Maximizing coral coloration?

[Nor'easter Reefer]

So I've noticed, corls that I buy from local frags swaps and vendors, look great then I get them home and they kind of loose their coloration over time. Now I just have a couple cheap black boxes, but I've been considering getting a couple lights to add on for supplementation. Firstly because I want a more even spread, Secondly because I want less shadows, and thirdly because I hope I can find something that will accent the colors of my corals better. Pressumedly the best bet to get the original look would be to figure out what lights the vender was running and get those, but I'm not currently in the market for an entirely new setup. I was thinking about couple orphik bars maybe? Couple t5's? Just curious on thoughts as far as, is it just the coloration and intensity of my current lights are lacking and my coral should pop like they did before again? Obviously barring any health issues, water quality etc. What color orpheks/t5's for coloration. For reference i have 2 165w vipar spectra currently on a 120g tank

 

[tbrown]

Water quality also can play into coral health and coloration.

With that said, lowering par can and will "brown out" corals by increasing the photosynthetic zooxanthelle (sp?).

Certain trace minerals can help bring out certain colors in some corals and too much of other trace minerals can bring out lesser desirable colors - for instance yellow corals turning more green.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Water quality also can play into coral health and coloration.

With that said, lowering par can and will "brown out" corals by increasing the photosynthetic zooxanthelle (sp?).

Certain trace minerals can help bring out certain colors in some corals and too much of other trace minerals can bring out lesser desirable colors - for instance yellow corals turning more green.

I only have my lights on 10% white and 50% blues. Just turned up 10% on the blues a couple days ago. Figured I'd wait a month and bump up again and see what happens.

 

[tbrown]

I only have my lights on 10% white and 50% blues. Just turned up 10% on the blues a couple days ago. Figured I'd wait a month and bump up again and see what happens.

With PAR, spectrum also plays a roll. Different blue spectrums will likely have different effects on different corals.

PAR and PUR is a huge conversation (and one I'm not super knowledgeable about) but white PAR is good for some coral, useless for others, same with red and green, and some blues are better for "shallower water" corals while other blues are better for "deeper water" corals from my limited understanding.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

With PAR, spectrum also plays a roll. Different blue spectrums will likely have different effects on different corals.

PAR and PUR is a huge conversation (and one I'm not super knowledgeable about) but white PAR is good for some coral, useless for others, same with red and green, and some blues are better for "shallower water" corals while other blues are better for "deeper water" corals from my limited understanding.

That's kind of why I was wondering if some supplemental lighting chosen solely for color spectrum vs intensity would work well, like a orphek blue

 

[tbrown]

UV (I think it's actually Violet, they just call it Ultra?) and Royal Blue are two good options a lot of the higher end lights include.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I've noticed feeding helps with color, A LOT. I feed my coral a mixture of mysis shrimp, ab+, phytoplanktin, and recently added new life spectrum's reef cell. I'm also not keeping any super high end coral like acros yet, so maybe it's different with them.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

I've noticed feeding helps with color, A LOT. I feed my coral a mixture of mysis shrimp, ab+, phytoplanktin, and recently added new life spectrum's reef cell. I'm also not keeping any super high end coral like acros yet, so maybe it's different with them.

I feed weekly/bi weekly if I'm busy. I haven't done phyto yet but mysis, benereef, ab+ and benepellets. They always look super puffy the next day!