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Thread: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

  1. #11
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    Quote Originally Posted by Floyd R Turbo
    What would one use as an additive to create a 'soup' of nutrients to feed the screens in a bare-tank system?

    You could just bung in some live rock and dose ammonia or stick something in there to rot, some dead prawns or whatever.


    I wonder though how much the running the experiment on a "bare tank" would be relevant to the real world of reef keeping?

  2. #12
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    I don't care much about relevance to a real-world scenario. I care about creating a controlled scientific experiment without extraneous uncontrollable variables by which data can be extrapolated that shows algae growth at given wavelengths of light. I feel the only way to do this is to remove all unknown variables from the equation and focus on growing algae.

  3. #13
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    To grow the most, have a live animal that is producing urea.

  4. #14
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    Well, couldn't I just dose urea?

    My goal is to create the environment that would be produced with live animals, however without actually using them. I know that this information is probably readily available, but at the present time I have very little spare time to devote to digging up this information. So if anyone has it or can point me to it, that would be much appreciated.

    A couple of reasons why I don't want to have a live animal is because there are too many variables that can result from that, plus I want to be able to put a definitively measurable and predetermined bio-load on the system.

    There could be several benefits of analyzing the results of an experiment performed in this manner, such as finally getting answers to exactly how much N and P and other nutrients a scrubber is able to absorb, and then sending water samples to laboratories to get analyzed and find out what the 'scrubbed' water is composed of, before and after. Perhaps some of these results can then be thrown in the face of the anti-scrubber crowd as at least somewhat scientific evidence of what modern scrubbers are actually capable of, albeit that there will I'm sure be detractors saying that it is far from a real-world environment.

    But, the next step after the experiment is complete would be to then add fish, corals, rock, sand, feeding and monitor...

  5. #15
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    The trouble with mail-in water testing is that the water composition changes hourly, and after 24 hours it's really not the same water. Microbes and bacteria continue their consumption of DOC the whole time. The changes are so great that when biologists take ocean or lake samples for testing, they either do the tests immediately on the boat, or they count the minutes from the time of sampling to the time of testing.

  6. #16

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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    Could Guillard F/2 Formula be something to be used as fertilizer?

    For measuring phosphate, a guy on our Swedish reef forum (he's a chemist) has presented a modified protocol for Hanna Checker Phosphate (HI713). This method gives consistent and pretty reliable results.

  7. #17
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    Yeah I wondered about that SM. So I guess the way to do it right would be to perform the experiment with lab equipment handy. So maybe keeping it simple for the initial run would be fine, just harvesting and weighing and such. Still, I'm 30 minutes from Iowa State University, which would probably have some appropriate equipment...the local marine biology department I mentioned basically told me they couldn't do it.

  8. #18
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    The best measurement is probably dry weight harvested. Really dry, like 3 hours in an oven.

  9. #19

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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    Hey Floyd, thanks for the link. I think it is great that you are doing and documenting this work.

    How about this? For the "display tank" use a couple rocks with algae etc. on them and go barebottom. You could use just one spotlight for the rock. For nutrients, you could put a grocery store clam in the display and switch it for a fresh one as needed.

    For starts, what do you think of running the 3000K T5 versus the 6500K T5? We all know the 3000 works well, but the 6500 is designed for vegetative growth and I don't know that the 6500 has been tried. Who knows, they may work equally well but grow different algae. The gist of an article I read awhile ago was the filtration ability of different types of algae working on the same body of water is greater than the sum of the individual algaes. Anyway, T5 is something that you are familar with so thought it might be an easy start.

  10. #20
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    Re: The Great Algae-Light Source Experiment

    That was the control group idea, use 3000K T5HO for comparison. The problem is that 24" T5HO means 20" screen and that's pretty big even for 1 lamp per side (20 x 3 minimum really). But then again if I make a total system water of 30G it's only double-sized. But it also increases pump size. I guess I wouldn't have to use the full length of the lamp. I don't want to run into a need for a bunch of larger pumps to drive screens. I'd rather limit it to smaller pumps.

    Again, the idea of adding any rock, sand or dead matter throws in an unknown and non-controllable variable. So I am still looking for a chemical mix that can be dosed into the tank on a measured basis that will closely simulate by-products of animal waste and uneaten food.

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