Coral Coloration

[AquariumSchmo]

The corals in my 20 gallon are doing well for the most part, at least from a standpoint that the polyps are out, but I'm not really happy with the color; especially the SPS. They just don't pop like I think they should. They seem healthy, but some of them look faded from how they looked when I first bought them. My tank is over two years old, but I just started adding SPS in the last 2-3 months.

I started dosing a few weeks ago, so the alkalinity and calcium are steady and consistent now. I also change out 5 gallons of water every single weekend; always have.

My theory is that it is the lights, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of something else it that could cause it. The light is a Mars Aqua (Chinese black box), running at about 45% blues and 15% whites. It is inside a canopy about 8-9 inches above the water and the tank is a standard 20 high. Maybe I have them turned up too high or too low?

In contrast, the corals in my 11 gallon frag tank which has a $60 Hipargero LED light look amazing.

I'm not very good with the names of corals, but to give some examples, a couple of SPS corals that were bright red are now pink. I have a birdsnest/stylo that was purple with green tips, but now looks brown with green tips. Also, I recently added a blue / green acro (not sure of the name) to both tanks. I accidentally broke the tip off, so I put the tip in the frag tank. The one in my 20 gallon looks faded, but the tip in the frag tank is still the original color. The larger piece in the 20 has grown a polyp on the the tip, so it is growing though. One last example, I fragged my green candy canes a few weeks ago and put three heads in the 11 gallon; they look fluffier than the ones in the 20 gallon. That's the only coral that I would say isn't doing well in the 20 gallon.

I'm thinking about changing the lights, but I hate to spend the money if it could be caused by something else. I was thinking of either mounting two Hipargero's in the canopy, since the corals in my 11 gallon seem to really like it or going with a single Macegrow. The Hipargero's have blue, violet, and white LEDs. The Macegrow has 6 channels of blue, violet, white, uv, red, and green. The Macegrow can ramp up and down, where the Hipargero is just on and off with two channels that can be dimmed. Do uv, red, and green LEDs help substantially with coral coloration?

Any thoughts on what could effect the color of corals?

Hipargero:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0727V8C5...olid=33DOBZHASC2T7&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Macegrow:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G42FR3...olid=33DOBZHASC2T7&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[jcook54]

I have a friend and we help each other out quite a bit. His corals always look better than the exact same one's in my tank. We swap frags and very often have a few items in each of our tanks from the same mother colony. My colors are almost always drab or dull. It drove me crazy until I borrowed a PAR meter. My frag rack was at about 180 PAR and the frags he was keeping were anywhere from 230-280 PAR. That's quite a difference. He also doses a lot of trace elements and amino acids. So, I've started dosing amino acids and am slowly increasing the intensity of my lights. I've certainly seen some change but I'm trying to keep everything alive so I'm changing things slooowwllllyyyy...

In particular, I think the lights intensity and spectrum make the biggest difference. I've increased intensity by 5% in the last 3 weeks and have notice some of the reddish-brown acros starting to get streaks of color that reminds me of what they should look like. I'm going to wait one more week and then work up another 5% in intensity ove the course of a week or two.

To answer your question directly without all of the fluff - Get your hands on a PAR meter and see where things stand in your tank.

 

[AquariumSchmo]

@jcook54, thanks for the reply and info. The dosing that I started a few weeks ago is All-for-Reef which includes trace elements, and I started dosing amino acids 2 weeks ago. I rented one from Pure Reef last year, but they said it doesn't work very well on LEDs. I'm not sure where else to get one from. I do have a cheap Lux meter which I can use to test the surface (not waterproof); haven't thought about comparing the two tanks with it; I will do so tonight.

 

[bhodges82]

Two different tanks have two different water chemistries, higher nutrient levels could also play a role in coral coloration. Too low of nutrients will also effect the color.


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[ichthyoid]

One of the current popular theories about coloration is to run a low nutrient system. Several reasons-

-zooxanthellae (symbiotic algae living within the corals) will grow more with higher nutrient levels
-the more prevalent the zooxanthellae, the more their pigments will dominate, inhibit and/or mask the corals pigments
-without as many zooxanthellae, the corals will produce more of their own pigments to act as a sunscreen and/or fluoresce

In order to have a low nutrient system, it is widely believed that carbon dosing is a requirement. At least as long as you have fish and feed them.
If you choose to pursue carbon dosing, be sure you understand it and proceed slowly (as an analogy- do not fly the 'plane'/tank into the ground)

 

[FutureInterest]

I think one of the keys to coloration is UV light. You've seen my frag tank... It's massive and I've got an assortment of lights on there partially for testing. One side has a lot of UV the other doesn't. The corals on the side with UV definitely color up differently and more vividly. They are simply developing more pigment as sun screen essentially and consequently look a lot brighter and colorful. As such, I do think changing your light out would help your coloration a bit.

 

[Steve Burton]

"without all of the fluff - Get your hands on a PAR meter and see where things stand in your tank"
+1

 

[AquariumSchmo]

Thanks everyone! I'm not really sure about the nutrient levels. The only test kit I have for nitrates and phosphates is API. I will start with that and plan to either buy better test kits or take some water into a LFS soon. With pretty much just blue, white, and couple of red and green LEDs on the Mars Aqua, the spectrum is probably not so good. Sounds like I should try a better light. I will follow up in a month or two if I see improvement.

 

[jcook54]

I would try the light and pay the $$$ for the Red Sea nitrate and phosphate kits. I currently use Salifert for both and it's impossible to be even remotely accurate. i.e. light pink is either .02, .05 or 1.0 depending on how you hold it. Someone may have better advice on test kits but I think I'm going with Red Sea next time around.

 

[bhodges82]

I would try the light and pay the $$$ for the Red Sea nitrate and phosphate kits. I currently use Salifert for both and it's impossible to be even remotely accurate. i.e. light pink is either .02, .05 or 1.0 depending on how you hold it. Someone may have better advice on test kits but I think I'm going with Red Sea next time around.

The salifert nitrate kit is best used by holding the vial sideways for below 10ppm readings. I prefer Hanna checker for phosphate, digital readout is the way to go.


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[ichthyoid]

Whenever you see one of these Ultralow Nutrient Systems, know that it is a delicate dance the aquarist performs-

 

[dball711]

Good topic, I've observed color variances due solely to lighting. What I mean but this is when taking a coral from someone's tank and placing it in mine I've noticed that the same coral just taken for another tank has more color in my tank and vice versa.

There are a whole host of reasons why and how coral gain the best color, from husbandry, trace element availability/balance, lighting, food source...the list goes on and on not to mention the fine balance between all the variables. I've been into colorful acros for some time now and have my share of success and failures. I have some thoughts on nutrients but I'll limit my comments to lighting for this post.

About 6 months ago I decided to focus all my lighting on the 400 - 500nm range. Rather than focus on PAR levels I wanted to shift my lighting to this range. On my 80g SPS display I have a 6 bulb ATI T-5 fixture with 2 ATI Actinics, 2 ATI Blue Plus and 2 - 20,000 K Blue with UV BioTek marine LED bulbs. There are also 2 Reef Brite Actinic blue Tech strips and 2 Topplanet (generic) 470nm 81w LED strips. The whitest light comes from 2 ATI Blue Plus bulbs. There are some other factors but I've never had better colors or growth from my SPS with this lighting set up.

In summary, I'm not concerned about PAR but more focused on the useable spectrum between 400 - 500nm.

 

[Mom2Many]

I will throw in my two cents for what it is worth. Many people do things different ways and all have success. Over the years I have found three things that effected my color of my corals. I mean things I nailed down and knew were contributors for sure...

The first was phosphates. When I use something like Phosguard, I can definitly see an improvment in color. My indicator coral is my bright green birdsnest. It fades fast and brightens up fast because it is a fast grower I guess. Sadly I am not a big water tester kind of girl. So I can not give you numbers. I slowly played around and found out the exact amount of phosguard I needed to use in my tank to get my colors looking their best..but..if I use to much, my sps start to STN.

Second improvement was years ago when I started using Reef Energy part A and B. My corals really like that stuff. I also started having much greater success and growth in my gonipora's when I started using that.

Thirdly is finding the sweet spot for my lighting. Programing heavier on the blue side and lighter on the whites. I also have a Hipargero on a tank in my bedroom. A 10 gallon and the corals in that tank are all in full color with it at 80 blue and 40 whites. It is one powerful light. Over my twenty long I have the Current Orbit Marine Led lights. (mind you it is a shallow tank) And I have that at 100%blues and 60%whites. (and I think you have seen the coloration of both of my tanks) Glory to God, they both look really good.

Blessings and Happy Reefing!

 

[ichthyoid]

Coral colors such as th ose in and ULN system exist in relatively few places naturally. One such place is Kingman Reef.
One of the most remote and lowest background nutrient reefs in the world-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingman_Reef

 

[AquariumSchmo]

I will definitely check on the nutrient levels, but sounds like the missing ingredient might be UV. That's something the Mars Aqua doesn't have, but the Hipargero does. I have heard white is just for asthetics, but is there any value in red and green?

 

[snowmansnow]

Sounds like you have 0 NO3


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[cbj25isback]

Before you begin a lot of experimentation make sure your key parameters are stable. Salinity, tempature, calcium, alk, mag, NO3, phosphate

 

[AquariumSchmo]

Sounds like you have 0 NO3

That's very possible, I only have one fish; a six-line wrasse. I feed just enough for it and the peppermint shrimp, and a few coral foods twice a week. My skimmer is small, but I have a lot of chateo which is probably sucking up the nitrates. Maybe I can cut the water changes back to every other week; need to find out what my levels are first.

 

[snowmansnow]

That's very possible, I only have one fish; a six-line wrasse. I feed just enough for it and the peppermint shrimp, and a few coral foods twice a week. My skimmer is small, but I have a lot of chateo which is probably sucking up the nitrates. Maybe I can cut the water changes back to every other week; need to find out what my levels are first.

Test NO3 before making any changes.
There are a few ways to get NO3 to stabilize at an optimal level should it need to bump up.
10 years ago everyone was preaching NO3 must be 0..... now it’s the other way around haha.

I feel it’s all connected to the surge in high intensity lighting. The higher the TOTAL 24 hr PAR is the higher your NO3 levels can be (flow is also related).

Last year sometime we had a discussion over an arrival in CORAL magazine that was all about this. Fascinating stuff.


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[AquariumSchmo]

Before you begin a lot of experimentation make sure your key parameters are stable. Salinity, tempature, calcium, alk, mag, NO3, phosphate

Salinity and temp are stable. I started dosing a few weeks ago and just setup dosers two days ago, dosing small amounts 12 times a day. Yesterday evening, both tanks were at 8.6 ALK. Mag depletes slowly, so my weekly water changes probably take care of that. Don't know where I stand with nitrates and phosphates.