Coral coloration: your experiences

[Moe_K]

Please describe changes (either positive or negative) you've made in your tank that have produced changes in your coral colors.
I'm especially interested in color changes between mother and daughter colonies. What was different, and how did the color change?

 

[MAReefer1]

Well, When I changed MH bulbs, My green Zoanthids changed, I would say pretty drasticly( well, some). A few new polyps sprouted that had a totally white center, speckeled, with a green skirt. They used to be mostly green with a green skirt, and speckeled white, not alot.

that what you were looking for, or were you talking about SPS?

 

[Moe_K]

Any changes at all, senor.
I figured lighting changes might influence color. It'd bee cool if we could get an idea of what to expect.

 

[JayM]

The acro frag I had on a piece of LR I recently bought turned bleach white under the normal fluorescent bulbs in my sump

Wish I'd seen it before it bleached.....

 

[Jill & Brian]

Last christmas I changed from PC to t-5. Every piece of SPS in the tank went from dull and brownish to bright and colurful I also noticed better coloration and growth in my hammer and candy cane colonies. I am thinking of changing my bulb combination next month, I will have to keep an eye for color differences

 

[maurod]

I've had tubs blues turn green under low light. Once exposed to high light(400W MH) they turned blue again.

I have a purple plating monti that browns out under low light, under 400mh in the middle of the tank, I get blue polyps. I expect it to turn purple now that i have new bulbs.

Most corals will get lighter under higher light, but some will totally change color, like ora purple pillow which turns neon green from purple when given less light.

I think Liam has quite a bit of info on this topic to share

 

[Liam]

are you talking SPS Moe or just in general?

 

[rtc_reefer]

I changed fron 14K to 20K and saw an amazing difference. The blues and the purples and the greens really popped! But I believe that you are asking about coral pigments and not appearance.

 

[fanaglethebagle]

As my lights get older my orange zoos seem to change outside/skirt color.
Sometimes good, sometimes bad

 

[Moe_K]

are you talking SPS Moe or just in general?

Well, I'm specifically interested in SPS, but any ol' color change experience is welcome.

 

[Scott G]

I just changed bulbs last night. I'll let you know what the tank looks like after the switch once everything adapts.

 

[Liam]

Ferric oxide seems to cause a paler coloration of most of my sps.Some corals seem to look better for it and some look almost sickly.I can notice the difference within 48 hours

I suspect the great water clarity we are achieving these days with the use of ozone,carbon, ferric oxide and god knows what else coupled with much higher light than these corals were actually being subjected to in the wild( yes i understand the sun is more powerful than any halide,but not all corals are collected at 10 inches either) is causing coloration in corals that is unatural.
By this i mean we are manipulating coral zooxanthellae,carteniods etc to produce coloration that would not be a corals natural color.
Is this a good thing? well it looks good to us but i suspect many low nutrient reef tanks are teetering on the edge of survival.