this guy posted
here
Hi all, I come to you on the recommendation of gottcha (I hope that is a good thing LOL) to tell you about a research project that my High School students and I are about to begin. (I teach Marine Science in Ohio)
As anyone who has worked much at all with zoanthids knows, there is about 100 x more hear/say information than truths. My students have elected to try to answer two of several pressing issues regarding zoathid keeping.
first is lighting: too little light and your polyps don't open fully; too much and they colors bleach out. one guy will say they don't need much while the next guy has them under M/H three inches away. (likely they are not even talking about the same variety)
second is feeding: some people will swear by this or that while others swear at them for nutrient loading a tank without benifits.
So what we are doing is first addressing the question of lighting. we are trying to collect zoanthid frags of as many common varieties from around the country. that way we will avoid some of the local varient behaving differently than the normal one would.
we will be using power compacts and m/H in different trials
starting at a very low and recorded lum we will make growth trials over several weeks recording growth and degree of
polyp extension.
then increase the lum level (raise the frag groups up a level) and continue through several weeks for each trial until we are into the bleaching level for each variety. (which we expect to be different for each variety)
after the needed repeats we will then take ideal lum levels for each varieity and repeat verses different feeding methods
for example if purple people eaters is found to respond best to a lum level of X then that will be held constant and a variety of foods tried in diffent tanks over a fixed period of time then total growth and reproduction will be recorded .
We will not be making definative answers this first year but hope to pave the way for a more concrete understanding of these beauties down the road
How can you help: we need small frag donations, they don't have to be some expensive rare guy or large show piece. we can give you a reciept for a donation if yoiu need and we want to share all the frags with all who participated after the trials are over.
club-zoa.com has a great damp shipping method "how to" which would save a ton on shipping costs overnight or next day in a paded envelope would work great (surprisingly well as a matter of fact)
thanks in advance and please feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions
-Benjamin
You read my mind and stole my idea already. 
