Two SPS Questions for the Experts

[Scott.h]

I'm sure there is more to it (genetics?). But light and water move to have to play a part to some extent.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

1. Turning brown usually indicates too little light, bleaching obviously too much. Just make sure all your parameters are stable before questioning your lights.

2. In my experience more flow makes the corals encrusting than grow vertically. If they are taking off vertically right away that tells me that they feel stable enough with the flow you are presenting to grow that way.

[emoji1360][emoji1360]

 

[Rick.45cal]

I think everyone seems to be overlooking an important concept. We are dealing with colonies! Colonies are not single individuals with identical genetics, it's a community of individual organisms all living together. You can't think of corals as individuals, They aren't! The community may share similar physiological traits with each other, but they are a genetic mosaic of unique individuals.

Look at ant colonies, they are all similar in structure within species and even genus, but individual colonies possess their own unique characteristics. Take our cities, they all serve the same purpose, we are the same species, but every city is it's own unique structure, some of it is because of geography, some of it is because we are individuals. The purpose of the cities are the same.

So really y'all are trying to figure out why communities of individuals within species create different unique structures based on an extreme number of external variables.

I'm gonna grab my popcorn.

 

[d2mini]

I think everyone seems to be overlooking an important concept. We are dealing with colonies! Colonies are not single individuals with identical genetics, it's a community of individual organisms all living together. You can't think of corals as individuals, They aren't! The community may share similar physiological traits with each other, but they are a genetic mosaic of unique individuals.

Look at ant colonies, they are all similar in structure within species and even genus, but individual colonies possess their own unique characteristics. Take our cities, they all serve the same purpose, we are the same species, but every city is it's own unique structure, some of it is because of geography, some of it is because we are individuals. The purpose of the cities are the same.

So really y'all are trying to figure out why communities of individuals within species create different unique structures based on an extreme number of external variables.

I'm gonna grab my popcorn.

 

[Flyingbulldog]

Following

 

[Rick.45cal]

Dennis, I know this doesn't directly relate to your two questions, but here is some interesting information regarding physiology of acropora Cervicornis and factors that can influence that physiology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4182308/

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

I think everyone seems to be overlooking an important concept. We are dealing with colonies! Colonies are not single individuals with identical genetics, it's a community of individual organisms all living together. You can't think of corals as individuals, They aren't! The community may share similar physiological traits with each other, but they are a genetic mosaic of unique individuals.

Look at ant colonies, they are all similar in structure within species and even genus, but individual colonies possess their own unique characteristics. Take our cities, they all serve the same purpose, we are the same species, but every city is it's own unique structure, some of it is because of geography, some of it is because we are individuals. The purpose of the cities are the same.

So really y'all are trying to figure out why communities of individuals within species create different unique structures based on an extreme number of external variables.

I'm gonna grab my popcorn.

Very true, we're just making generalizations to help understand why we may come across the death of an acro relating to light

 

[Rick.45cal]

Very true, we're just making generalizations to help understand why we may come across the death of an acro relating to light

I was referring more to the encrusting vs. branching element of the discussion. Don't get me wrong, I think it is an extremely interesting subject, it's just a very very broad one. I'm not trying to take away from it, but merely adding my perspective of the complexities of discussing coral physiology.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

Woops, I was thinking back to a different thread where we were talking about some issues someone was having with an acro bleaching out.. my bad

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Woops, I was thinking back to a different thread where we were talking about some issues someone was having with an acro bleaching out.. my bad

You must have drink too much vodka meant for your tank :D

 

[dave57]

Too long of a photoperiod, too much UV/white light, changes in lighting schedules, increasing intensities all cause paleness in certain sps. Also forgot to mention hot spots are contributors to uneven coloration (paleness). No expert but just my experiences

 

[Ashish Patel]

I've read a lot about this subject and it very difficult to say until observe sps in your tank and measure ALK, phosphates. I've studied a lot of tanks and to me a healthy coral should encrust and grow vertically simultaneously. Too much flow and light = encrusting too much. too less light and flow = growing vertical more. I have noticed 1" frags like to encrust their plugs first but I've found if you have less light intensity or photoperiod and adequate trace elements SPS will do better in lower light. I had nothing but issues running 250-350 PAR in my tank and I've also found running LED at a set intensity for too long is sometimes the reason why they fade. Now I have no more than 3 hrs of max intensity and the remaining is just slow ramp and slow ramp down with T5 supplements. Do you best to measure ALK with a hanna checker on a daily basis and document how much carbonate the corals are taking in. I've noticed a 5ML increase when lowering light intensity and increasing flow so its just trial and error. IME Less is always more and in this hobby we tend to overdo flow, lighting, and running our tanks too clean - find the best balance in your tank where your corals grow the fastest and stick with it.


Take this brown coral I got, it arrived in humid weather and had no hope for it threw it behind the rockwork for 1 month and by default it survived being in probably 50PAR. Later added it to the rockwork and put it in 200 -250PAR and 5 months later it turned into this.

 

[vio]

I'm not an expert but in my experience, darker/brown colors usually mean too little light or too much nutrients. Also, pale/light colors on SPS usually mean too much light or ultra low nutrients. There are a lot of other things that can affect it but those are the things I would look into first. If you have access to a PAR meter, that would be a good start.

For the second question, flow is the first thing I would check. The frags that I have under really turbulent flow tend to encrust and anchor themselves on the rock before they start shooting up. Lighting can also affect how the corals grow. A good example for me was my red robin staghorn. When I got it, I put it close to the surface of the water. The growth was almost tabling. I moved it near the bottom of the tank since it's a fast grower and the branches started to shoot up like stags.

+1,
Some time , even 2" distance make a difference, up or down , i am PRO super flow , 8 pumps + return in 300 Gal. encrust first a lot ( aggressive flow) then up , less flow will look like stick . You have to move around until found the right spot ( Light and flow).