Acropora changing color

[Daniel Murray]

you might want to check out this website. Joe has doen exhaustive research on lighting and shows about every bulb with and without actinic supplementation. www.cnidarianreef.com/ click on lighting..

I went to make sure the link was working and the lighting link is not there, maybe someone can fix that as I'm not sure what happened..

Dose the length of the Bulb mater?
The BL10K: Blueline 10K MH Looks very Nice and mine is BLSW: Blueline Super White.
I all so liked the looks of SUN14K:
Do you think buy changing bulbs will help out my SPS to get there color back to Blue and Purple and not Green?

Thanks,
Daniel

 

[CarlaW]

I think Sue is right about using 250 watt bulbs. How deep is the tank?

 

[SueT]

as long as all your water params are in line, then I do not see why changing lighting would not help them. I had a friend locally to me that had your same lighting and every frag I sold her would change to green under her lighting. They left my tank rich in blues, purples, tri-colors and every single one went to green. She changed her lighting and every one came back to the color they left here with..

 

[Daniel Murray]

My tank is 24" deep that is from the sand bed to the top of the water.
My light sits 2" off the water

 

[Daniel Murray]

as long as all your water params are in line, then I do not see why changing lighting would not help them. I had a friend locally to me that had your same lighting and every frag I sold her would change to green under her lighting. They left my tank rich in blues, purples, tri-colors and every single one went to green. She changed her lighting and every one came back to the color they left here with..

Did she change the kelvin or the wattage?
I would hate to replace My E-Ballast they are new!!

 

[CarlaW]

Did she change the kelvin or the wattage?
I would hate to replace My E-Ballast they are new!!

What would be the chances of exchanging the ballast? With a 24" deep tank, 250W bulbs would be a minimum, IMO.

 

[Daniel Murray]

I will have to call Gary at Champion Lighting on Tuesday. I hope he will swap them out for 250? We cwill see. If not what then?

 

[bradreef]

Ok so 250watts would be a great idea. the only other way to get around that would be 10k or 6500k with a luminarc relfector. only 2" off the water is really close. most are 8-10" I would move the coral up and down and see how it changes.

 

[Daniel Murray]

Ok so 250watts would be a great idea. the only other way to get around that would be 10k or 6500k with a luminarc relfector. only 2" off the water is really close. most are 8-10" I would move the coral up and down and see how it changes.

I do have a Polished Aluminum Reflector that looks like a Mirror in the hood this should help?

 

[Daniel Murray]

My SPS is about 5" from top of the water. I did have the other one about 1.5" to 2" from the top of the water. I did not like having it come out of the water when I did water changes. I do not no if it will hurt them or not?

 

[bradreef]

as long as it is not too long the light shouldn't be bad but it is never benificial. try lowering it to 8 inches down. a polished reflector wont give you half the light a good reflector will.

 

[SueT]

I agree with Brad, a good reflector is priceless. If these acropora are already as high in the water as can be placed and they are still loosing color then that to me says they aren't recieving enough light. Given all water params are in line.

This friend of mine changed from a 175w 10k german to 250w 10k XM's. I just switched to the 10k reeflex. Love them better than the xm's.

 

[jetaero]

To the coral coming out of water...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

-Josh-

 

[Daniel Murray]

I agree with Brad, a good reflector is priceless. If these acropora are already as high in the water as can be placed and they are still loosing color then that to me says they aren't recieving enough light. Given all water params are in line.

This friend of mine changed from a 175w 10k german to 250w 10k XM's. I just switched to the 10k reeflex. Love them better than the xm's.

Hi what wattage are your Bulbs.
Thank you,
Daniel Murray

 

[Daniel Murray]

To the coral coming out of water...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

-Josh-

Thank you That was Awesome Info!!!!!

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
Sorry for the late reply (I just got back from the Dave Mathews concert at the Gorge )

SPS corals and especially Acropora types often shift color from changes in lighting intensity and spectrum. The brand/type of bulb and the brand/type of ballast that drive it can dramatically change SPS colors. An example would be a 10,000K Ushio 400W mogul mount bulb driven by an HQI ballast. This combo will bring out a lot of purple, cream, and pink colors. Just change the blulb to a Reeflux 10,000K and many of the corals will turn blue and also appear more blue. Change the ballast to a standard magnetic one and the corals will darken and sometimes change color. The tank will also appear to have about 15% less light intensity and the bulb will burn a slightly different color.
With so many different bulb and ballast combinations out there you can only expect coral colors to remain about the same if you use the same lighting system they came from and place them about the same distance from the bulb.
Different brands of bulbs that are called 10,000K will produce very different peaks at certain wavelengths. Some have large spikes in the 420nm while others in the 450nm. These have a profound effect on color that we see and over time can change the actual color of the coral.

Be sure to realize that coral coloration is not an indicator of coral health, just the coral adapting to the current lighting conditions.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Daniel Murray]

Hello,
Sorry for the late reply (I just got back from the Dave Mathews concert at the Gorge )

SPS corals and especially Acropora types often shift color from changes in lighting intensity and spectrum. The brand/type of bulb and the brand/type of ballast that drive it can dramatically change SPS colors. An example would be a 10,000K Ushio 400W mogul mount bulb driven by an HQI ballast. This combo will bring out a lot of purple, cream, and pink colors. Just change the blulb to a Reeflux 10,000K and many of the corals will turn blue and also appear more blue. Change the ballast to a standard magnetic one and the corals will darken and sometimes change color. The tank will also appear to have about 15% less light intensity and the bulb will burn a slightly different color.
With so many different bulb and ballast combinations out there you can only expect coral colors to remain about the same if you use the same lighting system they came from and place them about the same distance from the bulb.
Different brands of bulbs that are called 10,000K will produce very different peaks at certain wavelengths. Some have large spikes in the 420nm while others in the 450nm. These have a profound effect on color that we see and over time can change the actual color of the coral.

Be sure to realize that coral coloration is not an indicator of coral health, just the coral adapting to the current lighting conditions.

Regards,
Kevin

Thank you that was very helpful.
Daniel Murray

 

[Daniel Murray]

OK Gary from Champion Lighting said that my 175 set up is fine because it is only 2" off the water not eight plus like most peoples.
Gary said I can try out the 175 watt 10,000k Plus (14,000k) Blue line Bulbs to see if I like them. He all so said he was going to call me because my bulbs are eight months old and time to replace them (Cool) But I beat him to it. That is why I like Champion Lighting.

 

[james734]

He all so said he was going to call me because my bulbs are eight months old and time to replace them (Cool) But I beat him to it. That is why I like Champion Lighting.

That is great service. Of course his motive is to get the sale, but non the less it's a great idea on his part.

 

[SueT]

I use 250w 10k reeflux ...