Brad exactly you hit it on the nose.. read that again.. growth is due to "calcium availability, alkalinity, trace elements, flow, temperature, salinity, food and stability"
but lets simplify this even more and focus on Ca.. a coral grows by shedding Ca. if it can shed Ca for some reason it can't grow. so now here is another twist I learned.. if your calcium is to high you actualy slow down growth.
As far as color, if you have high power lights you reduce the amount of zooxanthellae needed to make food. zooxanthellae are Brown so if you reduce the number you reduce the amount of brown. if you don't have enuf light you will cause the number of zooxanthellae to be increased hence causing the coral to become more brown.
now how much light do you need? I tend to agree with Anthony Calfo when he said "if you are running 400 watts on a tank that is less than 30" deep you are waisting your time."
Brad I realy can say what growth you had as you have had 400's as long as I remember but, did get good growht because of the bulbs or was it a factor from somthing else that might have coinceadently happend close to the same time? (oh we got to do lunch some time soon
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Teevee, speak english or don't. it hurts my head trying to figure out what you said
and on the serious side it doesen't lend anything to the discussion.
Steve
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