The whole article pretty much says it, but here is a snippet:
This is tough since they increased both N and P... but you linked the article... and they introduced co2 as well. Either way, it just goes to show how hard it is to really glean this or that from a study from another ecosystem, even if they are related in a distant way.
This is easy enough to see in our own tank. If you just naturally and slowly lower N and P to NSW type levels, coralline explodes and so does calcification and growth to a level where a tank of 1" frags can all be cantaloupe sized in 30-36 months (not that is always a good thing, especially in small tanks). I do realize that the "slowly" and "naturally" part is they key here and that most people who are against NSW levels probably screwed up one or the other of these and went too fast or used some media wrongly. I just use 3" of sand and real live rock to keep N about .1 and chaeto, lots of skimming and water changes to keep P and 2-3 PPB - I don't really do anything but this.
I do have some abstract thoughts that higher N and P might be good for tanks that use cut-spectrum LED lighting, but these are not well informed and are just thoughts collected from message board posts. If anybody cares to read them, I have them here in posts 15 and 17... take these while a while pile of salt since they are just supposition. I have had some private discussions where people are trying to study this and there might be something to all of this, but it will take a lot of time to figure it all out.
Effect of nutrient enrichment The N or P treatments did not result in a significant decrease in growth rate at low concentrations during Period 2 (p = 0.54, p = 0.08). However, the growth rate at high nutrient concentrations during Period 3 was significantly less than in Periods 1 and 2 (p < 0.05).
This is tough since they increased both N and P... but you linked the article... and they introduced co2 as well. Either way, it just goes to show how hard it is to really glean this or that from a study from another ecosystem, even if they are related in a distant way.
This is easy enough to see in our own tank. If you just naturally and slowly lower N and P to NSW type levels, coralline explodes and so does calcification and growth to a level where a tank of 1" frags can all be cantaloupe sized in 30-36 months (not that is always a good thing, especially in small tanks). I do realize that the "slowly" and "naturally" part is they key here and that most people who are against NSW levels probably screwed up one or the other of these and went too fast or used some media wrongly. I just use 3" of sand and real live rock to keep N about .1 and chaeto, lots of skimming and water changes to keep P and 2-3 PPB - I don't really do anything but this.
I do have some abstract thoughts that higher N and P might be good for tanks that use cut-spectrum LED lighting, but these are not well informed and are just thoughts collected from message board posts. If anybody cares to read them, I have them here in posts 15 and 17... take these while a while pile of salt since they are just supposition. I have had some private discussions where people are trying to study this and there might be something to all of this, but it will take a lot of time to figure it all out.
Crunching Numbers at LFS - Radion, Nitrate, Phosphate
Purchased some corals at the LFS today, and took the opportunity to evaluate lighting and nutrients. They use Radion G4s for lighting. PPFD (or PAR, if you will) ranges from 75 to 175 micromole/m2/sec. Photoperiod is 11 hours at this spectral quality: UV-A 2.8% Violet 19.6% Blue 67.8%...
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