Coral Reefs nutrients

[ralph atl]

<div class="gc_ifarem_title">Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas - YouTube</div><iframe style="width: 70%; height: 400px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-R2BMEfQGjU&feature=player_embedded"></iframe>


A stony coral reef is one of the hardest things to maintain longterm, and I believe it's due to 3 factors:

1) basic needs not met consistently
400 watt Radiums
vortech or random type flows
Calcium maintained above 400
Alk steady at 9 or so
Mag greater than 1200
Salinity at a calibrated 1.026


2) longterm nutrient control
nutrient control of phates & trates, i.e.,

A) de-ntrifying either sulphur, carbon dosing, vodka, solid vodka, etc
B) GFO every 10-14 days
C) carbon every 10-14 days

3) water changes

yeah, you can add stesses of temp, crashes, etc....


however, NUTRIENT CONTROL IS THE TICKET TO HOME & WORLDWIDE CORAL REEF SURVIVAL!

THIS CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED BEFORE AND/OR AFTER....

anyway, you can't sustain a stony coral reef without precise measurements of phosphates & nitrates.......SO, let's think about that worldwide! I've been staing this for years & years. GREAT VIDEO! and it's not produced by AL! lol

 

[ichthyoid]

mysterybox;689113 wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2BMEfQGjU&feature=player_embedded">Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas - YouTube</a>


A stony coral reef is one of the hardest things to maintain longterm, and I believe it's due to 3 factors:

1) basic needs not met consistently
400 watt Radiums
vortech or random type flows
Calcium maintained above 400
Alk steady at 9 or so
Mag greater than 1200
Salinity at a calibrated 1.026


2) longterm nutrient control
nutrient control of phates & trates, i.e.,

A) de-ntrifying either sulphur, carbon dosing, vodka, solid vodka, etc
B) GFO every 10-14 days
C) carbon every 10-14 days

3) water changes

yeah, you can add stesses of temp, crashes, etc....


however, NUTRIENT CONTROL IS THE TICKET TO HOME & WORLDWIDE CORAL REEF SURVIVAL!

THIS CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED BEFORE AND/OR AFTER....

anyway, you can't sustain a stony coral reef without precise measurements of phosphates & nitrates.......SO, let's think about that worldwide! I've been staing this for years & years. GREAT VIDEO! and it's not produced by AL! lol[/QUOTE]


First, thanks for posting this Ralph. I have felt that there was a strong link between microbes and corals for a while as well.

The shocker is that carbon is the smoking gun for coral decline! I'm going to assume that we get away with using it while dosing, because we remove it from the system via strong skimming. Therefore, the carbon is gone before it has a chance to cause harm. This also explains why it is essential to start at low doses of carbon, and increase them gradualy.

The rest of it,
-sources of stress (CO2, temp, salinity, etc.)
-excess P
-excess N
-algae, as an inhibitor
-loss of algae grazers/fish (urchins too)

...were known factors.

The take away is that too many microbes smother coral, whatever the cause.