Corals and Bioload

[EQCM2B]

Do corals increase the bioload of a tank enough that we should only add a couple at a time. Are they as heavy of an increase as fish or is it less?

[graphixx]

they do not affect the bioload near as much as fish, but they will deplete the nutrients in the water colum. such as calcium if your adding sps. you can add more corals at a time than fish

[EQCM2B]

So are you saying that LPS does not deplete Calcium as much as SPS?

[graphixx]

they dont rely on calcium like a hard coral does

[EQCM2B]

Alrighty then. I knew I liked the LPS more than SPS for a reason, one less thing to worry about as much. lol

Thanks for the help.

[rickm]

There are some LPS corals that can be just as hard to keep as SPS. LPS have there own needs as well.

[davejnz]

LPS=large polyped STONEY coral.Just like SPS,LPS have skeletons and require carbonate/bicarbonate/calcium to build them.My old 40gal LPS tank required alot
of alk/calcium to maintain its level at 8dKH and 420ppm.I used full strength kalk dosed 24/7 and i still had to use baking soda(buffer)and CaChl twice a week.
Corals represent a small part of the bioload in a typical reef tank IMO.Like Greg said,they uptake nutrients from the water.They compete with algae as well for those nutrients.Fish and the foods we feed them make up the biggest part of the bioload in terms of Nitrogen production

[fishyshawn]

do aneomes add much of a bioload?