Bolus dosing

[Lasse]

And i got a shock after calibration - I was nearly 0.2 wrong before - When I read 8.14 before its read 7.95 now. It means that I normally swing between 7.8 and 8.1 before - I will run for a week or two if nothing happens

Sincerely Lasse

 

[SDchris]

C3 or C4 (I think @SDchris indicate C4 - but I do not know)

C3

but still it cost energy both to get and convert - if the natural CO2 pressure decrease with 50 % the processes cost more energy. and whats with all corals that not calcify?

PH dropped to 8.25 to 8.3 by CO2 addition, for 24hrs

Be careful what you wish for:
Coral hosts actively accumulate inorganic carbon for zooxanthellae to maintain symbiotic relationships

Finally, to conclusively validate the significance of DIC in maintaining the health of this symbiotic pair, we performed 1% CO2 gas dosing addition experiments to increase the DIC concentration by a factor of 1.2 times higher than the natural seawater. As expected, two species of corals lost their zooxanthellae on day 3 and day 12, respectively (Fig. 6ab)

Notably, it was high CO2 rather than low pH that caused the algae to depart from the coral compared to the HCl addition groups with the same pH

 

[Garf]

C3



Be careful what you wish for:
Coral hosts actively accumulate inorganic carbon for zooxanthellae to maintain symbiotic relationships

So calcification is partly a side effect of a mechanism to bribe symbionts to stay within the coral flesh by storing CO2?

My second day of running pH at 8.25 to 8.3 (24hrs) seems to evidence a reduction of 10% calcification compared to 8.35 to 8.4 (24hrs), the slight reduction I noticed yesterday was not test noise, it appears.

 

[Lasse]

C3



Be careful what you wish for:
Coral hosts actively accumulate inorganic carbon for zooxanthellae to maintain symbiotic relationships

Thank you for the article - I will read it. Only one thought. The test was done in a sea water there pH was depressed with CO2 to 7.0. If we have KH at 7, temp at 25 degree C and salinity - pH seven will have 9.773 mg/L. 8.3 will have 0.372 mg/L - 8,1 will have 0.6505 mg/L and the pH that I run with now 7.98 will give 0,8956. the tested CO2 concentration is around 10 times higher than the ones in our experiments - I´m not so worried with that result.

However - it rise the question of transporting large corals for a long time (>24 hour) in too little water IME Zoanthids give a better surviving rate if they are transported humid but in no water and leather corals need a lot of water to survive a 48 hours transport.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[SDchris]

So calcification is partly a side effect of a mechanism to bribe symbionts to stay within the coral flesh by storing CO2?

Not sure I agree with their conclusion. My money would be on a sudden increase in CO2 causing some internal stress response resulting in the coral kicking the zoox out. Maybe to much CO2 for the coral or overdriving the zoox creating to much O2. Over longer time scales the coral would adjust.

I suppose it might come down to why do corals calcify? Some have theorised it is a way to supply the zoox with CO2, and the calcium carbonate skeleton is merely a pile of coral poop. Under that theory, supplying an external source of CO2 would decrease calcification wouldn't it?

the tested CO2 concentration is around 10 times higher than the ones in our experiments - I´m not so worried with that result.

I'm not reading to much into the article either. Only find it interesting in the fact that every time you think you can outsmart nature it comes up with something unexpected.

 

[Lasse]

I suppose it might come down to why do corals calcify? Some have theorised it is a way to supply the zoox with CO2, and the calcium carbonate skeleton is merely a pile of coral poop. Under that theory, supplying an external source of CO2 would decrease calcification wouldn't it?

If so - why do we have trees and not only grass plains? And there are corals that do not calcify, corals that calcify without zooxanthella, and so on.. I think its more a matter of space- and photon competition.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

I had mention that the first difference I noted is that my corals that "blow" themselves up do it the first hour of light - it took 3 hours before. Here is a timelap of my euphyllia during the first hour. 1 minute between pictures.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Garf]

I had mention that the first difference I noted is that my corals that "blow" themselves up do it the first hour of light - it took 3 hours before. Here is a timelap of my euphyllia during the first hour. 1 minute between pictures.

Sincerely Lasse

I would also add that reducing pH in my tank by just 0.1pH has played havoc with my alkalinity consumption. It would appear my "Alkalinity buffer" was broken and is being repaired, lol. However, I'm still using kalk at night and as sure as I can be that my tank has had an allergic reaction to the change in pH alone. Yesterday, alkalinity consumption was very low.

 

[Lasse]

I´m getting some figures now. After calibration - my pH vary between 7.82 and 7.96. I run all light on between 10 and 13:00 and after that 64% until 20:00. I do not dose between 10:00 and 20:00. The pH rise after 10:00 is only depended of photosynthesis - IMO. Consumption of CO2 = production of CO2 + diffusion between air and water.

After 13:00 light will run with 64% of max from my armatures. &¤ % is chosen because it seems like this is the golden level - production/diffusion of CO2 is the same as the consumption- pH is stabilized around 7.96

After 20:00 will my dose of Core7:3a+b rise the pH but soon after all light gone - pH will go down in spite of dosing

This graph shows no strangeness, but if I plot KH to dosage and photoperiod, I get a diagram that is completely surprising to me. Every other day consumption of alkalinity starts around 10:30 and every other day at 14:30. I've been watching this for at least 6 days now and I don't understand anything.

Since I start this with 100 light the first 3 hours - my alkalinity demand have rise a little but it is uneven.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Oldreefer44]

Yeah, lots of "strangeness" here too. Has taken me about 20 days to get KH to stabilize at 8.5 but PH which originally went up from 7.8 to 8.2 has now sunk down to 8.0 on average. Do notice a big difference in coral coloration and growth rates in some. Getting ready to send off an ICP to see what trace elements look like after 30 days of this.

 

[Garf]

After reducing my pH and 3 or 4 days of reduced Alk consumption I can report that normal consumption has now been restored, just at a slightly lower pH.

 

[Lasse]

After reducing my pH and 3 or 4 days of reduced Alk consumption I can report that normal consumption has now been restored, just at a slightly lower pH.

An adaption period?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Superlightman]

Yeah, lots of "strangeness" here too. Has taken me about 20 days to get KH to stabilize at 8.5 but PH which originally went up from 7.8 to 8.2 has now sunk down to 8.0 on average. Do notice a big difference in coral coloration and growth rates in some. Getting ready to send off an ICP to see what trace elements look like after 30 days of this.

how you get such a high PH?

 

[Oldreefer44]

Not sure. The only changes were to change the lighting intensity and schedule to that which Fauna Marin suggests and also started using Balling Light elements. Am waiting on ICP results after a month of using the Bolus system. Plan on writing up my results, which I consider to be overall positive, once I get them, but even then it will be very difficult to know which results can be attributed to which specific action or element.

 

[GARRIGA]

Not sure. The only changes were to change the lighting intensity and schedule to that which Fauna Marin suggests and also started using Balling Light elements. Am waiting on ICP results after a month of using the Bolus system. Plan on writing up my results, which I consider to be overall positive, once I get them, but even then it will be very difficult to know which results can be attributed to which specific action or element.

Perhaps another month with only change being removal of the FM Balling Light and replace that with typical Balling. Later ICP from same testing company can be compared to these results which become your baseline.

 

[Oldreefer44]

I am anticipating an issue with minor trace elements with the resolution being dosing them separately versus mixed in with the 3 base elements because so far I am having to dose far more KH than for CA. Otherwise I am very happy with the results so don't really want to head down another rabbit hole.

 

[Garf]

I am anticipating an issue with minor trace elements with the resolution being dosing them separately versus mixed in with the 3 base elements because so far I am having to dose far more KH than for CA. Otherwise I am very happy with the results so don't really want to head down another rabbit hole.

Apart from the discrepancies with the alkalinity portion, looking at the balling light calcium calculator , it says 9.1 mls calcium solution will raise 100 litres, by 10 mg/L. Sounds like a very potent calcium source?

 

[Oldreefer44]

Yes. Same with Mg. I am currently dosing 400ml of KH and only 40 for CA and Mg. Should have ICP results next week so very curious.

 

[Garf]

I've been running the tank @ pH 8.2 this week, can't find any significant Alk consumption reduction when compared to pH8.3, 8.4, or 8.5.

 

[Lasse]

I have run some experiences with "bolus" light schedule and only dosing between 22:00 and 10:00. There is some result coming in but this time - I will not publish before I have steady result with time.

Sincerely Lasse