Relative Importance of Factors in Coloration

[Jan]

Hi Kevin

I have posted before about a few of my SPS corals that have a mostly brownish coloration under halides and pure green under actinic. These brownish corals include the following:

Purple tip acro
LE Ultimate Blue (frag)
Unidentified pink thick-branched acro
Blue tenius (frag)

I have a frag of Oregon Tort that is dark blue, not bright royal blue

Corals that are doing really well, color-wise:
superman monti frag
rainbow monti (bought brown and coloring up nicely)
purple haze monti
sunset monti frag
pink monti digitata
Blue Monster frag
Green tort
neon green stylophora
Cali tort
Unknown yellow/peach acro
Turquoise "turaki" type acro (unknown)
20K Leagues Lokani frag
30K Leagues Lokani frag

I am trying to understand which factors I should focus on for improving color in the corals at the top of this list. Since many corals are doing very well, I'm not sure that too much nutrient in the water is the problem...

Do you think I need more intense lighting? I have 2 175 watt Iwasaki 15K's, which have PAR 86 and good spectrum but maybe not intense enough? These are in Luminarc mini's so PAR is better than many 250 watt bulbs.

Thinking of switching to 2 250 watt Reeflux 10K's, but PAR is only 93 on these so not that much stronger. However the intensity seems higher (if I read Sanji's graphs right)? Is that accurate that the PAR could be about the same but the intensity still higher on the 10K's?

Any other factors I should look at besides lighting and nutrient levels, for getting the brown out of some of these corals?

Thanks for your input

 

[apollothesun]

following this thread

 

[Scooterman]

I think your using PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) which is used to measure PAR?

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/sj/index.php

 

[Jan]

I think your using PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) which is used to measure PAR?

Yes, I made the assumption that the PPFD is what I should look at to represent PAR value....

 

[Scooterman]

which is a measure of the number of photons in the range of 400-700nm falling on a 1 meter square area per second, yea but didn't want to confuse the two, which you state as actual PAR.

 

[Jan]

So in Sanjay's tabular summaries there doesn't seem to be an actual PAR entry, but everyone talks about PAR comparisons based on his analysis. Hence my confusion...

 

[Scooterman]

Yea he does that because we're concerned about what range output corals use! You want more in PPDF in that range!
People compare PAR & say higher is better but Sanjay breaks it down to the actual range used by coral, which is even better. Sorry, didn't mean to side track your intentions so back to the question, first question how deep is your tank?

 

[Jan]

So Scooty, in another thread I think you recommended 250 watt 10K Reeflux over a 24" tank...is that what you use and is it good for all of your corals, high, med, and low light SPS?

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
A 250W Reeflux bulb driven with an M80 ballast will produce 113 PPFD (according to Sanjay's data) which is considerably more than your current lighting. It also has the large spike in the 450nm range which brings out the blue in many Acropora and other SPS corals. Generally speaking the higher the light intensity the lighter the coral color.

Be aware that you may achieve the color you desire on the top corals in your list only to have the ones in the lower list turn another color, even brown. It is a great challenge to have corals that come from many different lighting types/intensities all in the same tank and achieve the perfect color from every one. It can take several years and may never happen. It often comes down to placement. A few inches up, down, right, or left can have a large impact on coral coloration and growth.

Just as a comparison all the Halide bulbs I run produce 170 PPFD according to the data from Sanjay.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[Scooterman]

I just saw one of Kevin's replies where he suggest 400w's 10k's on a tank 24" depth! That is getting the absolute best on HQI ballast & probably XM10k & second the Reeflux 10k on HQI's!

 

[Jan]

thankyou, Kevin...that does help.

 

[Jan]

Scooty, I just saw a tank with 2 400 watt 10K Reeflux in the middle and on the left, and a Ushio 20K 400 watt on the right. The middle section looked awesome (lots of SPS), the left did not (large frogspawn had turned brownish), and the right was pretty nice but not as colorful and bright as the middle. So in this case, maybe the 10K 400 watt bulb over the frogspawn was too intense for it, and it became more brown. That makes sense. This was a 24" tank, by the way.

 

[Scooterman]

Like Kevin said & I'm guessing your already on but several things are important, coral needs, placement, depth left right, whatever. You have to consider the combinations are almost limitless, reflectors, height above water. You have to take time like mentioned & see where that one coral will do best. Kevin suggest so much light to pretty much give you the ability to grow successfully anything, once you find the sweet spot of each coral. It would be much easier to have one tank & one coral LOL! If I suggested a certain light it may be because of many reasons, one thing most people skip & go straight for bluer lights & not gain the potential of their corals. I would think a coral would slowly die over a long period of time if not given the proper lighting.

 

[kevinpo]

Another bulb consideration is what nanometer range(s) the bulb spikes. 420nm spikes tend to promote purple coloration while 450nm promotes blue. Radium and Reeflux have the largest spikes in the 450nm while Ushio and XM are in the 420nm range.

Regards,
Kevin
PS: Excellent questions BTW.

 

[stonycorals]

Nutrient levels will play an even greater role in coral colorization. If you get those close to NSW, your colors will be great. Look at Palettas book, people get great color from 6.5k bulbs to 20k bulbs. Get bulbs that you like, and work to lower your nutrient levels as measured on hanna or lamotte test kits to see what your real nutrient levels are.

 

[spongebob lover]

very nice Jan ....following thread .
i'm far from switching my light bulb ( i got 175 14k right now which has a very low PAR i believe) and still learning a lot about light .
i'd really love to try the 10k XM but still thinking about it and i'd love to have some nice coloration

 

[Jan]

Gaby, when I get my 250's set up would you like to try my 175 Iwasaki 15K's? They have the best PAR of any 175, and better than many 250's. My corals are growing well with them.

 

[spongebob lover]

Gaby, when I get my 250's set up would you like to try my 175 Iwasaki 15K's? They have the best PAR of any 175, and better than many 250's. My corals are growing well with them

awesome!! thanks Jan definetly would love to do that .

 

[apollothesun]

what do you guys clean the uv glass shields with? water and towel? anything else? is it worth getting a light meter?

 

[Jan]

paper towel wet with some water and white vinegar.