The corals we added are growing! What do we do?
First, congratulations are in order. To grow such wonderful animals in our homes is super neat! Second, we should understand what corals use to grow. The coral tissue, which covers the coral skeleton, is made from organics. These organics are available in the water column as, among others, ammonia, carbon and phosphate. Together they can be desribed as CNP (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous) and all animals are built from these elements. Combined with trace elements, the tissue is created. Just look at the red tentacles on the goniopora. Each polyp has it's own stalk, which end in a field of tentacles surrounding a mouth. That is a single coral polyp.
Clownfish, such as these two saddlebacks in the picture, live in or close to anemones and coral. They provide a constant nitrogen supply to the coral. The ammonia they excrete from the gills, and PO4 from the fecal matter feed the coral. So, if you feed your fish, they can feed your corals. If you have only a few fish, supplemental feeding of the corals may be necessary, this will be covered in another post.
The coral skeleton is created by the coral polyp. For this, the polyp extracts minerals from the water and it deposits them underneath itself. These minerals will deplete and need to be supplemented to the aquarium with a product. This aquarium will be run with Tropic Marin All-For-Reef.
Tropic Marin All-For-Reef is a product which is making reefing easier than ever. This single solution has all the minerals and trace elements your corals need. And it only needs a single daily dose, so it can be done manually, very easy. So, when we feed our fish, we are dosing nutrients for coral growth, and when we dose Tropic Marin All-For-Reef we dose the minerals and trace elements the coral growth requires. It is really that easy. Next week, we will cover the water parameters this aquarium will target. Merry Christmas to you all! From Samuel Christensen and the rest of the Tropic Marin team.
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