wildreef study's,do they really apply to aquariums?

[Gravesj1s]

I'm wondering how some of the more popular study's passed around in the reefing community are thought to apply to reeftanks.

I 've read many times how acropora are highly autotrophic ,and one popular study that gets mentioned is from Vernon stating upto 98% of the energy budget is met from photosynthesis alone.

I have trouble with many of these articles and how they might actually apply to reeftanks.Using 4 t-5's over my tank Id have a hard time believing this is duplicating anything even close to natural sunlight over a wild reef.

How do you intrepret study's such as these and do you really think they can be applyed to reeftanks?

-Steve

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Obviously the implications of any given study might need to be evaluated in the special context of a reef aquarium which can be different in many ways, but they are very often a useful guide to how we might strive to set up our aquaria.

 

[Reefin' Dude]

yes and no. yes that they should apply, but for the fact that our systems are far more eutrophic than what is encountered on the wild reef the answer is really no unless we are looking at the wild reefs that are suffering from eutrophication and what can be done to correct it.

in the wild in oligotrophic environments the corals are calling the shots, in a more eutrophic environment the zoax will be calling the shots. in the oligotrophic environment the coral is supplying just the nutrients the zoax need to support them, with sunlight providing all of the energy. the zoax are using the metabolic wastes from the coral for their "food". the more eutrophic the environment the more "food" the zoax can acquire through other means. meaning less of the energy required needed from sunlight.

G~

 

[billsreef]

Keep in mind, energy is not all that's required for survival and growth. So saying something gets 98% of it's energy from photosynthesis is not the same as saying as saying photosynthesis supplies 98% of it's nutritional needs