collect some data to preform statistical analysis and display the results. The results should correlate various aquarium parameters to coral growth rates.
I would appreciate if as many people would give me data, as the more data I get the better the results will be.

For coral growth, approximate the doubling time of the coral - how long it took to reach its current size as a colony from half that size, pictures may help
Please provide data on any of these common coral species you may have:
Acropora lokani (ORA Hawkins ‘echinata’), Acropora millipora, Acropora nausta (pink lemonade or shortcake), Acropora valida (GARF bonsai, tricolor, or purple nana), Acropora sp? (ORA red planet)
Montipora capricornis (any color), Monipora danae (superman, sunset, mystic sunset, pokerstar, or reverse sunset), Montipora digitata (forest fire, German blue, or orange)
Seriatopora hystix (pink, blue polyp, green, or ORA bird of paradise)
Euphyllia divisa (green with purple tips)
Favia sp. and Favites sp.
Zoanthus (any named variant)
Palythoa (any named variant)

Then please provide data on these water parameters to be analyzed vs coral growth:
Photo period
Cal
alk
mag
ph
Flow turnover rate (main pump and all powerheads)
Tank size
nitrates
phosphates
average amount of food added daily


Thanks so much everyone, I'll be sure to post any findings I get.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I feel compelled to respond since I have advanced degrees of both biology and chemistry. I will preface this by saying that I'd still be interested in seeing your results. If this is simply a course in statistics, I think it's a great thing to do.


However, when you ask individuals for approximations of what they have seen, you are now dealing in what I term anecdotal science. It really isn't a science, but an opinion. It's the kind of stuff business and market folks love, but scientists take for what it is.....an opinion. If you truly wish to see the growth rates of corals under various tank parameters, you need to do the science.


I hope I didn't come across as the Grinch....just stating what my warped scientific mind wants me to say. Please continue with this study....and again, I'd be interested in the results.


Now as far as the info you request, the only coral I unfortuately have is Montipora capricornis.....in green, red and purple. I can't tell you how quickly it doubles (because I don't notice these things), but it grows like a weed and about four weeks ago I filled a five gallon salt bucket with about a gallon and a half of all three monti's....to be tossed. While these particular corals grow like a weed, I have others that are retracting and not looking so good. I need some good science to answer that question!!! Wish I still had access to lab equipment.

 

[@marko@]

The majority of the project will be an analysis of current scientific data. However I'm recquired to do a 'community service' portion for project, and there really isn't much I can do. The teacher suggested something along these lines so I'm going with it. I agree, sticking a few frags in different tanks and manipulating one parameter at a time while weighing the frags weekly would be ideal. But I can run a statistical analysis on the data and if by some chance something is statistically significant at any decent alpha level, cool. If not, I know it's cuz the data is shaky.

You can get a triton test. They use atomic emission spectra to give you an elemental breakdown of what's in your tank, along with levels of what it should be, and offer ultra pure solutions to add what's missing, and filter resins for what's in excess. You can get the kit from unique corals, then send the sample to the triton lab.
I almost went for it but changing my salt fixed my problem.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I would also suggest that you post on other sites....such as Reef2reef. Not sure if you'd get the statistical number from the folks here.

Best of luck.