Coral Coloration Project - Help, Please!

[Dana Riddle]

As some of you might know, coral coloration has been a fascination of mine for over two decades - I began collaborating with the guru Dr. Charlie Mazel back in the late 90's. We've learned a lot since but much remains to be determined.
If we look at coloration from a phylogenetic standpoint, there are at least 6 clades (A,B, C1,C2,C3,D with the possibility of one more that does not fit neatly in place.) There are non-fluorescent chromoproteins, florescent proteins (cyan, green, red are major types, with yellow in zoanthids and some stony corals) and those that can be switched on and off with proper illumination.
Some of these proteins are sensitive to pH. Others react to metal concentrations. Light intensity/spectrum is also critical in many cases.
I've been collecting data for years and am now embarking on a new project - categorizing these proteins based on clade and reactivity to various environmental parameters.
Coral/anemone genus, lighting info (type of PAR meter needed), shifts seen due to overdosing with Kalkwasser/CO2, etc. - Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Retro Reefer]

Not sure if this is helpful and just strictly my observations but I recently had a near tank crash due to a rusting magnet in one of my nano’s.. I removed magnetic, did large water change and added a poly filter.. within a few days the poly filter had turned a shade of orange but also interestingly I noticed a small neon green favia I have had for several years while still mostly green developed almost a orange glow along with orange stripes matching the color of the poly filter almost exactly.. assuming this color change is from metals (iron?) leaching into water column from the rusting magnet.

Not the best picture but you can clearly see the orange stripes that where not present before the event.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Thanks! Favia is Clade D fluorescent protein. I'll add to the data base - thanks again!

 

[Hitman]

Similar issue here with a rusty magnet and a accidental overdose of Kalk as I failed to hit save when I set my new doser to 1500 ml a day it tried to dose 1500 ml a minute and a full gallon had dosed before I caught my error. It turned my sunset Montipora from a bright pink to a dark red and bleached a 3 month old baby Black Widow Anemone. Anemone was looking awesome that morning.
FYI No water change was done only thing done was a package of metasorb added to remove metals. Everything else in the tank looked fine PH jumped to 8.4 which my tank seems to stay at 7.9 so I choose not to do a water change. Kalk was left off line for one week then turned back on with the proper saved program this time. :mad:
Monti before:

Day Kalk overdose and rusty magfloat magnet happened: Frag was moved up 4” off substrate just over a month ago and was still a light pink prior to OD of Kalk.

12” Black Widow and 6” Black Widow Anemones shrunk up for a day but returned to normal within 48 hours. 2” Baby Black Widow was in direct flow of a return jet unlike the larger two and bleached bad as you can see.

Hope any of my miss hap helps.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Thanks again! This is more challenging - the fluorescent proteins could be Clade B or Clade C3. Do you have an ID (species) on the Monti? This is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for!

 

[Hitman]

Thanks again! This is more challenging - the fluorescent proteins could be Clade B or Clade C3. Do you have an ID (species) on the Monti? This is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for!

Mystic Sunset Montipora. I cant find the scientific name but I hope this helps.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Mystic Sunset Montipora. I cant find the scientific name but I hope this helps.

That helps! Thanks!

 

[Atu]

I’ve years of journal about my parameters along side photos for the last couple. Uploading all would be a major endeavor, but I would be willing if i knew I would be really helpful.
Any specific corals you would like to know about?

I’ve a strawberry shortcake that used to have a beautiful beautiful coloring, which corallites used to have a beautiful red color. Recently for some reason all the corals in my system started to grow exponentially, except for this shortcake, which loosed it’s red color except in its polyps. As a consequence of this growth explosion, which might be due to the summer ending down here and temperatures in the aquarium dropping from 28 C to 26 C, my all also dropped from J7.8 dKh to 6.1 dKh. I just recently noticed this and I’m beginning to correct.
Also, the part most exposed to light which used to be the most colorful is kinda whitish right now, and I’m a little worried about it. I was thinking about fragging it.

Been keeping stable salinity at 1.026 and pH at 8.2. I auto too off with kalkwasser, use ethanol as a carbon source and dose nitrates (first as potassium nitrate and afterwards as calcium nitrate)

When I got it, August 21st 2018

This was after it was shipped.

Bonus pic with an orange filter from September 19th 2018

October 10th 2018

Parameters from September 28th 2018
- Nitrate 5ppm
- Phosphate 0.05 ppm
- Potassium 540 ppm
- Magnesium 1320 ppm
- Calcium 410 ppm
- Alkalinity 7.5 dKh



December 3rd 2018

Parameters from the same day
- Nitrate 4ppm
- Phosphate 0.1 ppm
- Alkalinity 8.2 dKh

February 20th 2019

Parameters from September 28th 2018
- Nitrate 1 ppm
- Phosphate 0.05 ppm
- Alkalinity 6.7 dKh


Today, May 3rd 2019

Parameters from April 22nd 2019
- Nitrate 0.5 ppm
- Phosphate 0.02 ppm
- Potassium 500 ppm
- Magnesium 1280 ppm
- Calcium 450 ppm
- Alkalinity 6.2 dKh


Now that I’ve see them all side by side it looks like it has been losing color since September 2018, maybe due to too much light. Maybe I should find a lower spot for it, what do you think?

(Regarding lights, they haven’t change in all this time, they are radions G4, I could upload the schedule if you want)

If this kind of information is useful please let me know. Most of the color changes I’ve had had been after I first introduce a piece to my aquarium.

As I side note, are you a biologist? I’m a biology grad student and I would be interested in any coral related text books that you could recommend me.

 

[Saintnovakai]

" You'll remember me, when the west wind moves, upon the fields of Aiptasiaaaa." Sorry, couldnt help it.

 

[MikeyA]

Oddly enough I've had a similar issue as retro reefer, I had a magnetic leach in my tank at one point. I too used poly filter, rox carbon, and a large water change to remove any leeching metals. For the longest time I couldn't understand why my blue Yuma, turned orange and my yellow scroll started turning greenish orange.