Many reef keepers are under the impression that if they get water.
Quality parameters to match a certain formula,
their corals will color up and thrive.
This chasing numbers often leads Aquarists to constantly make changes and
adjustments to the aquarium at the expense of environmental stability.
It's possible to be so focused on numbers that you miss the bigger picture,
achieving a stable environment.
You've seen beautiful reef tanks that have been running trouble-free for years
ever wonder what the secret is? They're not chasing numbers.
They were all maintained by focusing on what we call the four pillars of reef,
keeping lighting, waterflow, nutrition, and filtration.
Your.
Focus should be on keeping these foundational factors.
Stable and unchanging.
It's a time proven path to having great looking corals and a beautiful reef
tank. Let's jump right into the first pillar lighting with reef lighting.
It's all about providing photosynthetic active radiation or par par is the
light wavelengths symbiotic algae, and the coral tissue need for photosynthesis.
All high quality re flights provide light in the par spectrum.
Par is measured with a par meter.
The unit of measurement is micromole photons per square meter per second.
In the hobby, we refer to par levels as simple numbers,
like one 50 par measurements are made by placing a sensor.
Underwater part is relative to distance from the light source.
An led fixture placed over a shallow aquarium will produce a higher par rating
than the same light over a deeper tank.
Most reflight manufacturers provide par levels based on the distance from the
light par charts show par levels at different depths in the aquarium.
So you can get an average level directly under the led fixture research shows
that the ideal par level for corals is 100 to 200.
This level has been proven to maximize the photosynthesis rate of zoos and
fella, which will also maximize coral growth. Boosting the par up to.
200 To 400 will bring out a little more coloration,
but could also reduce growth rates.
It's a trade off many reefers accept going above this par range,
inhibits coral growth and may lead to bleaching.
Use the light manufacturers par chart to determine which fixture is sized
correctly to your aquarium. If you have your own par meter,
you use it to dial in the proper par level by adjusting the light fixtures
intensity. Once you've provided the correct par set,
the photo period and sunrise and sunset demand curve.
If your light has that option, remember we're going for stability.
Once the lighting is set up, don't make any unnecessary changes.
There is growing evidence that animals, plants,
and even corals have an internal clock that responds to light cycles known as
the circadian rhythm,
this internal clock functions on a 24 hour cycle and regulates many biochemical
functions within the cells,
disruption of the light cycle appears to cause stress to the organism.
That's why minimizing changes in your reef.
Lighting is important to the long-term health of the corals and other aquatic
stability doesn't mean you can't make adjustments or switch out a fixture.
You just need to be aware that your corals thrive and color are best when they
receive the right par levels and have a consistent lighting cycle.
The importance of par and a stable light cycle is a key factor for having
vibrant colors,
the grow and remain healthy and captivity for many years onto our second pillar
waterflow for so long waterflow was thought of as simply making cool currents in
the tank,
but there's some real science that backs up why flow is so important for corals,
especially when they're kept in an aquarium and their natural environment.
Corals are exposed to many kinds of water movement.
The flow patterns range from steady, mild currents to cyclical wave action.
One thing is for sure,
the water movement never completely stops on the reef waves and tides constantly
flush the reef,
Washington away waste products and bringing in nutrients and suspended plankton.
Since corals don't crawl around and have limited technical range,
they're dependent on water currents to bring them food and nutrients while
washing away gases and waste with target feeding and flow pumps. Many,
I think of water movement primarily as a way to keep their tanks free of
detritus and sludge buildup behind live rock.
But there's so much more to water flow when it comes to keeping corals all solid
surfaces, including corals are surrounded by a thin layer of non-moving water.
It's called the boundary layer and separates the corals from the surrounding
water in nature.
Corals are surrounded by a one to two millimeter thick boundary layer.
Wave motion keeps the layer thin allowing easier transfer of nutrients and
wastes oxygen CO2 wastes and nutrients have to pass through the boundary
layer to reach the coral surface or be flushed away as waste products.
The lower the flow, the thicker,
the boundary layer becomes making it harder for the corals to carry on their
natural respiration,
nutrient absorption and waste processing corals rely on water currents to bring
food and essential elements required for biologically critical processes.
These include photosynthesis by [inaudible] carbon skeleton,
building reproduction tissue repair, and nutrient and dissolved gas exchange.
There are a number of studies that shows it wasn't Della photosynthesis and
skeletal growth are directly affected by water flow.
Inadequate water flow in reef aquariums will reduce coral growth and inhibit
their metabolism,
but there's more researchers discovered that corals are covered with microscopic
cilia that constantly creating many vertices that spin in the opposite direction
of water flow. The minutes. Sure.
Countercurrent and patterns at the boundary allow for better exchange between
the coral surface and the water and an aquarium experiment performed to measure
the effect of water movement on coral health and growth,
vigorous water movement.
At the surface of the corals increase the transfer of nutrients and waste by
400%.
The fact is corals must have good water movement to remain in peak health.
If your corals are not doing well,
it may just be that you don't have enough water flow across your aquarium.
Take a close look at each of your corals.
Are they all getting the water movement they need?
If not try repositioning flow pumps.
If your tank still isn't getting the coverage, it needs.
The answer may be to add a second flow pump or upgrade to a Gyr style wave maker
without adequate water movement, your corals,
aren't going to color up and look their best,
no matter how good the water chemistry is. That's why we say chase colors,
not numbers. The third pillar is all about nutrition.
In the early days of reef keeping there was a theory that captive corals
received all their nutrition from the zoos and fella,
living inside their tissue through photosynthesis,
the algae use waste products from the corals to produce the organic compounds
for the corals advocates of this idea would say,
I only feed my corals light ignoring the fact that the reef is teaming with
plankton and corals capture and digest these foods.
There was also a fear that feeding captive corals would overload the aquarium
water with organics stimulate algae growth and make nitrate levels rise.
Some reef keepers suggested the corals were just automatically responding to the
physical contact with food and didn't really need to speed,
but all that changed as we've seen in the previous videos,
we've learned a lot more about keeping corals in captivity.
We know more about how reef aquariums function and what corals need to thrive
through a combination of hobbyists, trial and error and scientific research.
We have a whole new understanding on coral nutrition and the aquarium.
Here's what you need to know in nature,
corals capture and digest algae zooplankton and suspended particles containing
organic matter in bacteria. These foods provide protein, amino acids,
carbohydrates, concentrated, trace elements,
and other substances used by the corals Aquarius observations and controlled
scientific studies all show that captive corals capture and consumer living and
man-made foods studies show that symbiotic algae provide their choral hosts with
significant nutrition, but it tends to be low in nitrogen and phosphorous.
Nitrogen is needed to form amino acids,
proteins and photosynthetic pigments that give coral their vibrant colors.
Dietary phosphorus is also required for growth and metabolism.
Corals must feed to counteract this nutrient deficiency and balance their energy
intake. The question is, what do I feed my quarrels aquarium?
Feeding trials demonstrated that Acropora and pasilla Pura fed live Artemio
monopoly. I are unfiltered natural seawater had better growth compared to unfed.
Quarrels.
Kept in filtered aquarium water. You probably.
Don't have access to natural seawater,
but you can feed your corals with a variety of foods, both live and prepared,
live cultures of zooplankton like reef pods,
make it easy to introduce nutritious Copa pods to your tank. Algae barns,
TSB ponds and ocean magics phytoplankton combo pack come with live
micro-algae and tos Copa pods.
So you can spot feed or raise your own copepod culture.
Or a few GM is a great way to culture live foods. Within the aquarium,
it provides a protected environment that acts as life food farm releasing a
variety of nutritious planktonic organisms into the tank.
You can also feed your corals prepared foods.
Liquid foods are a suspension of ingredients formulated to provide the energy
building blocks required for coral growth and coloration.
These formulations contain carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins,
and other compounds that corals normally get from their natural planktonic diet.
Liquid foods can be target fed or dosed into the water.
Dry coral foods consist of fine powders made from dried plankton or manmade
formulations. The fine plankton like particles are fortified with vitamins,
amino acids, carbs and essential fatty acids.
Dry foods are often broadcast into the aquariums water where the currents create
a plankton bloom for the corals to feed on.
You can also target feed a slurry of powder.
There is some evidence that there's no one perfect coral food.
Even among live foods.
We recommend experimenting with a variety of food types to see what works best
in your reef. Aquarium. Proper feeding is the third of the four pillars of reef.
Keeping by providing your corals with the nutritional compounds they need.
They're able to resist disease quickly, repair damaged tissue,
grow and develop colorful pigmentation.
Can you see how light waterflow and feeding all work together to give your
corals what they need to thrive and produce the vibrant colors you're looking
for? Our fourth and final pillar is filtration.
You're probably familiar with the three main filtration categories,
mechanical chemical, and biological. For this video,
we're taking a different approach and focusing strictly on removing organics
from the water, why it matters and how to do it correctly.
Did you know your filtration system may be making your water quality worse.
Imagine taking your protein skimmers collection cup,
fill the stinking skin mate and pouring it back into your aquarium.
It sounds crazy right,
but that's about what happens when you don't operate in service,
your filtration system properly.
And here's why reef aquariums are amazing.
Because they allow us to keep corals and other Marine life alive in captivity.
Technology has really advanced the hobby and made reef keeping easier,
but no matter how beautiful a tank looks, it's got one thing working against it.
The accumulation of organics,
unlike a natural reef with billions of gallons of water, flushing away,
organic waste, our reef tanks are closed ecosystems. This means over time,
organics accumulate in our aquariums.
Multiple studies demonstrate that organic buildup coincides with lower disease,
resistance, proliferation of disease causing organisms,
reduce light penetration and an overall decline in health of aquatic life.
Fortunately, we can use technology to remove these organics,
but technology won't help unless it's used correctly.
A protein skimmer works 24 7 to strip dissolved organics out of the water,
but an undersized skimmer won't keep up with the organic load.
It's important to size the skimmer to your aquarium based on water volume and
livestock loading as your corals grow and you feed more.
The organic load increases never.
Cut corners. When it comes to selecting a protein skimmer,
it's important to understand that skimmers remove organics that are surface
active and form foam inside the skimmer non foaming organics can be removed with
filtration media like activated carbon and specialty resins. More on that later,
despite looking clear at your aquariums water is teaming dead. Algae cells,
crustaceans bits of fish and coral slime and uneaten foods.
The slime creates a snowball effect causing the particles to clump together.
This forms the sludge that builds up behind live rock and filter.
Sumps filter socks are a popular and effective way of filtering out this organic
debris. The suspended particles are trapped within the Sox fibers,
but if the sock is not cleaned and replaced frequently,
your organic particles start to decompose and release dissolved organics and
nutrients back into the water.
This defeats the purpose of capturing the organic debris because they aren't
removed from the aquarium. That's the key to effective mechanical filtration.
The particles must be removed from the aquarium,
not allowed to decompose within the filter.
You can avoid this by frequently cleaning, filter, socks, sponges,
and any other mechanical filtration media in your filtration system.
Weekly rinsing of the mechanical filtration media will keep it working
efficiently and prevent it from becoming a source of pollution.
If you're looking for an automated solution,
the Aqua max fleece filter is the answer.
It captures organic debris with the filter fleece and automatically rolls the
dirty fleece up and out of the aquarium.
The fleece roller removes the organics before they can.
Recontaminate your water activated carbon is an effective filter media for
removing dissolved organics.
It's a time proven technology used around the world to purify the water.
Synthetic residents also remove dissolved organics, but they don't last forever.
Especially in an aquarium.
The surface of the carbon and resin becomes colonized by a variety of microbes.
Eventually the absorption sites are filled with organics and covered by bacteria
colonies. The media now acts more like a mechanical filter, trapping,
organic debris.
These organics eventually decompose releasing organics and algae promoting
nutrients back into the aquarium water.
We recommend changing activated carbon and resins every month to prevent it from
clogging with debris, DFO and nitrate.
Removers can trap debris to media.
Contactors make an easy to use granular filtration media.
The contactor can be removed from the aquarium and taken to the sink for
cleaning and media change outs.
Contactor is also allow you to see if the media is getting dirty to take away is
organics have to be removed from the aquarium,
not permitted to decompose inside filter media,
if not particulate and dissolved organics will suppress water quality,
which has a direct effect on your corals health and ability to color up clean
aquarium. Water is the fourth pillar of reef.
Keeping you can have the latest filtration gear, but unless it's used correctly,
you won't get the full benefit.
Your water quality will suffer and your corals won't grow and develop their full
color potential. You hope you enjoyed this video on chasing colors, not numbers.
Understanding the factors that have the greatest effect on your tank's health
and stability will do more to stimulate healthy and vibrant corals than chasing
and stressing over water chemistry parameters.
We've seen these principles help thousands of reef aquarists and we know they
will work for you too. That's all we have for today.
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And when we release new videos, thanks for,
and don't forget to share this beautiful hobby with someone you love.
[Inaudible].