Tips of SPS
- Thread starter mike oglesby
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well...
i want to avoid making blanket statements. so this will just be off my experience and i may forget something.
the science:
corals are an animal that hosts zooxanthellae which is a photosynthetic dinoflagellate. the coral regulates the growth depending on the environment. photosynthesis of these protists require nitrogen and phosphate to photosynthesize providing roughly 85% the coral's energy needs in ideal situations. ideal being that if a typhoon/cloud cover isnt covering the reef for a week. - polyps out at night anyone?
a coral requires dissolved inorganic carbon to lay down their skeleton. unfortunately photosynthesis requires bicarbonate as well. these 2 processes compete for alk and people will notice stunted growth via nitrate. however elevating bicarbonate nullifies this as both have an abundance of bicarbonate for both processes to work in unison. - most of our tanks are above NSW alk for a reason.
applying this to our tank:
too much no3 and po4 with little light will brown corals. the coral will not limit zoox growth.
too much light with lack of no3 and po4 gives pale colors. (look to zeo forums) there is nothing for zoox to photosynthesize.
however if you are hitting a coral at 200 par. it cannot photosynthesize potential nutrients as fast as 800 or 1600 par that acros can willingly handle. many people talk about light shock and that some corals cant handle different levels of par when infact, their water params (environment) are not the same.
some caveats:
if your nitrate is increasing each week at 5-10ppm a week. upping light and alk will probably not null it out. carbon dosing works. waterchanges. etc.
to make an analogy....
nitrate, phosphate, and carbon is the race fuel for the coral
light is the engine.
alk - not too sure. the condition of the road racing?
too much energy with a crappy engine will do nothing.
meanwhile without alk, growth cannot occur and you can careen in to a ditch.
phosphate should be minimal as possible. it does inhibit growth but if you have none of it, growth will not occur. (gfo overdose)
im sure this post will be picked apart, but the reasoning is the same.
btw: the only reason i dose phosphate is because my tank will eat .1ppm a day
Compelling information nonetheless. However, I'm curious. Have you out this info to test within your own system and do you have any photos to support the success of it. I'm certainly not bashing your logic here, but I do know a picture is worth a thousand words.
high phosphate, not enough light... nitrate dosing....
after....
same deal
after...
seen better days...
after...
light was fine... nitrate limited. note the white tips....
return of zoox, although lighting is noticeably darker... but still shows the change (lack of white tips that changed to neon green growth tips)
...could do this all day
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I can not supply numbers and I wish I had done better visual documentation on my old 156 gallon system, however the acros in that system took off when my alk was around 11 and the nitrates had risen some. I always joked that it was the flow from 26 fish swimming by but in actuality it was more than likely the waste. After the first 3 years I stopped testing the Nitrates and Phosphates and would use the corals as more of a gauging instrument.
so far this has been my experience as well.
i wanted to try 16 dkh with abnormally high no3 and po4 and hit my corals at 1k par but i cannot go above 13 before my corals look like they will rtn and i have to do a wc to balance it back.
wish i knew how the old schoolers did it (16 alk) before the 90s. i suspect lower ph to absorb supersaturation. i could be wrong though, and they had snow storm tanks. lol
Hey Mike, you got a pic?
Well Russ, your pictures are impressive and statements make perfect sense if I was to correlate it to my (unusual) mixed reef tank. I've had great color with my SPS (growth only impressive where flow was high). My feeding is excessive, run carbon, lighting is overkill with SPS at the top under MH & LED's.
When I did test water regularly it drove me crazy with high phosphates and nitrates. I was burning myself out with large weekly water changes and my SPS were not near impressive. The time came when I decided LPS (lots of Sun Coral) were my focus, SPS would/could live or die. Cut my WC down by 1/2 the volume (still over 20% monthly) quit testing and everything in my system especially my SPS started coloring up better, growing faster and the tank as a whole began to flourish.
Which would also associate with your experience here. I also rely on corals appearance (always happy unless a heater breaks) and rarely use my testing kits.
Sorry maybe a little off topic!
Ralph are you talking about 2 cups GFO in your 85 each week? I've never tested GFO output first week, but your GFO output water actually test for Phos in one week? Ching Ching!
Great discussion and information in this thread thanks guys!
Well Russ, your pictures are impressive and statements make perfect sense if I was to correlate it to my (unusual) mixed reef tank. I've had great color with my SPS (growth only impressive where flow was high). My feeding is excessive, run carbon, lighting is overkill with SPS at the top under MH & LED's.
When I did test water regularly it drove me crazy with high phosphates and nitrates. I was burning myself out with large weekly water changes and my SPS were not near impressive. The time came when I decided LPS (lots of Sun Coral) were my focus, SPS would/could live or die. Cut my WC down by 1/2 the volume (still over 20% monthly) quit testing and everything in my system especially my SPS started coloring up better, growing faster and the tank as a whole began to flourish.
Which would also associate with your experience here. I also rely on corals appearance (always happy unless a heater breaks) and rarely use my testing kits.
Sorry maybe a little off topic!
Ralph are you talking about 2 cups GFO in your 85 each week? I've never tested GFO output first week, but your GFO output water actually test for Phos in one week? Ching Ching!
Great discussion and information in this thread thanks guys!
