So here is the coral color data from Phase 3 - Red Sea Trace Part A & C
The sinularia shows no color improvements to the eyeball or to the camera over phases 0,1,2, and 3.
The sarcophyton seems photographically to have possibly increased in green brightness during phase 3
Next are the orange monti cap and green pocillopora, these also seemed to show noticeable differences to the eye, camera or both.
The photographs might indicate more intense orange, and to the eyeball the orange seems more intense as well. (we could also make an observation here about the relative growth rate during phase 3 vs previous.)
and here's the pocillopora....
While I didn't notice any color increase by eyeball in normal conditions like this, the photograph looks like more intense green is possible. (again, we could note growth rate differences).
A comment and apology for the light fields in phases 2 and 3 looking different than 0 and 1. I chose at the beginning of the experiment to photograph in "full light" which means all my lights on and the window blinds open as I always have them. The window blinds open introduced more or less ambient sunlight during some photo sessions than others. That uncontrolled variable was a poor choice.
Fortunately we have some unambiguous observations...
Photos with the polyps retracted reveal the amount of green in the pocillopora skin...
I did not photograph this aspect of color routinely, because it simply wasn't present early in the experiment so I didn't know to monitor it - it was a dramatic increase that became very apparent during phase 3, but if you inspect the phase 0 picture closely, you'll see the slightest blush of green skin present there as well - just far far less.
Here's the monti digitata - very noticeable eyeball change in the increase in green coloration both on polyps (a green sheen) and skin on several spots indicated by arrows...
Here's another shot with polyps retracted in normal light to better illustrate...
While the green skin at the locations of new growth might make us wonder if growth rate is really the controlling variable, in the earlier phases there were lots of regions of new growth that had no green skin whatsoever.
here's blue LED+yellow filter images to track the spread of the green skin pigment...
And here's a bonus coral. During phase 0, I acquired a green monti cap frag.
It lost coloration in my system over a month in my system and became almost entirely brown. Then during phase 3 it regained green coloration. The frag is small and far from the glass and difficult to photograph but the color changes are still observable.
(first 3 pictures are not always under the same photo/lighting settings, but the last 3 pictures are)
Phase 2 pigment extraction data
(this will be shared later, but it's not as clear as the photographs, bummer.)
Commentary on Phase 3:
The Red Sea Trace A (Iodine, F, Br) added easily trackable Iodine - no increase in F or Br was measured, and Part C (Iron, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Al) added easily measurable Fe, Cr, Co, Ni, Zn, and perhaps Al - no increase in Mn, Cu. The increase in green fluorescence and orange in the monti cap was clearly observed across multiple corals. Anecdotally, 4 weeks into the 6 week trace dosing, two people who are not hobbyists but pass by the tank regularly - unprompted - told me that the tank looked "brighter" and asked me if I changed the lights (there were no light changes). During this time, nutrients and major parameters were held essentially constant. This along with the fact that the obvious color increases were not observed during the earlier interventions (algae/phyto input and heavy water changes) adds more confidence that the trace supplementation was the driver. I have guesses but I do not have good theories on which elements were the drivers of these color changes. My overall impression of the appearance of the tank and coral color after phase 3 is that if the corals had looked like this at the beginning, I would not have conducted this experiment. The colors are visually bright and there are no corals that lack the basic primary colors they should have.
Caveats:
1. Some of the colors that were lacking are the absolute most basic ones (green in green monti cap and the monti digi). This indicates that my tank conditions were possibly well out of the normal hobby range for such common corals to lose their most basic colors. In that sense, my results may not be applicable to very many systems.
2. Now (in the future) 6+ weeks after stopping trace dosing at the end of Phase 3, the coral color continued to increase and has shown no signs of reverting. I previously staked out my position that I need to see colors fade after trace dosing was ended in order to be very confident in the effect. So that piece of evidence is a long time coming and still waiting. So for the moment, although I am persuaded that the trace dosing was effective I am currently in the camp "I stopped Trace dosing and nothing changed." We'll see how long that remains the case.
