Looking for references on science of coral coloration

Ulta

Ulta

REEFER
Anyone have any good reference articles or advise from their own research/experience of the science behind coral coloration and how to maintain the most vibrant color in their corals?

I have a very healthy and successful SPS reef, however many of my corals a pale or pastel colored. I was just wondering what exactly I should be focusing on to really facilitate the best coloration.

and just an extra fyi I do dose vodka.

I would post a FTS but I have no camera that could do my tank any real justice so I will not. :/
 
Wow, this is a subject many of us will be lurking... for answers..

.. Too.. it can be the colors of the lights.. which effect how you see the colors in the corals... right? .. and those effect what colors the corals really are and how they .. ...and a bunch more I don't know squat about...

Good thread!
 
Yup I just recently added XM 20k bulbs for my (2x)250w MH's down from the old 10k bulbs I had, I did that swap in November and while I def like the color better and it helps I have a feeling the real answer I am looking for is in the water chemistry.
 
Do you dose and or feed your coral? I'm no example as I'm way to new and my tank is way too new.. but I do dose and feed my coral.. all I know is I nearly killed all of them and now they are making a come back... The reason they nearly all died was because I had put some river rock in my tank after some bad advice. That is a long story... point is what ever I am doing now seems to be slow magic... but time will be the real judge.
 
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yup, dose a squirt of phytoplankton daily and this is really helping to boost my copepod populations I just noticed today that in my sump they are literally swarming like nats. In the refuge area there are spots across the bottom where there are swarms of copepods that look like swarms of nats in the summer time. This makes me very excited that I could get their populations up like this :) And it is due to daily dosing phyto.

I also throw in some BRS Reef Chili once in a while.
 
Me too in the phyto dosages but I backed off of the daily.,.. and doubt I have as much coral as you. Where you feed them Reef Chili I provide H Q Life's Coral Food Mix..

OK.. standing by for some one with real brains to come back with a good answer.
 
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Hey Ulta..?

Do you dose the phyto directly to the refuge? I would love to get those results.. I need to check.. maybe I do.. LOL...

EDIT: oh I'll be damned.. I do.. not to the extend you stated but close...:bounce:
 
 
Well I just got done reading the first article..

Basically it is just saying(in a highly scientific manor) that the more blue/green light there is in the spectrum and the higher par the better coloration you should see.

In a nutshell it is promoting 20k bulbs for better color. Which I think is not new news to most of us in the hobby >_<!
 
Ulta said:
Well I just got done reading the first article..

Basically it is just saying(in a highly scientific manor) that the more blue/green light there is in the spectrum and the higher par the better coloration you should see.

In a nutshell it is promoting 20k bulbs for better color. Which I think is not new news to most of us in the hobby >_<!
Click to expand...

..and to complicate it if you over PAR you bleach.. shrugg.. we knew all that.. in laymen's terms.

I'm on the second one..

EDIT: read it.. OK? .. not what I was looking for.. would like a digested form of the results.. of the whole experiment... the data, not the double talk on how to prove you are doing an experiment on light and coral color & know a lot about it. I'd like to see the useful out feed from the experiment.
 
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Also I was able to get some decent pics with my brothers camera that somewhat do it some justice =P

Here's some eye candy ;)
DSCN0232_zpsd732aacf.jpg

DSCN0235_zpsb6521938.jpg

DSCN0236_zpsc78c1778.jpg
 
Nice! really nice.... now it will be longer before I show mine... wink..

I like how you extended the cabinet out behind.. that was smart.

It will be a long time before mine looks like that.... how old is that tank? How big were those stoneys when you bought them?
 
I only set up this tank in June, they were all started from frags but most came from my other tank that was started over 2 1/2 years ago.

This is a somewhat new pic of it shortly after it was set up before the corals really took off.
522666_2700451248820_1227832638_n_zpsd718ec8f.jpg
 
Not sure if they were taken in June or not, date on the file says Aug 30th... not sure if that was actual date pic was taken or not.
578006_2700449248770_1615372348_n_zps66a0763a.jpg
 
Dude... no you do not have a coral growth problem.. I am totally jealous and hope to be right on your heels...

So, about all I got out of the article was blue and white.. and don't bleach them.. .it is an old article there has to be something more up to date.. with LEDs.

The 20 long frag build I'm doing will give me a lot of control of LEDs colors. I have built the light string and have a thread started in the tank showcase forum.
 
Im sure if I venture into Reef Central or really delve in and ask some pros I can find some stuff out just sticking to home here on LR tho for now ;)
 

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