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Originally Posted by kwirky
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They're on to a few things there, you could start 5 different threads looking at different implications of this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwirky
First they provide actual data explaining the reason why excessive dosing of carbon systems bleaches coral. The TOC (total organic carbon) increase causes the corals' natural bacteria population to double and kill the coral. Hence why dosing too much zeostart or vodka can nuke a tank.
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I found the most interesting aspect of that information the differences that Rohwer et al. found when they tried similar dosing on different species. If you also consider the differences between aquarium and wild specimens they cited from Kooperman it leads you to some interesting questions. It really highlights the fact that each reef aquarium is unique, so unique we aren't even able to describe the extent of the differences.
I think holobiont is my new favorite word.
Interesting question: If we are encouraging certain species of bacteria to flourish through carbon addition are we also risking increased bacteriophage growth? Could some of these bacteriophages also be able to infect the bacteria colonies that are part of the coral holobiont? That could have serious implications.
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Originally Posted by kwirky
Then they looked at data comparing TOC of their tank running the skimmer and without and found that the TOC didn't change much. They did say it's early evidence and requires more testing of other aquariums, but the results show that heavy skimming didn't affect the TOC of the tank a whole lot. How scandalous!?
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Somebody at Royal-Exclusive just fainted.
