Coral fluorescence

[Ocean’s Piece]

Just bought this trachy recently during an online sale and got it for a steal in my opinion. I don’t know a whole lot about trachy coloration which is my main concern. Do you think this coral is going to be vibrant or is it going to look like one of those bland white corals? I know it can be hard to tell with on top of the editing of the photo (and it could look like a completely different coral after adding it to the tank) but I just want a general opinion of if it’s going to look good like all the beautiful ones you see or if it’s going to be just another coral.

 

[KC's CNC Creations]

with proper water quality, lighting, flow and food it'll improve.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Light is key. Their energy and coloration comes from zooxanthellae produced from PROPER lighting. Take a look at your settings and what light are you using ?

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Light is key. Their energy and coloration comes from zooxanthellae produced from PROPER lighting. Take a look at your settings and what light are you using ?

I’m using Biocube stock lighting. I have a place for it in on the sandbed which gets around 100 par.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

My main concern was whether or not this is a good specimen for color. I know it’s not as beautiful as some of those other ones but I wanted to see if this coral was gonna be one to blend in and not really pop out

 

[MaxTremors]

Just bought this trachy recently during an online sale and got it for a steal in my opinion. I don’t know a whole lot about trachy coloration which is my main concern. Do you think this coral is going to be vibrant or is it going to look like one of those bland white corals? I know it can be hard to tell with on top of the editing of the photo (and it could look like a completely different coral after adding it to the tank) but I just want a general opinion of if it’s going to look good like all the beautiful ones you see or if it’s going to be just another coral.

I picked up one of these too! I picked one a little darker than this, but IME trachys usually have decent fluorescence. But part of getting good fluorescence is having the right light spectrum. BRS has a really good video about this, different corals and different colors fluoresce at different wavelengths and so the idea is to have fairly broad spectrum blue lighting. But, even if it’s not the most fluorescent coral you’ve ever seen, it’s hard to complain at $30.

 

[MaxTremors]

I’m using Biocube stock lighting. I have a place for it in on the sandbed which gets around 100 par.

I will say that the biocube lighting isn’t great for coloring up corals. I have a Nanocube, and while the stock lighting is slightly better than the biocube, and will grow corals (just like the biocube), its not great at coloring up corals. I recently switched to an AI prime 16, and in just a few days a bunch of my corals are a brighter, and more colorful, a few acans that I have had lost color and gotten kind of drab under the stock lights, and literally within 3-4 days they were back to normal. Anyway, my point is that while most corals will grow and look okay under biocube lighting, you’re not going to get amazing color.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

I will say that the biocube lighting isn’t great for coloring up corals. I have a Nanocube, and while the stock lighting is slightly better than the biocube, and will grow corals (just like the biocube), its not great at coloring up corals. I recently switched to an AI prime 16, and in just a few days a bunch of my corals are a brighter, and more colorful, a few acans that I have had lost color and gotten kind of drab under the stock lights, and literally within 3-4 days they were back to normal. Anyway, my point is that while most corals will grow and look okay under biocube lighting, you’re not going to get amazing color.

I plan to upgrade soon. Good to know about trachys above

 

[Dkmoo]

The color from zooxanthellae is half the equation, proper overall condition (light, water, temperature, nutrition) is key for that.

But, if you are specifically asking about fluorescence, thats actually not directly controlled by the zooxanthellae. This is the other half of the coral color equation. Flouresence is controlled by the CFPs (coral flouresence proteins) thats produced by the coral as a direct result of exposure from specific spectrum and intensity of the light. Its exact biological mechanism is not as well understood but it is demonstrated that different CFP types have different activation spectrum and intensity. Many common ones activate and peak in the "left side" of the spectrum (the blue/purple). You will want to have as wide a spectrum range as you can on that blue/purple side to ensure the maximum number of different colored CFP to activate. Some CFPs peak on the "right side" (red to green) so have some full spectrum white can help as well (like t5s)

Trace elements also influence color.