Thank you Wasabi!

[Flipturn88]

Thanks again for all of the help and the frags! The tank/frags for my project are set up and the frags for my tank are doing well.

Kayla

Here's a pic of the Bali Slimer in my tank:

[Flipturn88]

Here is another SPS:

(I forgot the name ...I'm new to SPS)

[Flipturn88]

And another one of the frags:

[Flipturn88]

Here is the tank set up for my Science Fair project (from Wasabi)

I am determining at what salinity corals (montipora sp.) can survive by gradually lowering the salinity in the test tank.

[wasabi]

allright, looking good. i am very interested in seeing at what point the polyps bail....i will put my money on 1.015....anyone else care to place a bet

[wildemon]

Photo #2 looks like Curtis's Montipora Digitata.

[AquaticCo]

Man Curtis how does it feel to be the bennifactor of so many reef tanks around the atlanta area, you should be very proud

Doug

[Ray1214]

I say 1.017. Are the salinities lowered daily or like a week a point?

Ray

[Flipturn88]

Every two days I will lower the salinity by one degree. How does that sound?

[Stanfill Reef]

I don't know a lot about montipora, but that sounds good to me. For the scientific method to work, you need to have time to make observations. If montipora show stress quickly, then daily may be fine. But many organisms need time react. Plus what do you do when the montipora show signs of stress? Do you stop for a few days to see if they die, or do you continue dropping the next dilution day?

Another point about scientific method. You want to make sure that you only change one parameter at a time. So you should get enough water together at the beginning to start the tank and do your dilutions. By using the same water, you eliminate a variable.

What other parameters will you be measuring during the study? I would think that measuring temp, pH, alkalinity, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate daily would add to the validity of your experiment. If you can rule out changes in these parameters during the experiment, then you can make extrapolations that the one change you made is what caused the problems.

[Flipturn88]

Yes, I am using RO/DI water the whole time for topoff. I am planning on lowering the salinity until there is obvious signs of stress and then carefully monitoring the signs each day to note every change. True, I don't have time to see what exact salinity will kill them, but it will be obvious when they appear different.

I will be measuing all of those components daily as well to prove it was really the salinity that was the factor.

thanks

[tdwyatt]

You would prolly need to hold salinity at a particular value for four or five days to see when salinity becomes an issue, rather than dropping by a point per day. Either that or use the initial process of a point a day, then test at a slowere rate of change at the point you predict that the salinity becomes too low.

example, suppose the corals bail at 1.019 when dropping from 1.026 by 0.001 each day, then try the next phase at 1.022 as the starting point and drop by the 0.001 each 5 days to see if the response to salinity drop might have been delayed by the actual ability of the coral specie tested to resist low salinity for a few days or more. Many corals such as the elkhorns and related Acropora spp may resist spring rains and terrestrial run off that results in varying salinities with only partial stress reactions. Many of these stress/beaching events do not mean instant mortality, rather are all part of an interacting group of conditions in the wild. Making the changes in salinity over a longer period of time will help determine when a particular salinity is a problem. By the same token, if done too slowly, the coral may acclimitize over time enough to survive even abnormaly low salinities, tough experimental design.

[Flipturn88]

I agree. Which was why used time as the deciding factor. Because of the limited time I have, I decided to lower the salinity at a more rapid rate. True, the full effects of each salinity level won't be apparent, but it will give a general idea of what the range is IMHO. I hope I'm making sense

Thanks again,
Kayla

[Ghotit]

bah this is wrong , may the reef police come and bash you!
bah o well.

[Ghotit]

wasabi , u up for some fraging this weekend?