Corals filter out organics, right?

[Anonymous]

hi.
They do if you weed them out periodically. But a good skimmer will take out more organic in a day than a large cluster of Xenia in a month.

 

[randy holmes-farley]

I think the answer may depend on whether you are talking about dissolved organic matter (DOM) or particulate organic matter (POM).

It has been shown that corals can reduce POM, but the may increase DOM. This article shows them reducing POM:

Depletion of suspended particulate matter over coastal reef communities dominated by zooxanthellate soft corals. Fabricius, Katharina E.; Dommisse, Michaela. Australian Institute of Marine Science and CRC Reef Research, Townsville, Australia. Marine Ecology: Progress Series (2000), 196 157-167.

 

[MandarinFish]

I want to keep the nitrates down, of course.

I don't have the resources to overskim, and I want to keep softies.

I just want to confirm if they help pull protein, excess floating food, etc. out of the water.

Hence, I would imagine they would reduce nitrate, correct?

 

[MandarinFish]

Just curious. My 135 has 2 true perculas, an Australian Harlequin Tusk, 2 cleaner wrasses, a sailfin tang, and a yellow tang (and a sea cuke).

I also have a clam, button polyps, bubble coral, and a tiny SPS frag.

My animals are all healthy and I am not skimming yet (I have a bakpak that I'm putting in the sump I'm setting up).

If I got a few more hardy soft corals would they help filter the water?

 

[randy holmes-farley]

They are more likely to extract nitrate from the water than to absorb proteins, IMO.

 

[MandarinFish]

If they pull out food particles which would decompose into nitrate, that helps.

Do coral release/emit/generate nitrate or do they just help clean up?

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
A growing coral will decrease net dissolved organic if there is no input to the system. They do emit/generate organic, but it is either locked up withing the tissue (until the cell dies) or will eventually recycled. Examples of latter case are the smell of a Xenia tank (and SPS too), and the chemical warfare the corals do among themselves.

Just keep in mind that you can't get something from nothing, and you can't make thing miraclously disappears. The protein gotta come from somewhere... and the food you put in gotta go somewhere.

[ March 15, 2002: Message edited by: seven ephors ]

[ March 15, 2002: Message edited by: seven ephors ]</p>

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Seven:

"A growing coral will decrease net dissolved organic if there is no input to the system. They do emit/generate organic, but it is either locked up withing the tissue (until the cell dies) or will eventually recycled. Examples of latter case are the smell of a Xenia tank (and SPS too), and the chemical warfare the corals do among themselves."

Corals excrete loads of organics to the water column while still alive. Some of these are obvious (like slime) and some not, but they still do it. I believe that I have read papers showing that they are net producers of dissolved organics in the water column, not net users.

 

[MandarinFish]

Thanks for the thoughts, seven ephors.

I do add protein to the tank via food.

Most of it gets eaten and I try hard not to overfeed.

But for that little remainder thats floating around that the 'pods don't eat, I am curious if corals pull that in and reduce the otherwise decomposing food matter.