So I was watching BRS TV the other day...

[Dilan Patel]

BRS got me thinking the other day with elevated elements. Who here has wondered if elevated chemicals could lead to 50% more growth. I am wondering what you guys know about this topic and if anyone has tried it or run their tanks at elevated levels.

I run mine at 8dkh with 420 calc and 1500mag.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Depends on what organism you are asking about, but it is reasonably well known that availability of carbonate/bicarbonate is a main limiting factor in normal seawater for increasing the growth rate of hard corals.

So alkalinity and pH are the main limiting factors.

Faster calcifying corals need more nutrients to keep up with that calcification rate, but adding more nutrients without the alk don’t make them grow faster,

Most other elements by themselves likely won’t make hard corals grow faster. By when alk is raised high enough, something else may become limiting to growth rates, and I’ve not seen any evidence of what that might be.