What lighting reason would cause my hammers to change colors?

[RussC]

Its been a minute since I've posted anything. So I thought I'd bounce this off you guys and see what kind of discussion we can have.

I have two Radios Gen6 XR 15 lights on my Red Sea XL425 85 gallon display with an additional 4' Aquaillumination Blade Coral Glow. Lights have always been interesting because after all these years I never have felt like I completely understand them. So here it goes...

I have a green hammer and a purple hammer, among many other corals in the tank. And both of these coral have turned a light white over time. My aquarium parameters are all extremely consistent within the appropriate ranges. Its about the lights. I run a lot of the blues in both sets of lights. Right now the radios are at 70% intensity and the blade is at 55%. I think I can get more color out of all my corals through the lights. Have others experienced this and what suggestions would you have?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Its been a minute since I've posted anything. So I thought I'd bounce this off you guys and see what kind of discussion we can have.

I have two Radios Gen6 XR 15 lights on my Red Sea XL425 85 gallon display with an additional 4' Aquaillumination Blade Coral Glow. Lights have always been interesting because after all these years I never have felt like I completely understand them. So here it goes...

I have a green hammer and a purple hammer, among many other corals in the tank. And both of these coral have turned a light white over time. My aquarium parameters are all extremely consistent within the appropriate ranges. Its about the lights. I run a lot of the blues in both sets of lights. Right now the radios are at 70% intensity and the blade is at 55%. I think I can get more color out of all my corals through the lights. Have others experienced this and what suggestions would you have?

It sounds like they might be bleaching. How high in the tank are the hammers? They may be getting too much light.

 

[RussC]

They sit at the bottom. I’ve considered bleaching. But honestly, with my intensities and spectrum selection, they are likely receiving less than 200 par. That’s why I’m leaning more towards the color spectrum than the light intensity. This “neighborhood” of LPS are not as colorful as possible. It’s been interesting trying to figure it out. It’s a working theory.

 

[UMALUM]

How long have you had them? Do you know if they were captive or wild?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its been a minute since I've posted anything. So I thought I'd bounce this off you guys and see what kind of discussion we can have.

I have two Radios Gen6 XR 15 lights on my Red Sea XL425 85 gallon display with an additional 4' Aquaillumination Blade Coral Glow. Lights have always been interesting because after all these years I never have felt like I completely understand them. So here it goes...

I have a green hammer and a purple hammer, among many other corals in the tank. And both of these coral have turned a light white over time. My aquarium parameters are all extremely consistent within the appropriate ranges. Its about the lights. I run a lot of the blues in both sets of lights. Right now the radios are at 70% intensity and the blade is at 55%. I think I can get more color out of all my corals through the lights. Have others experienced this and what suggestions would you have?

Regarded as bleaching may be due to higher intensities. Lower white a little and see if colors restore. Also they require calcium no less than 380 - assure calcium has not dropped and also po4 has not become high

 

[Big E]

Get more white light in there at least 4 hours a day.........this will spike growth too.

Find a way to test par.........my hammers have gone pale with not enough light more often than too much. I would focus on at least 150-200...........they can even handle 300-400 if acclimated.

 

[RussC]

Get more white light in there at least 4 hours a day.........this will spike growth too.

Find a way to test par.........my hammers have gone pale with not enough light more often than too much. I would focus on at least 150-200...........they can even handle 300-400 if acclimated.

So Big E, you have found your hammers color up with more white light? I do run a blue color spectrum. Thing is, my cohorts do too. And their hammers are crisp. Another symptom of me thinking its something like lights (or an element I can't measure).

 

[Big E]

Some white light will produce faster growth, this has been proven for decades on all corals. Growth=color........There are corals that have pigments that only get excited at certain wavelengths, so it's important to cover the whole spectrum from400-600nm.

Heavy blue has only been a thing since LEDs came to market and doesn't do anything to promote better growth or color. Most of it is just fake coloring on the corals.............it's for our eyes. Turn down the blues on a lot of corals and they look like turds. You can run dominant blue if you want, just get some white in there at some part of the day.
There are also subtle colors like blue on yellow heads that just aren't going to show up.

Colors like yellow on the tips of my hammers will turn into a pale green and the deepness of the stem color will also fade if the par is too low.

Hammers will grow at lower light levels because they can spread out an catch more light, but they look better at higher levels at least 150 par.

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On another note-
I have also seen too many people hit hammers and other LPS with way too much flow......other than some torches that can handle it, the flow should be mild and back and forth in a gyre effect.

 

[Timfish]

Pale white sounds like bleaching. With the light levels your indicating I'd suspect your corals are phosphorus deficient and I'd look at you're PO4 levels.

FWIW .03 mg/l is the threshold level to prevent phosphorus limitation in corals, identified by researchers at Southampton University in England using corals maintained in an aquarium for about a decade. .3 mg/l is what corals are subjected to with upwelling in the ocean. .5 mg/l might be acceptable for some as acros have been shown to increase growth up to this level. .9mg/l is the level the Steinhart Aqaurium's ex situ sexually reproduced acro colonies are being grwon out with. Rich Ross's (who's part of the team at Steinhart) has his acro dominate mixed reef sitting at 1.8 mg/l, his tank can be seen at the beginning of his MACNA presentation on phosphate. You can see his current levels as well as some cool videos of corals spawning in his thread.

Rich Ross - Home Tank - guess the phosphate

This tank was built before r2r, here is a link to some links about the build. http://packedhead.net/home-reef/ Current test results: 03-17-2017 Ammonia (NH3-4) Good 0 0.000 - 0.050 mg/L 03-17-2017 Nitrite (NO2) Good 0.006 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L 03-17-2017 Phosphate...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[jda]

I can keep hammers under 1000 PAR of 14k Metal Halide. You nearly have no risk of giving them too much light as long as they are exposed to it slowly. In no way do they need a ton of light, but as the only for-sure thing giving them energy, extra can be used for more growth, tissue repair, etc.

Full spectrum light for color development, rendering and growth. Blue light to show off.

Think of blue light as makeup, spanx and hair extensions. Think of white light as exercise, diet, good genetics and overall body care. Of course both together can be good too.