Central Question for School Project

[Kugelfish]

hello everyone, my name is joel and I'm from switzerland, 19 years old

in the precollege I'm in right now every student has to make a big project in order to be allowed to take the final exams. we have the time of a whole year for this project. the paper has to be around 20 pages and includes a theoretical and a practical part. now i have to come up with an interesting question about a nano reefaquarium i can follow and observe. (i have to hand in this question before i start the project)
so far i had experience with reef aquariums but never had a nano reef. so im asking here for help from some experienced nano reef owners to help me find an interesting central question i can answer with this whole project. I'm new in nano reefs and even i read alot about it, i dont exactly now what is waiting for me and i dont want to make a central question and be later on disappointed because i dont have the experience yet.

thank you for all your help

 

[Rosseau]

Hey, this sounds interesting.

Is this a science based project?

Are you supposed to prove or disprove something?

I'm going to try and think up some ideas for you..... How would you observe a nanotank? (your own, others online etc. )

Cheers.

 

[Kugelfish]

thank you for ur help rosseau

yes it will be a science based project. it can prove or disprove something but doesnt have to.

just an example of such an central question from a last year student

topic: diet supplements in indurance sports. central question: how does creatin react to the stamina of a person and are there any alternative things to creatin?

two of mine ideas were something like a comparison of 2 to 3 different filter systems, like a HOB against a mod. canister filter with LR. and compare water qualities. or another topic i'm more interested in is symbiosis (mutualism) in a nano reef. its just hard to find the central question about that.

i would show progress with pictures, water date, and making a diary

 

[Kugelfish]

thank you for ur help rosseau

yes it will be a science based project. it can prove or disprove something but doesnt have to.

just an example of such an central question from a last year student

topic: diet supplements in indurance sports. central question: how does creatin react to the stamina of a person and are there any alternative things to creatin?

two of mine ideas were something like a comparison of 2 to 3 different filter systems, like a HOB against a mod. canister filter with LR. and compare water qualities. or another topic i'm more interested in is symbiosis (mutualism) in a nano reef. its just hard to find the central question about that.

i would show progress with pictures, waterchemestry data, and making a diary

 

[Rosseau]

The difficult part of making an experiment out of reef aquaria is that it may be hard to make a control tank.

You could do this though, it will take a few weeks to set up a tank. But you could easily buy SW test kits and work that in some how.

Like, how does different amounts of food added to a tank, or lighting or something affect say.. the amount of Ammonia in the tank.

Could be tough, but certainly attainable.

 

[Rosseau]

I think it may depend how much time you have. Really because when you start a new tank it undergoes a "cycle" where bacteria living within the tank become established and affect the water chemisty.

You could do various amount of live rock within a tank and see how that affects the water chemistry.

 

[Kugelfish]

yes that sounds pretty good, ty. but it goes more towards chemestry and i would really like to come up with a biological question (of corse the water chemestry affects the biological aspect and it will be part of my work.

but i will keep this idea with changing one of the influences and compare.

 

[Rosseau]

Yeah I only mentioned the rock because it is what these tanks use to colonize the bacteria that filter (cycle chemicals, i.e. N cycling) so the amount of rock you have affects the amount of bacteria and thus the amount of nutrients you can cycle.

Really though, the rock is simply a surface for the bacteria. So measuring the amount of surface area would be difficult.

 

[Kugelfish]

i have the time of almost a whole year

 

[Kugelfish]

i also read about a controversy here in the forum about filling a mod. canister filter with LR rubble or just 2 o3 big pieces of LR. obviously the rubble has more surface area but no depth for anaerobic breakdown. so how would the amonia consentration vary if u would have these 2 conditions (both with the same amount of LR, but one in rubble adn the other in big pieces)...

 

[Jolio99]

I think your question should be along the lines of- "Can symbiosis occur in an aquarium" and just test a shrimp goby pair. This would be cool to observe and you could write a great paper about symbiosis in reefs. Clownfish would be an interesting topic for the theoretical part of the paper. You could write a lot about a shrimp goby pair. Like how they interact when they are introduced etc...

We all know it can be done but this sounds like a basic science course.

just an example of such an central question from a last year student

topic: diet supplements in indurance sports. central question: how does creatin react to the stamina of a person and are there any alternative things to creatin?

Just an idea

 

[Rosseau]

By allowing any coral to grow in your tank is an example of symbosis, so is the fact that a watcer chemical cycle exists. These tanks are full of symbioses!

I see so many ways you could go with this... I would make sure you pick something you're really into - Not that you didn't know that already...

 

[Kugelfish]

ty guys ur ideas sound very good. you realy helping me out here

 

[Butchdawg14]

there was a kid in the southern colorado forum that did a science experiment about adding vitiamin C affects the growth of say mushrooms??? or maybe some other coral

this could be way off but i dont know just a thought...i think he had like a 4 week period where he tested to see how much vitiamin C was necessary to grow mushrooms at it high potential

you get it??