Coral coloration question

[Steve973]

Hi all,

I did a brief look to make sure my question wasn't asked in a "pinned" thread, but I may have missed it, so I apologize in advance if it's already in another thread, but...

Can anyone lend some advice about how to help assure that sps will regain their color? I have several "finger frags" in my tank, and some of them became tan from, I believe, zooxanthellae, and they lost coloration. I am assuming that I didn't acclimate them slowly enough to the light, and it's their defenses kicking in. They don't appear to be damaged, and their polyps extend fairly well. As they (hopefully) grow in my tank, should I see the color return?

I'd greatly appreciate any help. And please feel free to correct any of my wrong assumptions. One of the most rewarding things about reefing is learning about reefing. Thanks!

Steve

[dgasmd]

Steve:

There is a lot to coloring SPS corals well. Much has to do with water quality, good water flow, and good/strong lighting. I will try to find some good articles to link so you can read a little about it and get a good scientific foundation as to what causes the colors we see in corals. The rest will start to amke sense from there on.:D

[AquariaUSA]

Hi Steve,
Acclimation of sps does not just take a day, although the slower you drip acclimate them when introducing new species to the system, the better off (less stressed) they will be. Depending on the light sources they came from originally, it may take sometime to adjust to your lighting. Usually we see anywhere from a 5-35 day process of the zoanthellae readjusting to a new spectral intensity. This as Alberto mentioned can also depend on water quality, and where the coral was collected or grown. I have had some shipments come in where 1/2 the corals looked awesome, and the other half not so great. Within a few weeks sometimes some of the "hot" pieces lose color, and the ones that were drab become the sweet pieces. With Bali corals I have noticed they seem to love nutrient rich systems and lots of flow. Fiji and Tonga specimens (wilds) seem to enjoy the heavy skimming, lots of flow, and fewer nutrients. Perhaps this is just the differences between the natural environment? Between hobbyist frags, I am sure you could travel to the various tank tours and see the drastic color differences between the same frag that originated from a single colony. I know I have seen 5-6 different purple intensities of George's Purple Monti foliosa, and some of the tanks used the same lighting. Just hang in there...if the polyps are open, the coral will readjust to your system and will either color up more or less. I am a strong proponent though of using actinic supplementation no matter what bulb you choose for halides.

There are a lot of "research" papers out there right now on sps pigementation and zoanthellae adaptation, all from what I can tell have different thoughts on the subject. Some of the work started with Tyree and the Scripps Lab, but that was years ago. Alberto is a super sluth, so get ready to read, he will find ya the good stuff! http://www.cmas-md.org/iB_html_3.1.2a/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[WDLV]

Dana Riddle had some interesting concepts that he shared when he spoke at a CMAS meeting about some experiments that he had been working on about a year and a half ago. He showed that two of the colors that affect coral tremendously are red and blue. He showed where he had placed a red LED next to a coral and a blue LED next to a coral of the same species. After a time of only being exposed to that one spectrum of light, the coral exposed to the red light had turned very brown with zoanthellae in the region closest to the LED. The coral that had been exposed to the blue LED had turned pink in the region that was most directly exposed. Simply put blue makes them increase pigment (sunblock) and red stimulates the increased population of zoanthellae (growth).

[Steve973]

That sounds very cool. I guess that if I switch to a 20,000K bulb in the future, I might be able to expect better coloration. I'd like to rig up some sort of small, low profile fixture for my tank so that I can run a 36W actinic PC bulb. I will see what's happening over the next few months before I do that. In the meantime I'll read as much as I can. If you guys have seen my picture in the general discussion forum, you'll see that I don't have lots of color in my sps other than the color from zooxanthellae.

Steve

[WDLV]

I have two 175W pendants on a 125gallon tank. I just switched from 20,000K bulbs back to 10,000K bulbs. Though they're visually brighter, I don't like the spectrum.
Over my 58gallon I have 3 96W 50/50 Power compacts. I'm very happy with this spectrum. One side of the bulb is Actinic the other is 10,000K.(I think) When I took my softies out of the 58 and put them in the 125 they browned out. http://www.cmas-md.org/iB_html_3.1.2a/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif I think this may add merit to AquariaUSA's comment about the actinic supplimentation.

[Steve973]

Yep, "brown out" is exactly what I'm getting! http://www.cmas-md.org/iB_html_3.1.2a/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif Maybe I'll look more seriously into building somthing to house a single 36W PC actinic. Shouldn't be hard.

Steve