Kylesreeftank
Active Member
Does anyone know if there's been any studies conducted as to the photosynthetic efficiency of Zooxanthellae over time? I'm wanting to do a 14 hour photoperiod with a mixed 29g of across, stylos, Zoanthids, etc, and I want all needs to be met, but I figure if there's some "max charge" that can be calculated for a single Zooxanthellae cell, one could take samples of their corals under a microscope to take zooxanthellae density readings to calculate via surface area and vector shading the optimum amount of time for a coral to be exposed to a given amount of light.
Basically, my idea goes something like this:
You have a coral reef tank, say a 29g with a mix of corals in the tank.
You have lidar cameras on each side of the tank, in order to build 3d scan models of your tank with open source software such as Openscan. AI software such as Edge Impulse would then be used to create object recognizing algorithms to identify coral by building a database of currently available online coral photos, if this photoset for AI doesn't already exist. Then given this data of the objects identified, each coral is given a name, and a total surface area, which is then able to be multiplied by the zooxanthellae density measurement we took earlier to create a zooxanthellae maximum theoretical efficiency profile, which would be defined as optimal efficiency for all zoox on the coral getting the light they need. Since I just am thinking of this on the fly, it would also be ideal to take samples of the bottom and top of the corals, along with new growth areas, in order to identify any discrepancies in zooxanthellae availability in those areas, then based on your PAR you're able to make the necessary derivations to get a number which can then be taken to see the Day Lights Integral of the corals, which is basically cumulative measurement of the total number of photons within the PAR wavelength range that reach a surface during 24 hour period, measured over a one square meter area. It is measured in mol/m2/d, where d stands for day.
This would allow you to scientifically adjust your light schedule and coral locations so that you could take a profile of your tank at max settings and lowest settings and then the program could suggest optimal locations for your corals, given size, projected size, daylight integral over time, light intensity... Basically you could say " I want acropora here but montipora over here, and some Zoanthids here, and the program would look at all those measurements and say, ok, well the only way that works is if we disable half of the LED's on the outside of the light , and double the intensity on these specific LED's. Then you have optimal lighting for all corals given their location.
I honestly believe the next great innovation in the world of Reefing will be individually manageable LED's via an app, and basically a flat screen of LED with each one on a moveable panel, sort of like a "bed leveller" in 3 D printing, but for reef tank lighting. Then the lights could adjust intensity and blend and turn off and on to get the most ideal mix of lighting intensity possible for your given desired photoperiod and current or desired coral locations, with or without size projections.
I understand this is asking for the extreme but if someone made this I'd buy it even if it was $6000 just to have science take care of the corals for me, if all it means is I have to learn how to take and record coral density samples.
Sorry to just put this out there, I just get frustrated sometimes thinking about how much unknowns propagate themselves in this hobby relative to some other ones I've delved into. Unknowns being, science can do this already, but it hasn't been implemented into the reefing hobby yet for some reason.
Case in point, how we name corals vs how we can actually identify them via DNA are two way different concepts and I want both the thrive.
Maybe someone can take this idea and run with it, but at the end of the day I have too much going on in my life working 70 hours and a startup in AI not including hobbies to get this out there.
There is no other hobby I've taken part in where the books are so outdated, I'm forced to subscribe to scientific journals to find nuggets of crazy information, compared to like " oxford companion to coral reefs" which doesn't exist but would likely sell an extreme amount of copies if it did.
Does anyone have any book recommendations or scientific studies to point me towards, that cover the *actual science* behind corals and their photosynthetic efficiency relative to light over time?
Sitting here is quite befuddling and I feel like this has to have been measured scientifically by now, surely I'm just missing something.
I'm not looking for ideal par, I'm looking for zooxanthellae density and photosynthetic efficiency studies.
Maybe I'll perdue the above, or someone else can if they have a microscope of their own. Id be really interested to look and learn from these measurements.
Basically, my idea goes something like this:
You have a coral reef tank, say a 29g with a mix of corals in the tank.
You have lidar cameras on each side of the tank, in order to build 3d scan models of your tank with open source software such as Openscan. AI software such as Edge Impulse would then be used to create object recognizing algorithms to identify coral by building a database of currently available online coral photos, if this photoset for AI doesn't already exist. Then given this data of the objects identified, each coral is given a name, and a total surface area, which is then able to be multiplied by the zooxanthellae density measurement we took earlier to create a zooxanthellae maximum theoretical efficiency profile, which would be defined as optimal efficiency for all zoox on the coral getting the light they need. Since I just am thinking of this on the fly, it would also be ideal to take samples of the bottom and top of the corals, along with new growth areas, in order to identify any discrepancies in zooxanthellae availability in those areas, then based on your PAR you're able to make the necessary derivations to get a number which can then be taken to see the Day Lights Integral of the corals, which is basically cumulative measurement of the total number of photons within the PAR wavelength range that reach a surface during 24 hour period, measured over a one square meter area. It is measured in mol/m2/d, where d stands for day.
This would allow you to scientifically adjust your light schedule and coral locations so that you could take a profile of your tank at max settings and lowest settings and then the program could suggest optimal locations for your corals, given size, projected size, daylight integral over time, light intensity... Basically you could say " I want acropora here but montipora over here, and some Zoanthids here, and the program would look at all those measurements and say, ok, well the only way that works is if we disable half of the LED's on the outside of the light , and double the intensity on these specific LED's. Then you have optimal lighting for all corals given their location.
I honestly believe the next great innovation in the world of Reefing will be individually manageable LED's via an app, and basically a flat screen of LED with each one on a moveable panel, sort of like a "bed leveller" in 3 D printing, but for reef tank lighting. Then the lights could adjust intensity and blend and turn off and on to get the most ideal mix of lighting intensity possible for your given desired photoperiod and current or desired coral locations, with or without size projections.
I understand this is asking for the extreme but if someone made this I'd buy it even if it was $6000 just to have science take care of the corals for me, if all it means is I have to learn how to take and record coral density samples.
Sorry to just put this out there, I just get frustrated sometimes thinking about how much unknowns propagate themselves in this hobby relative to some other ones I've delved into. Unknowns being, science can do this already, but it hasn't been implemented into the reefing hobby yet for some reason.
Case in point, how we name corals vs how we can actually identify them via DNA are two way different concepts and I want both the thrive.
Maybe someone can take this idea and run with it, but at the end of the day I have too much going on in my life working 70 hours and a startup in AI not including hobbies to get this out there.
There is no other hobby I've taken part in where the books are so outdated, I'm forced to subscribe to scientific journals to find nuggets of crazy information, compared to like " oxford companion to coral reefs" which doesn't exist but would likely sell an extreme amount of copies if it did.
Does anyone have any book recommendations or scientific studies to point me towards, that cover the *actual science* behind corals and their photosynthetic efficiency relative to light over time?
Sitting here is quite befuddling and I feel like this has to have been measured scientifically by now, surely I'm just missing something.
I'm not looking for ideal par, I'm looking for zooxanthellae density and photosynthetic efficiency studies.
Maybe I'll perdue the above, or someone else can if they have a microscope of their own. Id be really interested to look and learn from these measurements.
