Parameter and other environmental relationships

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I was just looking for some information on the relationship between various elements, nutrients, lighting, and flow. Just as an example, is a high nutrient system less tolerant of higher par or flow rates?

It's interesting to see how one person can blast a coral with flow but the next person will have the same coral bailout. One will bleach with high par but the other person will have the same coral color up.

I love the crazy complexities of this hobby but sometimes the rabbit holes are serious!

 

[dvgyfresh]

Following , I read about this somewhere but can’t remember lol like high alk goes with high nutrients as well as bright lighting. Low alk and high phosphate could lead to corals growing faster than their skeleton ect..

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Following , I read about this somewhere but can’t remember lol like high alk goes with high nutrients as well as bright lighting. Low alk and high phosphate could lead to corals growing faster than their skeleton ect..

Yup, this is exactly the type of thing I was thinking of. I saw a great explanation here recently about how burned tips are caused in low nutrient systems and it was fascinating, and it got me wondering about other interactions like that. I'm having one of those million questions days lol.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Some fun things to google , red field ratio , cryptic refugium , DOC released by macro algae

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There really are not many significant and proven interrelationships to worry about, except the concern that at high alk, some SPS corals may get burnt tips if nutrients are too low, and that may be because their skeletons grow faster than the tissue can keep up.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

There really are not many significant and proven interrelationships to worry about, except the concern that at high alk, some SPS corals may get burnt tips if nutrients are too low, and that may be because their skeletons grow faster than the tissue can keep up.

How burned tips work was an interesting one for me. The implication always seemed to be that the alk was somehow burning them but the revelation that it's actually causing the skeleton to outgrow the tissue was one of those wow moments in reef chemistry.

What I'm curious about, and maybe this is more a question of reef nutrition than chemistry, but will a coral in an ULNS need more light and flow to compensate for the lack of nutrients in the water? Part of me says no since it's my understanding (and I could be wrong, I'm often wrong) that a true ULNS is a heavy in heavy out method of reef keeping so nutrients do go in they just don't stay there. Although I do imagine flow might help bring food to corals in such a system.

So, there isn't any strong relationship between lighting or flow and say something like calcium uptake or alkalinity consumption? I guess maybe in a roundabout way with possible increase of photosynthesis raising pH but not directly?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How burned tips work was an interesting one for me. The implication always seemed to be that the alk was somehow burning them but the revelation that it's actually causing the skeleton to outgrow the tissue was one of those wow moments in reef chemistry.

What I'm curious about, and maybe this is more a question of reef nutrition than chemistry, but will a coral in an ULNS need more light and flow to compensate for the lack of nutrients in the water? Part of me says no since it's my understanding (and I could be wrong, I'm often wrong) that a true ULNS is a heavy in heavy out method of reef keeping so nutrients do go in they just don't stay there. Although I do imagine flow might help bring food to corals in such a system.

So, there isn't any strong relationship between lighting or flow and say something like calcium uptake or alkalinity consumption? I guess maybe in a roundabout way with possible increase of photosynthesis raising pH but not directly?

I've not seen any clear correlations on these other things, but there also are not likely any studies to try to tease them out.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I don’t have any scientific references but I have read that high light and low nutrient is not good, the corals need all the building blocks fkr growth - light and nutrient and lacking one will lead to imbalanced growth of coral. This is for tru low nutrient not heavy in and heavy out which is ideal