Matt is hoping for donations of other aquarium lighting to test against the LEDs in hopes of the first
place prize at next year's science fair. Check back in for more experiments and observations in
Aquaculture with LED aquarium lighting.

3-19-2010
..."this Saturday my town literally had a natural disaster with a northeaster and most of the town lost power. School
was closed for three days and the high school had no power for 3. Most of the corals did actually survive (which is
very surprising), but a few are a bit "shocked" from not having well heated water and other necessities for a few
days. I still have some good results though, as the hard coral pieces that I put in each tank actually almost bleached
to death under the T5 lights while they are still alive in both LED tanks, diffused and regular." ..."Also, one more
interesting observation when comparing the colors of the corals under white light so I could see them was that the
pink coralline algae that grew slower in the LEDs is a much more vibrant and dark color pink/red than the control. It
is a pretty significant difference and I experienced the same thing last summer with my 70 gallon reef tank (where
most of the coralline algae is more of a pinkish whitish color after switching to T5s. I researched the algae a bit, but
am not sure what would cause such a different color to appear in this species. It is very interesting that it seemed to
grow slower than the control, but have a longer lifespan and a higher quality of color (as well as the fact the LEDs
are not producing nuisance algae such as hair algae and diatoms, which the control tanks needs to be cleaned of
every few days compared to the LEDs that need to cleaned every few weeks).Matt G.

4-19-10
"I have a good amount of data from conducting this experiment and most of the previous attributes we discussed in
the past have held true. Some species have grown much faster or at least matched the controls growth with a more
elongated appearance. The hard coral in the LED tank is also the only one that didn't bleach, which show signs of
superiority even though I was unable to find the money and time to test more subjects to make this hypothesis 100%
justifiable." Matt G.

4-30-2010
"After many months of testing in my school with the Aqua-bar and a full week spending hours to prepare a tri-fold
presentation poster board, I finally presented today" ... "in their annual science fair for high school students" ..."Out
of over 75 projects, I presented to over 10 different judges and managed to win second place!" ... "My mentor and
school science department are very excited that I did so well on my first science fair and I hope to submit my project
in another fair in the near future." Matt G.