Maybe quitting Zeovit

[Oceanic]

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Originally Posted by midgetwaiter

I never said super colourful corals don't exist just that they are in the minority. As a matter of fact your third pic illustrates my point for me.



Compare that to something like this month's TOTM at reefkeeping mag.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...totm/index.php

Quite a difference no?

Why would an animal dependent on photosynthesis invest some of it's energy in creating so many pigments that block PAR? It must benefit from it in some way and the only way that makes sense is the same reason you tan when you spend time in the sun, protection.

Look up some of Dana Riddle's articles on coral pigments for more explanation.



Well the sun happens to generate plenty of light in the 420nm range. Due to the water this light is moving through, shorter wavelengths are well represented at the depths you find photosynthetic coral.


I never said I disagreed with this methodology or others like it but I don't think the idea of promoting it as "natural" made any sense. If it works for you then great but don't try and tell me it's wonderful because it's "just like nature" or some such BS. Save it for the granola munchers in the smelly sandals. I'm not paying $30 for 2 grams of potassium with a pretty label on it.

Good point; however, take a frag off each coral you see in that pic and put them in an LFS, which coral are people most likely to buy? I happen to think that most of us populate our tanks by choice with the specimens that have a natural tendency to be more colorful than the next average coral. The picture does illustrate lots of browns and this is exactly why I posted it.

The corals pictured are all at about the same depth and receive the same amount of light; however, some are colorful and some are not. At the depth pictured the corals are getting less light in the 420nm range, the deeper they are the more light in the blue range they are getting (albeit less par).

Take these naturally colorful corals and flood them with high intensity blue spectrum light matched with bright 10k-20k halides, throw in excellent water conditions in regards to low nutrient saturation and what do you have?

TOTM at reefkeeping mag

Are these corals naturally colorful? I think the ones we choose happen to be. Remember that many of these corals are aqua cultured in the Ocean on big racks, they are then collected and shipped, strange how they show up with great color without having the opportunity to spend some time in a Zeovit tank first.


In regards to the suppliments, ie Potassium,

I agree that it is sometimes ridiculous to spend $30 for a bottle of Potassium. There are alternatives to the more frugal type persons like yourself. Many people are successfully using Potassium chloride from here....


http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails....1&pid=777&at=0

Essentially it is the same thing from what I understand. For those that do the research there are almost always cheaper options without the fancy labels.