Improving coral colour?

[1979fishgeek]

I’ve noticed over time a lot of the corals frags in my tanks change to shades of pink or purple as they mature. Its pretty but I am wondering what causes the pink/purple colouration? I have a mix of lights from metal halide, Aquaillumination, DSuny and 165w black boxes over this tank and use Kessil and and T5 on other tanks so don’t think it can be light, maybe a trace element? Need to actually get some green and yellow back, especially in my Acro and Monti...just not sure what to dose?

 

[CC13]

I’ve noticed over time a lot of the corals frags in my tanks change to shades of pink or purple as they mature. Its pretty but I am wondering what causes the pink/purple colouration? I have a mix of lights from metal halide, Aquaillumination, DSuny and 165w black boxes over this tank and use Kessil and and T5 on other tanks so don’t think it can be light, maybe a trace element? Need to actually get some green and yellow back, especially in my Acro and Monti...just not sure what to dose?

Nice looking tank..... What powerhead is that on the top left?

 

[1979fishgeek]

Thanks, It’s a jebao RW-20, also have the Jecod CP-55 next to it.

 

[Katrina71]

Coral Essentials. Aminos and Coral Power Gro (Rakie and Najer both use it)

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Are your corals not supposed to be purple and pink? We would need some pictures of the corals in order to give any advice. I can barely see any acros in that tank from that pic. But off the top I can't think of anything that you can dose to change colors more green or yellow. Just gotta buy green or yellow corals.

 

[Ron Reefman]

The coral foods that Katrina suggested could do the trick. Especially if what you feed the tank now is limited (as in just 1 or 2 types of food).

I can't say this will work for anybody else, but it seems to work for me. And my lighting is just leds that are very cool white during midday and almost all strong blue mid-morning and early evening. I don't feed any special coral food, but I feed a very big variety of foods from fresh, to frozen, to freeze dried, to flakes, to liquid, to granules. I also add a bit of iron for algae growth (zooxanthellae as well as macro algae) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) which is a carbon supplement (food for some bacteria) and I figure is good in general. About one out of every 3 times I feed (every other day) I also cut the flow of water from the sump and the wavemakers after I've added the food and it's spread around the tank. I think this allows it to settle on corals (I know it settles on the anemones because they close up) and 10 to 15 minutes later I start the wavemakers for another 10 to 15 minutes then start the return pump.

This seems to work very well for my corals. But I have mostly colorful and fluorescent zoas and anemones. But the handful of lps and sps are also well colored and fluorescent.

 

[jda]

Assuming that your parameters are all in a competent range, then color issues are nearly always because lighting. For best color rendering, then daylight is what you want in the 6500k range. However, this is not good for viewing and most people need to "blue it up" for this. Ron's suggestion above is good where he has daylight (I assume close to cool white) for part of the time and then bluer lights later on when people look at the tank. Metal Halides and some T5s can do this all in one package with the right kind of bulbs.

Some close up photos can really help. If everything went monochrome, then I would suspect high building blocks.

 

[1979fishgeek]

Coral Essentials. Aminos and Coral Power Gro (Rakie and Najer both use it)

Thank you, I will give them a try as I’ve not dosed aminos or any food designed for corals in a long time.

 

[Katrina71]

Thank you, I will give them a try as I’ve not dosed aminos or any food designed for corals in a long time.

 

[1979fishgeek]

Are your corals not supposed to be purple and pink? We would need some pictures of the corals in order to give any advice. I can barely see any acros in that tank from that pic. But off the top I can't think of anything that you can dose to change colors more green or yellow. Just gotta buy green or yellow corals.

Acros, these were pale green originally.


Appleberry turned purple


Monti has pinkish tips

Plate was green and then changed to pink.


This was a bright green bubbletip nem.


Yellow Green Stylo turned purple.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Looks to me like your green corals colored up Except for the apple berry looks like it did change to a lighter color from the leds maybe, is it in a lot of light?

 

[1979fishgeek]

Looks to me like your green corals colored up Except for the apple berry looks like it did change to a lighter color from the leds maybe, is it in a lot of light?

I don’t have a PAR meter but it is under a Ai sol and 165w LED both at 100% and about 2ft from th light source, where two lights combine. So pretty bright. The Rainbow Montipora next to it also changed from pale blue to deep purple base, which I’m happy about, but wondering if the Appleberry is struggling in the light?

 

[ikolbaba06]

What are your nitrates/phosphates like? I’ve noticed color change under led with lower nutrients.

 

[1979fishgeek]

What are your nitrates/phosphates like? I’ve noticed color change under led with lower nutrients.

For most of the year they have been undetectable using NoPox, then I decided to switch to vodka/vinegar and unfortunately had a increase for a few months peaking at 40ppm for no3 and PO4 was at .07. I switched back to NoPox and they are dropping again, nitrate 10ppm and phosphate .04

 

[1979fishgeek]

Bizarre, I was just googling how to get better green ‘pop’ colouration in my green corals and the first search brought up this questions which I posted in 2018 lol ….. made me chuckle as I’m clearly doing what ever I did then again, I got different lights it’s a different tank, different stock and everything’s slowly changing to pinks and purples again. Only thing I use in common is the natural seawater pumped straight into the tank from the same muddy tidal estuary. Corals love it, but green colouration slowly pinks up!

I do regular icps now and it shows I’m usually low on iron (ever increasing amounts seem to be needed) so perhaps this was the problem back then as well?

 

[megtrax17]

Bizarre, I was just googling how to get better green ‘pop’ colouration in my green corals and the first search brought up this questions which I posted in 2018 lol ….. made me chuckle as I’m clearly doing what ever I did then again, I got different lights it’s a different tank, different stock and everything’s slowly changing to pinks and purples again. Only thing I use in common is the natural seawater pumped straight into the tank from the same muddy tidal estuary. Corals love it, but green colouration slowly pinks up!

I do regular icps now and it shows I’m usually low on iron (ever increasing amounts seem to be needed) so perhaps this was the problem back then as well?

Haha I read this whole thread and chucked when I also saw you revisited this thread. I’m googling trying to get color back in my corals also. I see you posted just this August… did you ever figure it out? I feel like my issue stems from low iodine personally. But can’t quite grasp it!

 

[1979fishgeek]

Haha I read this whole thread and chucked when I also saw you revisited this thread. I’m googling trying to get color back in my corals also. I see you posted just this August… did you ever figure it out? I feel like my issue stems from low iodine personally. But can’t quite grasp it!

I think it’s the iron, as I’m dosing it regularly (every couple of days 0.6ml and noticed the greens are starting to pop again and it’s only been weeks. I think the macro algae in my sump suck it up, so I’ll ICP at the end of the month and then see if I need to adjust but so far I can see a change infact across all the corals.

I’ve just got to remember to keep doing it! I’ve got such a terrible memory. lol

 

[megtrax17]

Totally understand I finally caved and bought a dosing pump for the same reason and it was inexpensive, it is simplicity brand!