Coral depth in tank?

[SteveWin1]

When I look up new corals that I want to get, I generally get the water parameters that they like, what they need as far as nutrition, how much flow they like, how much lighting they like and how deep in the tank they like to be. Its that last description that always has me scratching my head. Like most people, I assume, I have a set amount of light over my tank. Corals that are twice as far away from my lights (deeper) will get something a little less than 1/4th the intensity of light. So why list preferred light and depth in the tank as separate things? They don't always seem to correlate. One coral might like moderate light and to be deep in the tank and another might like low light and be in the middle of the tank. Do corals really know how deep they are? What's the rationale regarding how deep in a tank corals like to be? The bottom of a nano is much less deep than the middle of a 300g. How am I supposed to interpret this? I assume it actually matters or it wouldn't be listed...I just don't understand why it would matter. Thanks for your help.

 

[MnFish1]

When I look up new corals that I want to get, I generally get the water parameters that they like, what they need as far as nutrition, how much flow they like, how much lighting they like and how deep in the tank they like to be. Its that last description that always has me scratching my head. Like most people, I assume, I have a set amount of light over my tank. Corals that are twice as far away from my lights (deeper) will get something a little less than 1/4th the intensity of light. So why list preferred light and depth in the tank as separate things? They don't always seem to correlate. One coral might like moderate light and to be deep in the tank and another might like low light and be in the middle of the tank. Do corals really know how deep they are? What's the rationale regarding how deep in a tank corals like to be? The bottom of a nano is much less deep than the middle of a 300g. How am I supposed to interpret this? I assume it actually matters or it wouldn't be listed...I just don't understand why it would matter. Thanks for your help.

Because you're not putting your corals into a bare glass aquarium. There can be shading from other corals, etc. etc. a 1 foot depth in a tank with light x set at MAX may have a PAR value much different than a 1 foot depth with light X set at MAV X - in a tank with a lot of shading. I personally agree with you though - it doesn't necessarily make sense to quote the depth.

 

[SteveWin1]

Because you're not putting your corals into a bare glass aquarium. There can be shading from other corals, etc. etc. a 1 foot depth in a tank with light x set at MAX may have a PAR value much different than a 1 foot depth with light X set at MAV X - in a tank with a lot of shading. I personally agree with you though - it doesn't necessarily make sense to quote the depth.

Hadn't really considered shading. Great answer. Right now most of my corals are just frags, so there's not a ton of shade, but that will hopefully change as the years go by. Thanks.