Coral Farm Acros

[coralboi56]

Howdy,

Recently I made the realization that a lot of coral farms/fish shops have acros in medium or even low flow, and sub par light according to their requirements, yet they always thrive and grow. Why/how does this happen?

 

[randomfishdude]

Not all corals need that recommend setting. I have all my corals in low light but I run a long exposure.

I also have sps in low flow. Sometimes they just don't care.

 

[UMALUM]

My guess is lower light usually results in better color but we're talking two totally different beasts. I would say a good grow out facility would sacrifice growth for health and color while local shops are in it to flip it so growth is of little concern. I don't think acros need a tremendous amount of flow if being housed without fish, sand, and rock. My flow is to keep the tank clean which then keeps the sticks clean.

 

[PotatoPig]

Howdy,

Recently I made the realization that a lot of coral farms/fish shops have acros in medium or even low flow, and sub par light according to their requirements, yet they always thrive and grow. Why/how does this happen?

Was talking about PAR with the folks at my LFS as when they demonstrated their par meter their systems were way low compared to what a lot of people run.

The gist of their explanation was too low par might mean slower growth, but if the coral is struggling due to low light the symptoms develop slowly so they have time to correct. If they run in higher par they get faster growth but issues associated with too high light develop very quickly and can kill easily kill coals, resulting in stock loss. So they run low par. Softies and LPS at about 70, SPS at about 150-175.

I speculate the secret sauce is they have equipment and manpower for maintenance that’ll achieve high water quality while spot feeding much more regularly than a home setup.