Coral coloration

[dherrera83]

Hi,

I am looking for ways to improve my coral coloration and want to see what members on here are doing. My corals have good color, not great color and thats what i am aiming for.

Currently i do not dose and just do regular water changes every week. My lights are on for only 6 hours and 1 hour for lunar lights. I use red sea pro salt. For pics and more info on my tank please see signature.

My corals are growing but feel the colors are not where they should.

Thanks,
D

 

[duke62]

what kind of lights and what kind of corals?

 

[NYreefNoob]

also check your alk, the new red sea coral pro is high in alk, for sps you need very stabile parms and almost zero phosphates

 

[dherrera83]

Havnt checked alk... Might need to. Also I don't know phosphates but I do run gfo... No sps only soties... I I run 4, t5s.

 

[NYreefNoob]

bulb colors can make a differance in color pop also

 

[dherrera83]

I dont thijk its the bulbs as the Corals colors are not as vibrant ss they were when I first got them. Samebulbs then...

 

[Magiclamets]

Try the Red Sea color program.

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Amino acids help as well.

 

[Chris Jury]

Based on the photos in the first thread, it looks like you have several kinds of mushroom polyp, some zoanthids, a frogspawn, Duncan., etc. I would say that the corals you have look normal for those specimens. I.e., I wouldn't expect that there is much you could do to make them markedly more colorful. That's about as colorful as all these individuals are likely to get. Having said that, from the looks of the tank (moderate coralline algae growth, no obvious microalgae) it looks to me like nutrients are in relatively short supply in the tank. Reef tanks are always a balancing act between nutrient input and uptake/export. More often than not, too many available nutrients is big problem.

Corals need nutrients and get them from both dissolved and particulate (i.e., food) pools. If it were my tank, I would start using small amounts of a good coral food, and possibly disconnect the phosban reactor and/or skimmer for a while. I stress, we don't want to create a swamp here, we just want to increase the nutrients available to the corals *slightly*. Doing so may improve their colors somewhat, but again, the most that can be hoped for is a relatively modest change.

One other thing that may really help is not changing the corals, but their perceived colors. We often use lighting that is really, really heavy in blue wavelengths (because blue is great at exciting some fluorescent proteins) and usually very poor in longer wavelengths (because these interfere with seeing that fluorescence). However, a lot of coral pigments are not fluorescent, and warmer pigments like yellows, organges, pinks, and reds sometimes become washed out. If you can add a white fluorescent or LED strip to your lighting, to mix in a little bit longer wavelength light, you may see an improvement in the apparent color of the corals.

cj

 

[dherrera83]

Chris thanks for the advice it makes sense. But for example I got a zoo from a member on here and at first it was perfect now two weeks later the colony have some how lost some color. If u notice the pic it has a very light brown center edge that was not there before. I never feed my Corals. Maybe that could be it??

Thanks magic zany ima look into those. Any recommendations for amino?

 

[Fishluva513]

Lookin into a reef brite strip to run longer then 6 hours. Could b ur issue. Or just up ur light cycle see if that helps. I run my lights 14 hours a day. I start my actinics at 11am. Mh kicks on at 12pm. Mh off at 12am. Then actinic off at 1am.


Matty'sCornerAqauriums

 

[basiab]

Six hours is on the low side when you consider that fact that these corals grow in areas where it is a 12 hour day almost all year.
But as others have said, the type of bulbs you have will change what you see. The fact that they changed color in you tank simply means that the lighting they have in your tank is much different than where they were before. It could be due to the type of lighting, how far they are from it etc or maybe just from the shock of change and maybe they will change back. Could also be due to the water quality. Even if your water quality is better than where it came from, some corals prefer lower quality water.

 

[irvp13]

If you do increase the time that your lights are on, do it slowly, perhaps one hour every week or so.
I do have blue LEDs runing along my MH and PC and I've seen better coloration since I installed it.

 

[dherrera83]

Thanks all! I have started to increase my lights for this week i will start by adding one hour. Next week i will add another hour till i reach a total of 8 hours.

Will update once some changes have been noticed.

 

[Dre]

250 watt HQI Reeflux 12,000k, MH 5 hours with 2 blue, 2 pink t5's 10 hours. Everything color up in a matter of days. My yellow fiji leather now have a tint of green. Green hammer corals turning purple to name a few.Changing your bulbs on a regular is important.

 

[Dre]

250 watt Reeflux 12,000k HQI MH 4-5 hours, with 2 pink 2 blue t5's 10 hours a day. My corals color up in a matter of days of the upgrade. My yellow fiji leather now have a green tint, green hammer corals now turning purple just to name a few. More hours of light means nothing if you don't have the right lumens that doesn't mean they won't grow under old flourescent bulbs. Changing bulb regular is important as well.

 

[Chris Jury]

Thanks all! I have started to increase my lights for this week i will start by adding one hour. Next week i will add another hour till i reach a total of 8 hours.

Will update once some changes have been noticed.

While I think this is generally a good idea, as a 6 hr photoperiod is quite short and will limit the amount of photosynthesis that the corals can do, light intensity is generally more important than photoperiod for inducing pigment production in those corals that are sensitive too it. The corals you have generally do not react substantially to light intensity, except that extremely dim light can causing a degree of browning and extremely bright light can cause bleaching. Some corals produce colorful pigments in response to bright light, and some seem to produce them without any particular regard for light intensity. The ones you have fall into this latter category.

I don't think playing with light intensity or photoperiod is going to affect coloration significantly here (though it does in other coral species), though I agree that it is a good idea overall as it will increase daily carbon fixation by the corals.

cj

 

[ed4]

250 watt Reeflux 12,000k HQI MH 4-5 hours, with 2 pink 2 blue t5's 10 hours a day. My corals color up in a matter of days of the upgrade. My yellow fiji leather now have a green tint, green hammer corals now turning purple just to name a few. More hours of light means nothing if you don't have the right lumens that doesn't mean they won't grow under old flourescent bulbs. Changing bulb regular is important as well.

Sounds like your lights are working well for you

Glad to hear it!

 

[Dre]

Sounds like your lights are working well for you

Glad to hear it!

It's a blessing but i should state, this light is not for everyone.The bulbs get hot and some days the tank goes without the MH with no ill effects what so ever. The corals look better than ever. I'll increase the hours whenever the weather gets cooler.But not necessary.

 

[Josh]

In addition to increasing the nutrient load in the tank with some coral food or something with small particles, you may want to test your magnesium as low mag will sometimes cause the tank to look whitened out.