A 2 x 2 x 2 ANOVA was performed in the nlme package of R to analyse cell counts, Chlorophyll concentrations, and rates of oxygen flux. As the eight coral colonies were equally distributed among the 24 tanks (with one representative of each colony per tank), we treated colony as a random variable in place of tank (treating both as random variables with one nested within the other was not possible as it would have required more than one colony representative per tank).