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Color and growth influenced by water flow


Timfish

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Thought I 'd post this picture of an acro colony that has both different colors and different growth form and polyp extension influenced by the water flow over it. The left side is pretty much completely green with a tight dense growth form. The photo's don't show it very well (smart phone is still smarter than me hmm.png ) but right side is mostly brown with just green tips, a more open growth form and very good polyp extension.

post-1247-0-48065100-1352426813_thumb.jp

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Does that mean that water flow is more "important" than the amount of light, as far as the coral color is concerned? Any comment on that?

Very good question and I don't have an answer except for "maybe". Here's a link to a two tone Birdsnest that's caused by lighting conditions I posted a couple of months back3. What intrigues my about this acro is there is very good research showing coloration is influenced by light intensity and pigmentation is increased as protection against too much light.1, 2 The light distribution on this colony clearly demonstrates the issue is more complex as the distribution of the green pigmentation is clearly influenced by water flow as well as light intensity (if the colony was under less intense lighting the green pigmentation would be less). What I do not know and don't have the resources to easliy determine is what the is distribution of the symbiotic Sympodinium spp dinoflagellates. Is the brown coloration indicative of higher concentrations of these algae, is there actually a variation in the distribution of the algae through out the colony? Is it indicative of different species being used in the same colony or is it indicative of different feeding mechanisms?

1 http://www.int-res.c...oa/m364p097.pdf

2 http://jeb.biologist...13/21/3644.full

3 http://www.austinree...-12-inch-makes/

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Common sense tells me that the coloration depends on more factors than just light. I am pretty sure the water flow is important as well as alkalinity, Mg concentration et cetera. The problem is to find the optimal conditions for each species. Corals (photosynthetic) need the dinoflagellates, however too many cause the color to become brownish, too little results in bleaching and coral death.

Thanks for the links.

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  • 6 years later...

Bump.  What surprised me when I showed the pictures to Dana Riddle was his comment that this was the first photographic evidence of water flow being the influencing factor in coloration.

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Anything change with that colony you originally posted? Got a buddy who's got great color and growth from his sps... but they're thin branched and not the best polyp extension. Flame angel could be a polyp extension culprit... among other things... but the thin branched growth makes me wonder if its it's a flow pattern/strength issue. 

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10 hours ago, Reefpuck said:

Anything change with that colony you originally posted? Got a buddy who's got great color and growth from his sps... but they're thin branched and not the best polyp extension. Flame angel could be a polyp extension culprit... among other things... but the thin branched growth makes me wonder if its it's a flow pattern/strength issue. 

Wish I did.  The client moved to San Jose.  Initially after shipping them thier corals things went well then power was lost to the system and most everything was lost. :(

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51 minutes ago, BobcatReefer said:

BRS has been focusing on this in their recent video series.

It's good to see someone trying research this!   Sadly disseminating it still has to deal with people unwilling to update their understanding of how reef systems work.  I"ll read a quote by resarcher's saying "the link between coral science and aquaculture is still poorly developed."  then I have individuals who likes to present themselves as people of science tell me the research I post doesn't apply, and they'll acknowledge they haven't had the time to read it, I'm dumbfounded sometimes.   The whole thing with phosphates is a perfect example;  for a couple decades reefers were told to keep phosphate at or below .003 mg/l (ppm) and even though Wiedenmann and D' Angelo published thier research 7 years ago showing how detrimental it was to corals it's still firmly entrenched in many aquarists dogma

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Finally someone said it.

I, like Ty have spend the better part of 5 years growing corals and killing corals and a literal lifetime growing plants and crops and trees and roses and anything else i wanted to grow.  Ty has been at corals longer.  I have found little evidence to link most aquarium based academic papers to fact in the real world.  There are simply too many variables in our aquariums to create any thing that could be slightly mistaken as scientific procedure.  And yes I have read many of these papers and found 50% of the time the conclusion to be 100% opposite of what I have experienced in the real world.

In simple english if it works for other and you the "why and how" is noise.  Working for years isn't an accident or an isolated incidence.

 

Edited by Reburn
clarification
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and further,

Many industy giants have know for decades that light and flow play a big factor on color and growth and polyp extension.  Why else would so many vendors list those specific vital stats on there pages???????

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Sorry to hear Ty...been wondering why you haven't been on here as much. I obviously didn't see whats going on...that's probably because I browse quickly over everything before getting back to work (busy life as well). 

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56 minutes ago, eddius-maximus said:

I was at Ty’s house a couple days ago. If he told me his secret to his ridiculous tank was throwing dirty gym socks into it, I’d be at the gym getting a membership right now

Same here. I think he's throwing those delicious egg rolls he orders for his group meetings in his sump.

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ouch

 

For clarification Ty, the tank you saw at my house was water, sand, rock, fish and corals was from a 450 gallon UNLS system that had to be dissmantelled on very short notice.  I do feel some ownership as I built the 350 gallon acrylic tank, stand and canopy and installed the aquascaping.  My friend, who technically owned it, was very aggressive about keeping itas an UNLS and when I tested with Red Sea and Elos there were no detectable nitrates or phosphates.  Unfortunately after moving there were repeated brown jelly infections that would reappear a month or two after dipping the corals.

 

As annoying as it was losing the A. echinada it it turn out to be a very fortuitous series of events.  I was able to demonstrate iodine could be used in tank to treat tissue loss and a coral could recover.  Additionally, the frustration from losing because I didn't stay on top of the anthelia motivated me to find better ways to control anthelia which led to the use of stainless steel straws.  It's much simpler now to control invasive/aggressive species.

 

As a scientist I would expect you to know the importance of being honest and accurate.  So I must say I was pretty disappointed and dismayed when you lied about going 4 years without a water change.  Justifying your lie by saying it wasn't a "systemic" water change, especially as it was part of fixing a problem with your reef system, struck me as inane.

 

I can understand the emphasis on color and growth.  Unfortunately there's no coralation between color and/or growth with healthy.   My perception of healthy has been blown out of the water, there is just no gross physical characteristic that denotes a healthy coral.  Multiple papers looking a physiological markers have shown even though a coral may appear to be "healthy" it can in fact take months for physiological markers (like internal lipid levels) to return to normal after a stress event (like simply being moved).   Since many of the pathogens of corals are found in the holobiont, messing with environmental conditions can impact a coral's immune system and reduce it's resistance.

 

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