Flow and sps coloration--is there a link?

[msaba]

Have been running my sps tank for about a year and a half now, finally feeling like I'm getting stability and import/export parameters narrowed down and my sps in general are starting to grow quite well. I have a good size wild SSC in the back end of my tank that has never colored up for me very well, staying with muted/light brown coloration. I have fragged it multiple times and put the frags in several areas of the tank and the frags always look stellar and grow well. The par readings are similar for both, the only difference is that the mother colony is in a much lower flow area in the tank"¦

In any case, it got me thinking that there is much discussed on nutrient/PO4/nitrates/export in terms of coloration, do you think flow also has a direct impact on coloration as well? Interested in forum members thoughts!

Mark

 

[dartier]

I would think that flow has more of an impact on growth pattern and health rather than colouration. For colouration I would expect light and nutrients to be the determining factor. However flow is important in the sense that SPS need good flow to bring them their food and to allow them to slime away things from their tissue (like algae).

Dennis

 

[Eastone]

good waterflow reduces the area of stagnant water around the corals (even in tremendously high flow, there is an area in the range of millimeters that is totally stagnant and due to osmosis and rates of exchange, lower in oxygen and nutrients)
This stagnant water are can smother the coral if waterflow is too low and is why we see coral tissue recession in low flow, there's a study on AA I think that's proven flow is more important than lighting for coral, the study is mentioned here

This implies that despite the water conditions, the coral needs ample water flow to reap the benefits of the mineral availability and the waters potential to clean the coral which would result in a healthier coral that can uptake correctly.