Hello I am going to try an experiment with the effects of lighting on corals. The walmart in my area got rid of their tanks and i aquired them. They run on the same filtration and are all interconnected. The lights are T-12 and i know thats not the best but thats all i have and i am trying to replace ballasts to get T-8's. There are two light sockets over the tanks so i can use two tubes over the tanks. The tanks are 30 gallons per row and there are 6 rows. In each row there are two dividers except for one tank which has none. So I have 16 tanks, 15 ten gallon tanks and an open 30 gallon tank. I was blessed with a small school that will allow me to carry this out and my friends will help me this fall. I wrote to get some money to carry out this project and i recieved about $3000.
Now to the experiment i was going to see which combination of lighting is best for the corals. I will try two actinics over one set, two 20K over another, two 10ks over another, two 50/50s over the other, and my control will be one 10k and an actinic. The 6th tank will probly house fish just for show. I will use polyps, mushrooms, and some soft corals. If the corals start to fail they will be put into one of my tanks at home and they will be taken out of the experiment. I will get the corals in late aug or early sept.. The experiment will end in febuary because it will be entered into a science fair.
The reason i am posting this is because i think it would be neat for everyone to be able to follow and so that there might be some more understanding on lighting. I also want to know any advise or if someone thinks there might be something different or better to try. If any one has any questions feel free to ask.
Thanks Emery
Now to the experiment i was going to see which combination of lighting is best for the corals. I will try two actinics over one set, two 20K over another, two 10ks over another, two 50/50s over the other, and my control will be one 10k and an actinic. The 6th tank will probly house fish just for show. I will use polyps, mushrooms, and some soft corals. If the corals start to fail they will be put into one of my tanks at home and they will be taken out of the experiment. I will get the corals in late aug or early sept.. The experiment will end in febuary because it will be entered into a science fair.
The reason i am posting this is because i think it would be neat for everyone to be able to follow and so that there might be some more understanding on lighting. I also want to know any advise or if someone thinks there might be something different or better to try. If any one has any questions feel free to ask.
Thanks Emery