Study: Coral growth in above average temperatures

[Flippers4pups]

Hello everyone!

I’m a moderately new reefer, so bear with me. Over the past year I’ve taken the marine biology class offered at my high school, and it’s inspired my love for marine organisms and coral. Because of this newfound attraction, I’ve coordinated with my school to work an independent study into my schedule. I’m looking to see the effects of higher temperatures on reef building coral growth rates, as increasing temperature is one of the most major threats to reefs worldwide today.

As of now, I’m considering 3 species for my study. Montipora digitada, Montipora capricornis, or Seriatopora hystrix. These corals have fast growth rates, making them ideal for my topic of research. I originally wanted to grow Acropora, like elkhorn or staghorn, but I’m working with limited materials, budget, and experience.

Equipment-wise, I plan to use 3 different 15 gallon octagonal tanks with minimal rock to maximize powerhead efficiency and light distribution. Lightwise, I’m still searching for a decent LED that isn’t going to break the bank. I’ve seen some cheap 30-40$ LED’s, but their reviews are generally 1-2 stars and full of dissaponted customers.
Filtration is another can of worms altogether. As the tanks are small, and held at different temperatures, sump tanks are not ideal. A side-mounted filter seems my best option as of now. Any suggestions on a good quality filter or system would be greatly appreciated.

Regarding tankmates, I’m still not sure what to go with. Probably a neon cleaner goby in each, possibly a tail spot or lawn mower blenny to keep algae growth under control. Once I make a decision on which species of coral i decide to grow, I might look into symbiotic organisms with that species and invest in those to promote healthy growth.

Any and all info, tips, suggestions, or criticisms are welcome!

The issue I see with small, unconnected tanks in a study such as this, is water pramameters. In order for the study to work, all tanks would need rock soild pramameters that match each tank. The only difference between them is temp.

This may, or may not be difficult, but would require frequent water testing and dosing, possible hand dosing to keep them the same. Around the clock monitoring would be paramount. Independent controllers for each study tank and dosing units could help keep them stable and consistent with each other, but costly.

If not controlled, the study wouldn't be all that useful, as pramameters are as linked to coral health as temp.

 

[Sallstrom]

Hello everyone!

I’m a moderately new reefer, so bear with me. Over the past year I’ve taken the marine biology class offered at my high school, and it’s inspired my love for marine organisms and coral. Because of this newfound attraction, I’ve coordinated with my school to work an independent study into my schedule. I’m looking to see the effects of higher temperatures on reef building coral growth rates, as increasing temperature is one of the most major threats to reefs worldwide today.

As of now, I’m considering 3 species for my study. Montipora digitada, Montipora capricornis, or Seriatopora hystrix. These corals have fast growth rates, making them ideal for my topic of research. I originally wanted to grow Acropora, like elkhorn or staghorn, but I’m working with limited materials, budget, and experience.

Equipment-wise, I plan to use 3 different 15 gallon octagonal tanks with minimal rock to maximize powerhead efficiency and light distribution. Lightwise, I’m still searching for a decent LED that isn’t going to break the bank. I’ve seen some cheap 30-40$ LED’s, but their reviews are generally 1-2 stars and full of dissaponted customers.
Filtration is another can of worms altogether. As the tanks are small, and held at different temperatures, sump tanks are not ideal. A side-mounted filter seems my best option as of now. Any suggestions on a good quality filter or system would be greatly appreciated.

Regarding tankmates, I’m still not sure what to go with. Probably a neon cleaner goby in each, possibly a tail spot or lawn mower blenny to keep algae growth under control. Once I make a decision on which species of coral i decide to grow, I might look into symbiotic organisms with that species and invest in those to promote healthy growth.

Any and all info, tips, suggestions, or criticisms are welcome!

Sounds interesting! We have a university student at work(public aquarium) who is doing tests for oxygen production for S. hystrix and Montipora sp in different temps and PAR levels. She is doing the tests right now so I don't know any results yet

About the experiment setup, it's usually hard to do long term tests without other factors interfere. You could have smaller tanks, like 0,5 gallons and do many replicate. At least three of each species and temp. These could use the same water, but with adjusted temp. So you only have one water system, to avoid that factor. That is what we(together with the student) have done. Take water from a large tank, heat it in a small tank, overflow from that tank to a lot of small buckets, then the water goes back to the large tank.

Just some thoughts. Good luck with your work!

/ David

 

[яєєƒ lιƒє]

Thanks again for that article on mucus, it was a great read with lots of info. Also, would a feather duster or two help with the bacteria problem? I figure with the small tank size if I got a big enough duster it would take care of a good amout of bacteria. I am doing only one species, so leaving the mucus to break down in the tank should be alright.

You explained the relationship between zoo. and food, that article explained a good amount about that relationship as well. In the article, there was a graph illustrating mucus release of different species, with Montipora digitada in the top spot. Taking this into consideration, I’ll either go with another species or take more drastic measures to combat the mucus/bacteria. I have yet to read the article you attached, but I will later today when I have some time.
Thanks again!

 

[яєєƒ lιƒє]

Great points you touched on. Water quality management is gonna be one of the toughest aspects about this study, yes. Bacterial management as well. I expect I’ll be doing pretty frequent water changes until I get parameters under control. I’ll probably set my tanks up here in the beginning of the summer, let them cycle and establish themselves, take care of any problems, then introduce the coral and begin the real study. If you have any tips about small tank management they would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[chris85]

For keeping you tank stable look in to the micro scrubbing bubbles I think it will help with the slime, bacteria, and nutrients on a small system it will also help with the oxygen if you run into a problem when you heat the water up.

As for the feather duster they eat larger organisms than bacteria like zooplankton and phytoplankton I don't think it will help but you never know.

I will try and get back with you later... By the way where are you located? Please don't give an address just a city or state!!

 

[Sallstrom]

Great points you touched on. Water quality management is gonna be one of the toughest aspects about this study, yes. Bacterial management as well. I expect I’ll be doing pretty frequent water changes until I get parameters under control. I’ll probably set my tanks up here in the beginning of the summer, let them cycle and establish themselves, take care of any problems, then introduce the coral and begin the real study. If you have any tips about small tank management they would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I'm glad to help if I can I've done some research at work(public aquarium) together with with my coworkers, so we have tried some different setups. My colleague is a phD in marine biology and I'm trying to learn as much as possible working together with him.

Please don't take what I write as critisim, IMO it's better to get the stuff right from start rather then having people criticize the results afterwards

If you start up say three tanks with their own rocks and filters, let them cycle and so on, you will have three differently working tanks. Even if they are the same from the beginning. You could do different temperatures in all three, but you can't say if it's the temperature or the tank that is causing the results you get with the corals.
So to take away the tank/water factor, we use one water system. All water comes from that system, and goes back to it.
Here is a sketch:

 

[chris85]

The next thing I wanted to explain was the relationship between food source, bacteria and an advantage possibly a downfall that I have which is virus's and microbes that are in natural seawater. But instead a friend posted this video in another thread. So something else to think about while you are planning. Enjoy

Thanks @Diesel

 

[яєєƒ lιƒє]

Great to hear I have experienced researcher’s opinions! Of course I’m completely open to criticism, I agree it’s better to get problems out of the way before than be criticized after. Putting the tanks on the same water system would be fantastic! I really appreciate the sketch you made there for me. That’s almost exactly what I’d like to do

Regarding overflow, I think i know what you’re talking about, I have a system that I’ll attach an image of that uses overflow and a pump from my sump. Only thing is, I’m working on a limited budget, so if you have any reccomendations on where to order some good, but cheap equipment they’d be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

 

[яєєƒ lιƒє]

In these pics you can see my current sump system, water flows in from a pvc pipe from the sumo from the top left corner, cycles through the tank, then overflows into the black catcher. The two curving pipes use suction to draw out the water that overflows and gravity takes it down into the sump. Would a smaller version of a system like this be effective? Open to anyone for replies, the more the merrier!

 

[Diesel]

Well,
I never gone above 82 degrees and it did speed up coral growth, but it also sped up the unwanted things too.
It also lowers your oxygen capacity.

With that said:
Tagging

That's the key, at least one.
Low oxygen due to elevated temps.
How and why can this happen?
Simple, due to run off from farming the understream in the oceans are limited to reach higher levels of the ocean.
Will see if I can find that link.
You wanna turn this into a world study @Cruz_Arias csn point you into a good direction.

 

[samnaz]

If you're still looking for hang-on-back filter options, I recommend the AquaClear filters. For my 20 gallon long I have used the AC-110 and the AC-70. The AC-110 was just too much flow for a tank that size. So, for a 15 gallon, I think the AC-70 or even the AC-50 would be your best options.

 

[Sallstrom]

Great to hear I have experienced researcher’s opinions! Of course I’m completely open to criticism, I agree it’s better to get problems out of the way before than be criticized after. Putting the tanks on the same water system would be fantastic! I really appreciate the sketch you made there for me. That’s almost exactly what I’d like to do

Regarding overflow, I think i know what you’re talking about, I have a system that I’ll attach an image of that uses overflow and a pump from my sump. Only thing is, I’m working on a limited budget, so if you have any reccomendations on where to order some good, but cheap equipment they’d be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

What I mean by overflow in this case is just drilled holes with air tubes(hoses?) in them. But I forgot to draw a larger overflow from the buckets with the heaters back to the large tank. Just in case, so the bucket doesn't flood.
I'll see if I can take some pictures on a experiment when I get back to work. It's doesn't have to be fancy, we have small plastic containers(from a restaurant) for the corals, buckets with heaters.

I'm located in Sweden, so I guess you have to find stores in the US

/ David

 

[Sallstrom]

Here's some pictures from work. Small plastic containers for the corals. Water comes from the buckets, via the small green air tubes, to the containers.

/ David

 

[Sallstrom]

Some more things about doing long term(1-3 month) growth experiments. You need to figure out how to measure growth. We use S. hystrix a lot, because frags from hysterix will do fine without glue, we just cut a piece and put it in a container. That way we can measure the weight, just the coral, no plug and glue.
Montipora can me measured by weight and surface area(we take pictures and use a program calculating the area).

/ David

 

[PhreeByrd]

My advice, FWIW, is keep things simple. I mean, really simple. I mean, really, really simple.
Bare bottom tanks, a few pieces of live rock of the same type, approximate size, and total weight (and from the same source) in each tank. The same heater in each tank. The same powerhead(s) in each tank, in the same locations. The same lights operating on the same schedule. Make each tank as identical as possible. Forget about filtration -- it's a variable that you don't need or want. Maintain the water quality with water changes, performed all at the same time with the same replacement water and the same change volume for each tank. Don't add other critters or fish, and I would not feed the tanks. There is no need, and it's another variable that could skew results.

I've kept a coral hospital tank running for several years just like this (except that it does have a small skimmer just because it can). I have rehabbed dozens of corals in this tank and never fed it or fretted over it. No additives used, and I do regular water changes. There are almost always some bristleworms in the tank, but no snails, crabs, or other (noticeable) inverts. When rehabbing LPS, I feed them directly, but this is just to accelerate healing. It really isn't a necessity.

My choice for corals in a study like this would be a montipora species, probably a capricornus since their growth is already normally very fast.
I think Sallstrom's comments about measuring growth are right on.

 

[Sallstrom]

It hard to meassure live corals and their growth without killing them

We have done this in our experiments. Take up the coral, shake it three times(to get some water of), then put it on the scale. Easy but not the best way since it's always some water left on the coral and it can differ from meassurement to meassurement. To get a better result I repeated this meassuring three times and took the avarage value. Not sure if that way was any better, but it felt more secure

Other ways to do it is to only meassure the skeleton weight. By connecting the coral to a thread and put it in a conatiner with water placed on a scale.
Or the volume: Put the coral in a bucket topped up with water and collect the water thats overflows when the corals is placed there and meassure that water volume.

/ David

 

[яєєƒ lιƒє]

That looks awesome! Is there an individual inflow and outflow for each small container? And is there one pump that moves the water from the buckets to every container, or several pumps?

 

[яєєƒ lιƒє]

Thanks for your reccomendation about the scrubbing bubbles.
Other members have told me that other organisms in the tank will be another vairable that could skew results, I’ll keep those to a minimum.
I’m located in Virginia Unfortunately, the closest pet store is only a petco so i have to make a bit of a drive to get equipment.

 

[Sallstrom]

That looks awesome! Is there an individual inflow and outflow for each small container? And is there one pump that moves the water from the buckets to every container, or several pumps?

In this case it's inflow and outflow. Might not need the outflow if you have all the containers in a large bucket(not sure the English term, but a large plastic crate where the water is collected. Then a overflow from that one back to the tank). Then water can just flow over the top of the small containers.
The water flows by gravity to the containers. So just need to pump the water up to a bucket above the containers.

Hard to explain, so please ask if I'm not explaining good enough

/ David

 

[Sallstrom]

I think the best way would be to contact a researcher if you have any University near you. Then you could discuss the setup and how to avoid variables that could affect the result. I will talk to my coworkers when I get back to work and see if they can come up with some more good points.

Maybe you could do the test with two systems, one for each temperature. But also use small containers, in that way you get replicates. And you could mix the containers randomly under the same light source. But it that case you need overflows from those containers back to the right system
Not sure you need that much filtration. You could do regular water changes(as long as you do the same for both systems). Just keep in mind to check the salinity, more evaporation in the warmer system

/ David