Coffee in the Reef Tank

[Squirrel_reefer]

So a lady I work with feeds her flowers coffee and packs coffee grinds into the soil. Her flowers love it and they bloom like crazy. She had a rose bulb the size of my fist once.

So I got to thinking, why not try to dose some into a reef tank or target feed a hungry coral?

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I'm sure there are a million reasons not too, but from a chemistry standpoint what sort of harm or good could some caffine in the tank do? any reactions to the freefloating Ions in the tank? wired up stressed out fish? anyone try this before?

 

[helen ann]

following out of pure curiosity ...

 

[Willz]

It works for roses because it is acidic, which roses need. I doubt it would have any positive effects and if dosed in large enough quantities would definitely lower your pH. Here are some numbers from google.com that show the pH of some coffees:

Sumatran Coffee (low acidity) 4.6
Panama Coffee (medium acidity) 4.5

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

It works for roses because it is acidic, which roses need. I doubt it would have any positive effects and if dosed in large enough quantities would definitely lower your pH. Here are some numbers from google.com that show the pH of some coffees:

Sumatran Coffee (low acidity) 4.6
Panama Coffee (medium acidity) 4.5

Im thinking more along the lines of target feeding a hungry coral?

 

[Willz]

Im thinking more along the lines of target feeding a hungry coral?

This is really low pH to be squirting around coral. I haven't tried it, but I would guess it would cause the coral to retract its polyps.

 

[Reeferdood]

So a lady I work with feeds her flowers coffee and packs coffee grinds into the soil. Her flowers love it and they bloom like crazy. She had a rose bulb the size of my fist once.

So I got to thinking, why not try to dose some into a reef tank or target feed a hungry coral?

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I'm sure there are a million reasons not too, but from a chemistry standpoint what sort of harm or good could some caffine in the tank do? any reactions to the freefloating Ions in the tank? wired up stressed out fish? anyone try this before?

Following just to see what kind of answers come out of this one!
Inquiring mind wants to know!

 

[Willz]

Just in case anyone wants to know or think about it, a dentist has posted up pH values for a lot of common drinks:

http://www.sheltondentistry.com/patient-information/ph-values-common-drinks/

I drink a ton of Diet Coke and "dissolves enamel" doesn't sound too awful positive (Diet Coke 3.28 pH, enamel dissolves below 5.5 pH). Yikes.

 

[dragon99]

Many of us routinely dump acetic acid into our tanks. So I wouldn't give the pH of coffee a second thought...

Now as to what it might do beneficially, someone smarter would have to say if corals can take up caffeine or any of the other compounds in coffee. I predict caffeine will make reds pop

 

[Bronc]

Heck, just drop a Viagra in there!

 

[Willz]

Not sure if this study would apply to corals, but it looks like spiders weave the best webs on LSD:

http://www.trinity.edu/jdunn/spiderdrugs.htm

Caffeine doesn't look so hot.

 

[Orcus Varuna]

Edit

 

[Orcus Varuna]

In theory caffeine would bind to adenosine receptors in cnidarians just like in humans. Weather this would actually have an effect on coral metabolism and could even be taken up by cnidarians (if say caffeine was infused into a food source) would definitely need to be studied in a laboratory setting, if we want to determine any potential efficacy/benefits caffeine may have.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'll assume this is not just trolling and give an answer.

The grounds in the flowers seem like a fine way to make potting soil. It holds moisture, for example. I doubt it does anything else notably useful for the plants. They almost certainly do nothing useful in a reef tank.

Liquid coffee itself contains all sorts of organic molecules (see link below), but generally at fairly low concentrations. I'm not sure why one would want to add them to a reef tank. There may be a small effect when bacteria consume them, like dosing vodka or vinegar. But a SMALL amount since coffee is so "dilute".

This describes some of the many organics in coffee:

http://www.ift.org/~/media/Knowledge Center/Publications/Books/Samples/IFTPressBook_Coffee_PreviewChapter.pdf

from it:

"The amount of soluble solids in the brewed coffee varies from 2 to 6 g/100-mL cup [140]."

Many of those will be inert particulate chunks, but even if all of them were to be metabolizable organics, it is similar or less potent than vinegar and more dilute than vodka.

As too specific effects, there are just too many to address. Even in people the effects are complicated and often hard to reproduce aside from the effects of caffeine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This artical suggests caffeine causes bleaching of corals, but the doses were VERY high (like the concentration is a cup of coffee itself).

http://www.urop.uci.edu/SURP/sample_proposals/SURP Social Ecology 4.pdf

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

I'll assume this is not just trolling and give an answer.

I am dead serious

 

[Squirrel_reefer]

This artical suggests caffeine causes bleaching of corals, but the doses were VERY high (like the concentration is a cup of coffee itself).

http://www.urop.uci.edu/SURP/sample_proposals/SURP Social Ecology 4.pdf

I'm talking maybe 2-4 ml in a solution of tank water around 2fl/oz

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm talking maybe 2-4 ml in a solution of tank water around 2fl/oz

I cant see any likely benefit.

 

[Orcus Varuna]

I too am operating under the assumption that this is not a troll... So with that in mind I think caffeine is the only component of coffee even worth investigating here and would likely need to be ingested in some way by the coral to have any effect. However, quantifying the uptake of caffeine by cnidarian adenosine receptors and correlating this to increased metabolic rates (i.e. Increased growth) would be nearly impossible. But it is fun to think about in theory [emoji846]

 

[Rybren]

Heck, just drop a Viagra in there!

Turns soft corals into hard corals?

 

[AcroNem]

I too, can't see any good that would come of that. I enjoy reading ideas like this and giving them serious thought as to what the outcome would be. But I wouldn't go dosing it into a home reef system, I'd agree to say that any testing for this (caffeine, not coffee) should be in a lab setting. Even with that said, not a single thing I have studied or tried personally tell me there would be any benefit. I know someone who had a cup of coffee fall off of a shelf by her system and fall in to the display. She reported that the protein skimmer acted up for some time after, fish behaving quite weirdly, but other than that it was fine. How much of her explanation of the fish was accurate will always be a mystery. Anyway, those are my thoughts.