The Great Reef Data Roundup

Hello Reefers! My name is Evan and I am a student at Iowa State University and am doing analytical research for a data science course towards my minor. I have decided to incorporate my passion for reefing into this project and hopefully end up with some interesting and useful results! The more data I can gather, the better the results will be. Thanks so much if you do decide to take a little time out of your day to participate to help out an ISU student! Link for data form below:

The Great Reef Data Roundup

If you don't care too much about the specifics, go ahead and click the link above to participate. If you want to know a little more about the data I am collected and the way it will be analyzed, read on! I'm collecting data on reefing experience, tank size, sump size, approximate costs, and run time as well as types of livestock (coral and fish), methods of maintaining chemistry , and methods of nutrient export. Effectiveness of nutrient export, chemistry, and overall reefing success will be measured on a scale from 1-10. The inclusion of actual water parameters will also be optional. I will compare all of these factors in numerous ways to analyze and find patterns to present to the reefing community.

Some may already be asking: where is the lighting data? Yes, lighting is a very important aspect of any reef, however it is very hard to get solid data on lighting. Most people don't have expensive PAR meters to get real data and the sheer variety of lighting options and setups makes any data collected outside of a lab setting very difficult to contextualize and the results of such data would be questionable at best. Hopefully PAR meters will drop in price in the future and/or more local clubs will offer them to members but until then I will leave lighting data to the experts in the lab.

Last and not least, thank you and happy reefing!

 

That is true but I've also posted this on other forums such as Reef2Reef where others might not be as lucky as us