I agree, but I had what I feel like was a lot of flow in my old tank. Maybe he just has that much more, or maybe the patterns are different/better. I know he has a lot more light tho
I guess maybe a different kind of flow or maybe he has much more flow than you imagine.
Just for those looking for more on the topic. There are papers that indicate it's not just high flow, but also more turbulent flow.
Local flow dynamics play a central role in physiological processes like respiration and nutrient uptake in coral reefs. Despite the importance of corals as hosts to a quarter of all marine life, and the pervasive threats facing corals, ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
It has been found that under sheltered flow conditions,
Pocillopora damicornis and
Seriatopora hystrix, transform from thick and densely-branched colony geometries to thin with greater branch spacing geometries due to the difference in flow conditions [
40]. Kaandorp and Kubler reported similar transformations for
Madracis mirabilis [
41]. Even a small modification in the flow environment can affect the boundary layer and hence the turbulent stresses developed at the coral surface, and can change the mass transfer rates significantly [
42–
44]. These variations in turbulent flow profiles illustrate the effects of coral structure on hydrodynamics in different flow conditions.
Though seawater movement is among the important factors that maintain healthy conditions on coral reefs, little is known about the effects of seawater turbulence on the growth of coral primary polyps. We cultured aposymbiotic primary polyps of Acropora digitifera with and without seawater...
link.springer.com
Three-dimensional morphological measurements by X-ray micro-
computed tomography revealed that seawater turbulence increased the thickness of the skeletal branches of polyps.
