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Title
Does Different Amounts of Light Affect Algal Growth? New Ways to Prevent Algal Growth in Fish Tanks.

Problem Scenario
This question is worth asking because if you own a pet fish, you may have realized that as time progresses more and more algae starts to grow. So why not find a way to reduce algae growth between the times you clean it?

Broad Question
What light best supports algae growth?

Specific Question
What is the effect of different amounts of light on algal growth?

Hypothesis
I think that the algae will grow more rapidly with more light. The light is the nutrients and will feed the algae causing it to grow faster.

Independent Variable:
Light and distance away from the light.

Dependent Variable:
Algae growth

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
Light and distance away from the light.

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
Colorimeter: A machine used to determine the concentration of a solution by analyzing it's color intensity. Cuvette: A small vial used to hold liquids for the Colorimeter. Algae: A plant-like organism that lives in water.

General Plan
1) Take a droplet of algae and place it in a cuvette. (Repeat 30 times.) 2) Fill 30 cuvettes with spring water. 3) Place 10 cuvettes under a light. 4) Place 10 cuvettes under, but farther away form the light. 5) Place 10 cuvettes away form any unnatural light. 6)Let the cuvettes sit for one month. 7) Find the best wave length for measuring the algal growth within the cuvettes. 8) Place cuvettes one by one in a coloritmeter and record how much algae growth there has been. *MAKE SURE YOU SEPARATE THE THREE GROUPS DURING THIS PROCESS*

Potential Problems And Solutions
1) The cuvettes that are filled with algae could be knocked over and potentially put my project in danger. To prevent this potential problem you could make extra cuvettes the same way you made the other cuvettes. 2) The light that is used could go out. To prevent this potential problem you could keep a spare light close by. 3) The algae could die. To prevent this potential problem you could have another supply of algae.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns
You don't want to release the algae into the environment because it could help produce more algae in lakes and you don't want that to happen.

Number Of Trials:
10 Trials

3 subjects
 * Number Of Subjects In Each trial:**

When data will be collected
March 2012

Number of Observations:
1,200

Where will data be collected?:
Mr. Biche's Science Classroom.

Resources and Budget Table

 * Item || Where I will get this || Cost ||
 * Poster Board || Staples || $5.00 ||
 * Vernier Colorimeter || Mr. Biche || Free ||
 * Cuvettes || Mr. Biche || Free ||
 * Mixed Desmids (algae) || Sargent-Welch || Free ||
 * Camera || My house || Free ||
 * Notebook for recording data || Mr. Biche || Free ||

Background Research
Algae takes a couple of weeks to start growing unless you only have a few hours of light on a fish tank a day. It helps to keep a timer on your light for the tank, that way that it doesn't heat the water (if you have a heat lamp on the tank) and increase the likely-hood of algal growth. Algae will build up and rapidly increase with more light. One of the major things that algae thrives off of is nutrients. You're probably thinking, well duh! Everything thrives off of nutrients! But the real fact of it is algae can reproduce at rapid rates.

Algae tends to grow faster when you have a new fish tank or a new pond. The reason for this is because there is not the proper amount of plant life growing, leaving more space for algae to take up. The balance between nutrients and animals living in the tank or new pond haven't equaled each other out yet. This could take three weeks, give or take. After that first cleaning of your tank you will see less algal growth. Although, it does depend how much light you are giving the water each day.

If your fish tank has a high pH level you will have a greater increase of algal growth. pH level is "Potential Hydrogen." Depending on what your reading is for the pH level it has different amounts of acidity and oxygen. The higher the pH level the more oxygen you have in your water tank making it easier to reproduce more algae. If you get a lower pH reading you have more acidity in your water tank leaving it difficult for algae to grow.

Phosphate levels in water can also be promoted by over feeding your fish. If you over feed your fish and produce more phosphate then you will see a great increase of algal growth. You should always make sure your tank is clear of all uneaten food. It helps keep the nutrients at the right levels. You should always keep fresh water in your tank. Change about 10% to 15% of your water a week and you have decreased your ability to have more algal growth.

When you look at your fish tank and see green slimy stuff growing inside, do you immediately assume that you have algal growth? Nine times out of ten I bet you do! But the truth is it might not be algae. There is another bacteria that looks like algae, except it can come in many different colors and grow more faster than a wildfire in the middle of July. This is called Cyanobacteria. This bacteria comes in colors you would rather see in an amusement park! Green, Blue, Black, and Red are all colors that is comes in. This grows 10 times faster and is much more difficult to get rid of. You should always make sure you clean your tank regularly and don't let this algae and bacteria "paint" your aquarium!

=**References**= The Water Garden. "How to Control Pond Algae." //How to Control Pond Algae//. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. .

Ask Answers. "What Does PH Level Mean?" //WikiAnswers//. Answers. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. .

About. "Aquarium Algae." //About.com Freshwater Aquariums//. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. .

Aquarium Pros. "Nuisance Algae by Aquariumpros.com." //Aquarticles Articles about Fish and Aquariums//. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. .

Detailed Procedure
1) I took a droplet of algae and place it in a cuvette and repeated this step 30 times. 2) I filled the 30 cuvettes with distilled Poland Spring's water. 3) After filling the cuvettes I placed 10 cuvettes directly under a light sitting on a tin. 4) Along with the 10 cuvettes directly under the light, I place 10 cuvettes on the panel lowest away from the light. 5) After placing 10 separate cuvettes on the panel, I placed 10 other cuvettes on the top panel with no unnatural light. 6)I then let the cuvettes sit for one month. 7) After letting the algae grow, I found the best wave length for measuring the algal growth within the cuvettes. 8) After I found the best wave length, I placed cuvettes one by one in a coloritmeter and record how much algae growth there has been.
 * I made sure I kept my algae cuvettes in the separate groups.*

Diagram




Results
The over all results of my data is that algae grows better with a middle amount of light. The algae has the right amount of light to grow at a steady pace.

All Raw Data

 * || Room Light || Nearest to Light || Middle Light ||
 * || 0.03792 || 0.0001149 || 0.0001038 ||
 * || 0.03636 || 0.00008531 || 0.00008162 ||
 * || 0.04031 || 0.0001112 || 0.00007423 ||
 * || 0.03422 || 0.00007793 || 0.01725 ||
 * || 0.03729 || 0.0001075 || 0.007382 ||
 * || 0.04248 || 0.000126 || 0.0282 ||
 * || 0.03974 || 0.00007423 || 0.02578 ||
 * || 0.03786 || 0.0001112 || 0.01314 ||
 * || 0.0311 || 0.00003728 || 0.02764 ||
 * || 0.03313 || 0.0001186 || 0.001833 ||
 * Average: || 0.037041 || 0.000096415 || 0.012148465 ||

Data Analysis
My graph shows that Room Light had the most absorption, Nearest to light had the least absorption and when I placed the algae under the middle light it had the middle amount of absorption.

Conclusion
My overall conclusion is that algae grew best with room light. If you want to prevent algal growth in your fish tank it is most likely best to have a light on during the day in the tank to help slow the growth.

Discussion
The reason I chose to do this as a science fair question is because I have an aquarium at my house. We put nutrient rich drops into the water for the goldfish and it seems the algal growth has happened a lot faster since we started putting them into the aquarium. My data does not support my hypothesis. My hypothesis was that I thought the algae would grow better with the most light. What actually ended up happening was the algal grow was best when having a middle amount of light on it everyday. That did not support my hypothesis and my data doesn't either. There is a lot of room for error in my project. You could put more algae in one cuvette than an other causing it to have more algal growth. The solution to that problem would be to make sure that there is the same amount of algae in each cuvette. You could knock over a cuvette causing it to break. I would have to restart my whole project because the algae would not all grow the same. I would have more algal growth than another group because I had to start a certain group over. The solution to this problem would be to put my experiment isolated from people. Having a lot of people around could potentially ruin my project. In the future years scientist could discover new ways to almost completely get rid of algal growth in fish tanks. They could find the main kind of algal growth in aquariums, and find a more reasonable way to handle it.

Benefit to Community and/or Science
The benefit of this science project to science is more research for scientists. The benefit to the community is we could find ways to have less algal growth in our man-made ponds and our home aquariums.

Abstract
The reason why I chose to do this experiment is because I have an aquarium at my house and I wanted to find a way to reduce the algal growth. I was very surprised by the findings of experiment. Algae grew best when it had a medium amount of light. I thought it would have grown a lot better with the most light. When I first started this experiment I figured it would have been pointless but then I started to do more research on the algae itself. At the end of the experiment I had a lot of data and a lot of back ground research. I think that this science fair project could potentially help with more research for scientists.