I've been in the reef hobby for 5 years now and have always stuck to LPS and soft corals. I have a few SPS in my tank now and have not seen any growth in them over the past few months. I have also noticed some algae growing on the Pavona. I have a green slimer, red digitata, green Pavona and red monti cap (newly added). I am dosing Tropic Marin all for reef. The tank is a Red Sea Reefer 250. Lights are 2 AI Prime HDs and 1 Hydra 32. I've always tested my parameters with the Salifert test kits, but recently sent my water to Saltwateraquarium.com and these are the results.
I'm also dosing 5ml NOPOX per day.
These are my parameters:
ALK 122
PH 7.8
PHOS 0.3
CA 456
MG 1453
AMMO 0.2
NITRATE 0.0
NITRATE 16
Stop the NoPox and be sure to do water changes. It's a form of carbon dosing and is adding labile DOC to promote microbial growth. It's anybody's guess if the microbial growth being promoted is beneficial or detrimental to corals. If you want to read up on DOC here's a data bomb:
"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems
Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes
Microbial view of Coral Decline
Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont
BActeria and Sponges
Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)
Indirect effects of algae on coral: algae‐mediated, microbe‐induced coral mortality
Benthic primary producers in tropical reef ecosystems can alter biogeochemical cycling and microbial processes in the surrounding seawater. In order to quantify these influences, we measured rates of photosynthesis, respiration, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) exudate release by the dominant...
peerj.com
Role of elevated organic carbon levels and microbial activity in coral mortality
Effects of Coral Reef Benthic Primary Producers on Dissolved Organic Carbon and Microbial Activity
Algae releases significantly more DOC into the water than coral.
Benthic primary producers in marine ecosystems may significantly alter biogeochemical cycling and microbial processes in their surrounding environment. To examine these interactions, we studied dissolved organic matter release by dominant benthic taxa and subsequent microbial remineralization in...
journals.plos.org
Pathologies and mortality rates caused by organic carbon and nutrient stressors in three Caribbean coral species.
DOC caused coral death but not high nitrates, phosphates or ammonium.
Planar optodes were used to visualize oxygen distribution patterns associated with a coral reef associated green algae (Chaetomorpha sp.) and a hermatypic coral (Favia sp.) separately, as standalone organisms, and placed in close proximity mimicking coral-algal interactions. Oxygen patterns were...
peerj.com
Biological oxygen demand optode analysis of coral reef-associated microbial communities exposed to algal exudates
Exposure to exudates derived from turf algae stimulated higher oxygen drawdown by the coral-associated bacteria.
Algae-derived dissolved organic matter has been hypothesized to induce mortality of reef building corals. One proposed killing mechanism is a zone of hypoxia created by rapidly growing microbes. To investigate this hypothesis, biological oxygen ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Microbial ecology: Algae feed a shift on coral reefs
Human pressures on coral reefs are giving macroalgae a competitive advantage over reef-building corals. These algae support larger, and potentially pathogenic, microbial populations that are metabolically primed for less-efficient, yet faster, carbohydrate remineralization, perpetuating a...
www.nature.com
Coral and macroalgal exudates vary in neutral sugar composition and differentially enrich reef bacterioplankton lineages.
Increasing algal cover on tropical reefs worldwide may be maintained through feedbacks whereby algae outcompete coral by altering microbial activity. We hypothesized that algae and coral release compositionally distinct exudates that differentially alter bacterioplankton growth and community...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Sugar enrichment provides evidence for a role of nitrogen fixation in coral bleaching
Labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a major pollutant in coastal marine environments affected by anthropogenic impacts, and may significantly con…
www.sciencedirect.com
Excess labile carbon promotes the expression of virulence factors in coral reef bacterioplankton
Coastal pollution and algal cover are increasing on many coral reefs, resulting in higher dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations. High DOC concentrations strongly affect microbial activity in reef waters and select for copiotrophic, often potentially virulent microbial populations. High...
www.nature.com
Unseen players shape benthic competition on coral reefs.
Recent work has shown that hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic matter (OM) from algae disrupts the function of the coral holobiont and promotes the invasion of opportunistic pathogens, leading to coral morbidity and mortality. Here we refer to these dynamics as the (3)DAM [dissolved organic...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Allelochemicals Produced by Brown Macroalgae of the Lobophora Genus Are Active against Coral Larvae and Associated Bacteria, Supporting Pathogenic Shifts to Vibrio Dominance.
Diverse microbial communities associate with coral tissues and mucus, providing important protective and nutritional services, but once disturbed, the microbial equilibrium may shift from a beneficial state to one that is detrimental or pathogenic. Macroalgae (e.g., seaweeds) can physically and...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Macroalgae decrease growth and alter microbial community structure of the reef-building coral, Porites astreoides.
With the continued and unprecedented decline of coral reefs worldwide, evaluating the factors that contribute to coral demise is of critical importance. As coral cover declines, macroalgae are becoming more common on tropical reefs. Interactions between these macroalgae and corals may alter the...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Macroalgal extracts induce bacterial assemblage shifts and sublethal tissue stress in Caribbean corals.
Benthic macroalgae can be abundant on present-day coral reefs, especially where rates of herbivory are low and/or dissolved nutrients are high. This study investigated the impact of macroalgal extracts on both coral-associated bacterial assemblages and sublethal stress response of corals. Crude...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Biophysical and physiological processes causing oxygen loss from coral reefs.
Analysis of 60 sites in three ocean basins suggests that overgrowth of fleshy algae on coral reefs supports higher microbial abundances dominated by copiotrophic, potentially pathogenic bacteria via the provision of dissolved inorganic carbon.
I've been in the reef hobby for 5 years now and have always stuck to LPS and soft corals. I have a few SPS in my tank now and have not seen any growth in them over the past few months. I have also noticed some algae growing on the Pavona. I have a green slimer, red digitata, green Pavona and red monti cap (newly added). I am dosing Tropic Marin all for reef. The tank is a Red Sea Reefer 250. Lights are 2 AI Prime HDs and 1 Hydra 32. I've always tested my parameters with the Salifert test kits, but recently sent my water to Saltwateraquarium.com and these are the results.
I'm also dosing 5ml NOPOX per day.
These are my parameters:
ALK 122
PH 7.8
PHOS 0.3
CA 456
MG 1453
AMMO 0.2
NITRATE 0.0
NITRATE 16
Dont worry about nitrite level with your tank Unless sky high and I would pull off Nopox which is often an alternative and not a solution. Numbers look decent and Po4 needs to come down to .08-.1)
Some effective methods are (teaspoon of GFO), skimmer, salgae scrubber and daily 2 galln water changes.
Are you using tap water by chance?
Akso overfeeding can be a cause as well as use of reef roids coral foods
He posted .3. Not .o3. That is a little high for sps but ive heard people keep it at .5 and sps are fine.
Just give the sps time. If they are not bleaching then they are just biding time until they take off. Those are pretty good growers. Dont move em around. Every time you move em you set em back.
He posted .3. Not .o3. That is a little high for sps but ive heard people keep it at .5 and sps are fine.
Just give the sps time. If they are not bleaching then they are just biding time until they take off. Those are pretty good growers. Dont move em around. Every time you move em you set em back.
Dont worry about nitrite level with your tank Unless sky high and I would pull off Nopox which is often an alternative and not a solution. Numbers look decent and Po4 needs to come down to .08-.1)
Some effective methods are (teaspoon of GFO), skimmer, salgae scrubber and daily 2 galln water changes.
Are you using tap water by chance?
Akso overfeeding can be a cause as well as use of reef roids coral foods
I am running a skimmer and have tried GFO in a media bag in the past with no change. That's one reason why I was trying NOPOX, but I will start doing 20 gallon water changes every 2 weeks and see if that makes a difference. I also have a RODI unit with a TDS meter that I make my water with. I feed pellets or frozen food once a day. My fish are:
1 yellow tang
2 clownfish
1 damsel
1 coral beauty
1 purple dottyback
1 diamond goby
