About Coral Growth And The Influence Of Lightning:

April 19, 2010 - PRLog -- Many factors can affect coral growth
such as lightning, water temperature, feeding strategies and water chemistry. Understanding about coral growth and the influence of lightning:

Lumens is the international unit of luminous flux, or quantity of light used as a measure of the total amount of visible light emitted. The higher the lumens, the "brighter" or more "intense" the light looks to the human eye. So Lumens is a measure of the power of the visible to the human eye. the deepest and the red and yellow are filtered out. Corals found in shallow reefs and tide pools receive more of the full spectrum and intensity of natural sunlight, while corals found in deeper parts of the reef receive more of the blue spectrum and less intense light. The wavelength of light is measured in nanometers, with violet and blue at the lower end of the visible spectrum 320nm and the red is at the higher end at 700nm. So color spectrum is very important when controlling the coral growth of your aquarium! Proper lighting is one of the most important aspects of any reef aquarium. The zooxanthellae that lives in coral tissues and gives them much of their color, depends heavily on natural sunlight to flourish in a symbiotic relationship with the corals. The lighting we provide for the aquarium needs to simulate this as closely as possible.

How does that happen?
Corals secrete their skeleton through their outer layer of skin or ectoderm, located at the underside of all polyps. This layer contains specialized cells, which continuously secrete calcium (Ca2+) and bicarbonate ions (HCO3-) to the external environment.

About coral growth and the influence of lightning:
Eventually, this leads to the deposition of a matrix of calcium carbonate (CaCO3 or aragonite). Pumping these ions against a gradient demands a lot of energy, and this energy is provided by the coral's symbiotic zooxanthellae. Many species are able to grow over 1 cm (0.4 inches) a month this way. So zooxanthellae are living plants that are in symbiosis with the corals, living inside them, generating sugar through the photosynthesis, and providing the corals up to 95% of the energy necessary to grow. And we know that photosynthesis cannot exist without light! And because light generates the bulk of the required energy to make this happen, through photosynthesis by the algae, scientists commonly refer to the process as "light- enhanced calcification". From many experiments it has indeed become clear that this statement is accurate. Corals deposit significantly more calcium carbonate during the day ; therefore lightning in your reef aquarium has to be controlled in order to obtain maximum performance.

Temperature:
Zooxanthellae are not very flexible when it comes to water temperature; they do best at temperatures between 23-28 C (73-82 F). These algae also need a lot of light, which is why shallow coral reefs are only found in tropical, clear waters where temperatures do not fluctuate too much during the year. In the summer, temperatures sometimes get above 30 C (86 F), causing the zooxanthellae to die off. As a result, the corals expel these symbiotic algae. This is called bleaching, and it is now a common process on coral reefs worldwide. Global warming has caused summer temperatures to become higher, and or longer periods of time. The corals and the zooxanthellae have trouble with adapting to this fast changing climate. It is important that we try to slow down climate change by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we produce. Traditional light systems generate high heat, changing the temperature on the surface of the aquarium. Our system reduces heat, consequentially costs of maintenance of chillers to control the temperature of the water. Therefore, by choosing Orphek Power LED system you Will have to spend less Money to mantain the temperature controled to avoid bleaching. Basically this means tat by choosing Orphek Power LED system, not only your corals Will grow faster, you Will save Money but their colors Will be more vivid, more intense!
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Orphek aquarium led lightning system for details http://www.orphek.com/

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Orphek brings the best solutions to optimize coral growth. Orphek is the most advanced lightning system designed specially for marine aquariums where high intensity lightning is required.