Quote:
Originally posted by elegance coral
Maybe John Kelly can help me out here. He is much better at explaining these things than I am.
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Sorry I haven't responded yet.
The problem has to do with the over-excitation of the zooxanthellae within the coral tissue from being placed under too high intensity of light (too much PAR/UVR). The photosynthetic cells within zooxanthellae produces oxygen. The oxygen absorbs the high light energy and is converted into forms of oxygen that is toxic or reactive to the cell walls and coral tissue. The cells produce anti-oxidants to counteract the reactive oxygen, but when there is a large amount of reactive oxygen produced quick, it can instantly cause internal damage to the coral. This is why it is always important to properly
acclimate corals to the lights. Oxidative stress damage is one of the major problems to overcome when keeping certain species of Goniopora. It looks like it may be one of the major problems with certain Elegance too. I would also guess that it often causes tip burn in certain sps corals.