Coral Colors: How do you keep your colorful corals colorful?

Is it HARD or EASY for you to keep your corals colorful? (check all that apply)

  • SPS Hard

    Votes: 455 61.4%
  • SPS Easy

    Votes: 174 23.5%
  • LPS Hard

    Votes: 127 17.1%
  • LPS Easy

    Votes: 493 66.5%
  • Zoas Hard

    Votes: 80 10.8%
  • Zoas Easy

    Votes: 488 65.9%
  • Soft Corals Hard

    Votes: 65 8.8%
  • Soft Corals Easy

    Votes: 488 65.9%

  • Total voters
    741

revhtree

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Happy Friday Reef Fam!

Boy oh boy this is a loaded question today! But heck let's do it anyway! HA!

Corals are just plain cool! They can outlive you, they are animals, you can cut them up and they reproduce, they will fight each other, they will eat from our hand, and many other amazing things. But let's just be honest. For the most part we like them because of their COLOR! If they don't have good color then they are less desirable. Not many people want a reef tank full of brown corals. That's why we search out and pay top dollar for the most colorful corals. That's why we LOVE our blue lighting! :p

But how many times have we gotten a beautiful colored coral only to have it lose color and even brown out in our aquarium? It happens to a lot of us! So with that being said let's talk about your secret sauce, your tips and tricks to keeping coral color! Please answer the following and let's discuss!

What have you found to work best for keeping your colorful corals colorful? (don't say Photoshop)


Be inspired by the tank of Krzysztof Tryc!
 

Dempsey941

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ezgif-7-8d142ef3468d.gif
 

Dana Riddle

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A very complex subject. Many of the colorful proteins are going to be expressed as long as the coral is healthy, and there isn't much you can do to stop it (particularly the DsRed class of proteins - these are the result of chemical oxidation.) Many of the non-fluorescent proteins are a response to light intensity, especially UV/violet/blue radiation. On the other hand, some fluorescent proteins can bleach in response to high/low pH, metal concentrations, too much light, etc. There are several hundred colorful proteins found in corals and anemones (in 4 distinct clades) and these groups respond differently to environmental conditions if at all. There is a 5th "clade" that seems to be a transition between two others. One coral (a Favia if memory serves) contained over 20 distinct fluorescent proteins and anyone of them might react differently to their environment, possibly resulting in color loss (either through relay of fluorescence from one protein to another or by color mixing.) Clear as mud, huh?
 

SyracuseMatt

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Fundamentally, with SPS (acros in particular) the issue is that acros can be unhappy either because of: 1) the lack of stability; or 2) excesses or deficiencies in lighting, flow and/or major or minor elements. So, if you're having color issues, you're faced with a constant choice between changing nothing to be sure everything is as stable as possible versus, tweaking lighting, flow, placement, calc, alk, nitrates, phosphates, trace elements, etc. In a perfect world, you'd probably only change one thing at a time and give your tank 3-6 months to react to the change, observe the results and then decide what, if anything, else to change. However, it can be very hard to maintain that slow, methodical, approach, particularly if your coral appears to be 'suffering' (at least for me).

Matt
 

Sailingeric

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I keep a mostly softies and mushrooms tank and they grow like weeds almost. I am often pruning and pulling pieces. I have 3 hammer corals in my tank and they have all gone from 1 head to 4 or 5 heads each. I do have one that has bailed 3 heads and I don't know why because the others right near it are doing great. At least one of the bailed heads has been living for a couple weeks in the rock near by so make I will get a new hammer out of it. I have not tried SPS at this point. I am a lazy reefer and don't want to be a slave to dosing and I am more into fish than keeping expenisive corals.

 

Jenuvio

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I keep a mostly softies and mushrooms tank and they grow like weeds almost. I am often pruning and pulling pieces. I have 3 hammer corals in my tank and they have all gone from 1 head to 4 or 5 heads each. I do have one that has bailed 3 heads and I don't know why because the others right near it are doing great. At least one of the bailed heads has been living for a couple weeks in the rock near by so make I will get a new hammer out of it. I have not tried SPS at this point. I am a lazy reefer and don't want to be a slave to dosing and I am more into fish than keeping expenisive corals.


Beautiful!

What is that coral on the bottom left?
 

hllb

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I have a neon green capnella which has turned more purple over the last few months. Any recommendations on getting the green back? The lighting is different in these but it’s very noticeable to the naked eye. Bottom right is when purchased, top right is in the middle of timeline, left is current. Ideas?

DD5B575B-97F8-4C22-B76B-0E3B5E65D695.jpeg
 

Anchor

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I have a neon green capnella which has turned more purple over the last few months. Any recommendations on getting the green back? The lighting is different in these but it’s very noticeable to the naked eye. Bottom right is when purchased, top right is in the middle of timeline, left is current. Ideas?

DD5B575B-97F8-4C22-B76B-0E3B5E65D695.jpeg
I had one doing the same thing and then I put it in higher light and the green returned. Different tank though and parameters are different and less polluted.
 

PeterG

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I keep a mostly softies and mushrooms tank and they grow like weeds almost. I am often pruning and pulling pieces. I have 3 hammer corals in my tank and they have all gone from 1 head to 4 or 5 heads each. I do have one that has bailed 3 heads and I don't know why because the others right near it are doing great. At least one of the bailed heads has been living for a couple weeks in the rock near by so make I will get a new hammer out of it. I have not tried SPS at this point. I am a lazy reefer and don't want to be a slave to dosing and I am more into fish than keeping expenisive corals.



I loved watching the movement in your tank. Beautiful, so tranquil.
I had a similar experience with my hammer. It was a nicely formed globe and looked healthy and comfortable. Then one day I noticed part of it “leaning” off of center and a couple days later it just sort of slid off its skeleton. Then the other heads did the same. Carried by the flow I noticed them nestled into sheltered areas in the rocks for awhile and then they just sort of disappeared. I haven’t seen them in quite a while.
No one really had an explanation. Here’s a link to my post: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-with-hammer-coral-update.659092/
 

inletfish

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How’s your PO4? Whenever mine gets higher all my zoa and palys close up. Just a thought
Mine close up when there’s high or low po4. Below .1 is no good and above .2 is no good. I keep around .15 with a Hanna checker
it was a touch high and i did a 25% change and added a little gfo so we will see. that was my thought too
 

El_Guapo13

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I take small, finely dressed up goats (so you know, flower wreath on head that they start to eat, gold flaked nail polish on their hoofs, etc.), take them down to the beach, let them play in the surf for a bit.....








... THEN SACRIFICE THEM IN THE NAME OF POSEIDON SO HE MIGHT USE HIS POWERS OVER THE SEA AND EVERYTHING IN IT TO MAKE MY CORALS COLORFUL AND HUGE!!!!


...only works about 45% of the time. Poseidon can be very picky about his goats.
 

Aquatic acrobat in your aquarium: Have you ever kept an eel?

  • I currently keep an eel in my tank.

    Votes: 27 14.2%
  • I have kept an eel in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 32 16.8%
  • I have not kept an eel in my tank, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 32 16.8%
  • I have no plans to keep an eel.

    Votes: 96 50.5%
  • Other.

    Votes: 3 1.6%
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