More Myth-Information from the biggest source

[Spanky]

This was posted on another thread on this board. That means it's fair game. Anyone want to have a whack at all this?

>The bottom line is that corals must feed! Based on numerous studies it appears that about 70% of a coral’s nutrition needs is met by the zooxanthellae. Predation makes up about 25% of the needs, and about 5% is met by the absorption of dissolved organic materials. These needs are NOT trivial. Corals need a lot of nutrition to survive.<

>BASICALLY A TANK THAT APPROXIMATES A NATURAL REEF CREST ENVIRONMENT (WHERE SPS CORALS PREDOMINATE) SHOULD BE BEING FED ABOUT 10 OUNCES (WET WEIGHT) OF FOOD IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD.<

[galleon]

TROLL

[galleon]

Honestly, I want to know where they found a brush wide enough to paint that broad stroke, I mean, because as we all know, corals are all exactly alike.

[Minnreefer]

I am no expert but that seems like a LOT of food to add to an aquarium on a daily basis

I might add that much in a week, also correct me if I am wrong (which is very common) but if we are providing even close to the amount of light that a reef gets would not the extra food that we feed a tank be enough?

[mojoreef]

GOod grief this guy is a full time job...Maybe Butte is not far enough away??????

Mike

[Spanky]

>The bottom line is that corals must feed! Based on numerous studies it appears that about 70% of a coral’s nutrition needs is met by the zooxanthellae. Predation makes up about 25% of the needs, and about 5% is met by the absorption of dissolved organic materials. These needs are NOT trivial. Corals need a lot of nutrition to survive.<

Let me try to break it down for you guys and get you on track here.

This statement is 100% correct. However, there's no mention of what type of predation and what the corals are preying on.

>BASICALLY A TANK THAT APPROXIMATES A NATURAL REEF CREST ENVIRONMENT (WHERE SPS CORALS PREDOMINATE) SHOULD BE BEING FED ABOUT 10 OUNCES (WET WEIGHT) OF FOOD IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD.<

This is just a mis-guided huge assumption. It takes no account of the fact that the structure of the reef crest acts like a huge filter and causes sedation of this particulate matter. It implies that corals are the only thing feeding on the reef crest. Corals make up the smallest percentage. There are worms, crabs, tunicates, sponges, (you get the idea) - but the primary feeders of this flock are bacteria. Bacteria combined with cyano are what produces the nitrogen compounds that make it possible for corals to exist on a reef crest.

These two statements are the basis for the deep sand bed, feeding heavy, - well it's about where the whole thing got off track.

[ckreef]

Dang

Between the ARC forums (4 of them) the Nano forum and Minibow.com I don't get to venture around anywhere else to often.

I was slightly involved in that first thread although I took the oppisite stance --- no direct feeding.

Anyway somebody told me parts of that original thread got over into the think tank so I just had to come and see.

Dang

My only thoughts are -- the 70/25/5 break down is like an optimum ratio. But corals can substitute some of one part of that ration for another so a coral could survive on say 80/15/5 or maybe 90/8/2 or even in an overfeeding case 30/60/10

His original premis was that most people underfeed --- my premis was the oppisite, most people overfeed, which causes them lots of unwanted problems --- and almost any LFS owner would agree with me and do on a regular basis on forums such as these.

Charles

[Casey]

All I have to say is

[Spanky]

Anyone up for a round table on how corals actually feed and how the reef supplies it to them?

[ckreef]

Na -- I just liked my overfeediing 30/60/10 ratio

Hey I got an idea --- if you overfeed your tank enough maybe you could get by w/ only NO flour lighting.

[Spanky]

Well then keep this in mind. Reef water is a lot cleaner than tank water. The way an organism behaves and feeds in the wild is limited to wild conditions.

[Casey]

Originally posted by Spanky
Well then keep this in mind. Reef water is a lot cleaner than tank water. The way an organism behaves and feeds in the wild is limited to wild conditions.

Red tide Red tide

[galleon]

Originally posted by Casey
Red tide Red tide

Harmful Algal Blooms in coral reef areas are a touch and go subject that would require a book, much less a thread. For the most part, harmful algal blooms are limited to temperate waters/latitudes/currents where primary productivity is exponentially higher than both the tropics and the poles combimed. Of course there are exceptions, Just like the Gulf, with the unique situation it provides from mass industrialization, the Mississippi plume, and the current pattern.

Red tide is a pelagic dinoflagellate that requires dissolved inorganic nutrients to bloom. If nutrients in the water column are limiting (as they would be on a healthy reef), it cannot bloom. While varieties like Karenia brevis can make diurnal migrations for nutrients, remember, almost all algae on the reef survives off of benthic recycling. It takes a very special and very rare (on reefs anyway) chain of events (Trichodesmium fixing nitrogen while an upwelling event supplies phosphorous) to have a harmful algal bloom (HAB). Also, "red tide" as a taxonomic species, K. brevis, is limited to the Gulf/Caribbean. Different geographic areas have differen HAB species that all require nutrients in the water column to bloom.

Red tide is a very tricky "bug" to pin down. We know that it requires almost no competition for DIN to bloom, it may rely on planktonic cyanobacteria for nitrogen, and that when it hits a nutrient "wall" it crashes, and fast (much of the fish deaths come not only from brevetoxin and oxygen depletion from the actual dinoflagellate, but after the fact when picoplanktonic bacteria further binge on oxygen to break down the glucose-rich red tide cells.

[laddy00]

What we have to keep in mind is that water flowing through a coral reef compared to our tank is nutrient poor. What makes up for this in the wild is mass flow. Our water can have less mass flow due to the amount of nutrients in the water. This water is constantly redirected back towards the corals allowing for feeding.

[BuckWheat]

I don't feed my corals and they are growing.
If I'm doing something wrong please elaborate!

Reef poor nutrient water that has constant replacement and tank water with equipment just stirs up the same water, lets see here Hummm???

Or we missing something or is it just me?