At MACNA i noticed a few vendors has a dosing syringe, and would suck up water and air and then forcefully squirt it at the corals… why do they do this?
i would guess to blow off any slime or debries
Demonstration purposes only likely. Not sure exactly which vendor your refering to, but there were probably 4 or more companies present that sell power heads and many more that sell them. The jolts of water your refering to I am guessing were wave maker similator type stuff.
Here are the “benifits” to using the wave maker I use.
Benefits
•Provides oxygen rich water to entire aquarium
•Provides more stable water temperature
•Creates desirable turbulant flow patterns only found in nature
•Flushes “dead spots” of detritus and accumulated waste
•Increase fish activity
•Stimulates coral and invertebrate growth
•Allows corals more exposure to light
You can look at vortex pumps and the programable hydor DC power heads to see what their sales pitch is. I have to say though that I have always considered my aquariums high flow. That being said if you turn on and off your power heads 20 seconds on 20 off alternating with even just two power heads with out even moving them you will see all kinds of crap floating in your water. My water had stuff floating all over in it and I don’t even have that much rock in it where things and really hide. Too tired typing not sure if this makes sense, let me know.
No no, not like a pump a physical action… at coral morphilogic, he was spraying the corals… and if you look at dr macs pictures there is a guy doing the same thing…
Spraying the corals? I’m picturing Colin with a mist bottle spraying for zoa pests on corals out of the tank. Still not sure what you mean. What picture are you refering to on Dr. Mac’s site?
http://www.wellpromo.com/upload/upimg28/Liquid-Medicine-Dispenser-10-M-158928.jpg
take one of those, fill it with water and air then blast the zoanthid
Ah, finally figured it out. I think that is.
It is best to get corals to close up on their own under water rather than to lift them in the air and then have them attempt to close. Typically in a reef tank before lifting a coral in the air you’d set them closer to a power head or return nozzle to get them to close up. In the shallow vats they use in the tank dragging a coral under water over to a return nozzle or power head would disrupt a significant amount of corals in the tank. If the corals spend most of their time opening and closing all weekend they’d be very stressed.(uses a significant amount of energy to open and close which is why lots of cleanup crew critters and perching fish shouldn’t be used in a propagation system.) More importantly though, at least for the vendors looking to make some $ and show off their goodies, the corals need to stay open and look healthy to impress everyone at MACNA.
That’s my theory. As Bret said they could also be used to remove detritus and slime from some corals. Could be many other reasons as well. Where in Dr. Mac’s pictures is an image of someone doing it?
Meant to say they are also less likely to shoot a jolt of neurotoxin at you when you have them in the air if they already shoot under water and are already closed up.
I cannot find the picture again, and makes sense to me now