SPS Coral Coloration - how do you do it?

[MiddletonMark]

It seems like every one of these Think Tank threads something challenges me to reconsider what I think I know - so I'm posing the question I never got a good answer for IMO:

What is important for achieving great coloration out of SPS corals?

Yep, a broad question - likely to have some variance between different species and genus - but yet it seems like there are some common factors.

Food ... lights ... current ... low nutrient levels ... high/low alkalinity ....

What works for you? It seems often the focus is on lights, huge lights ... yet you hear people swearing by ozone, or phosphate removers, or food, or current ....

Without buying every expensive gadget for SPS tanks - what are the most important? I see tanks without a million doo-dads that have great growth and color, and I see tanks with all sorts of spendy items and brown/non-vivid colors. [I know some is the variety of SPS] ....

Anyway - kind of large question - but I'd love to hear what everyone thinks is best ... AND what works for people.

[Spanky]

Mark

In our experience, the biggest factor is nutrient levels in the system. Lower nutrients = lower light. Higher nutrients = higher light.

What you're fighting is fertilizer for zoox. If you over fertilize them, they can reproduce at a rate that colors the coral brown. You can compensate for that by using higher intensity light for longer duration, that causes the coral to shed some of the zoox = reduced numbers again.

[mojoreef]

Were not telling, lol
Spanky is right the vast majority of people color problems have to do with nutrients fertilizing the zoox algae. the gadjets are just things folks use to get thier.here how it works.
Corals have Zoox which is an algae, actually they are dinoflagellates. they are the same as the nasty ones in our tanks but do not have a tail. With in this dino are pigments. A series of chlorophyll’s which are green and carotenoid peridinin which is yellow. (yellow and green make??? brown, thus most corals are brown) now these pigments are basically chemical molecules that possess the ability to absorb visible light photons. and so the process starts. The energy of the light photons are captured by these pigments and transfered through a sytem called ETS (electron transport system). and eventually end up in a reaction center, which leads to the formation of ATP and NADPH . ATP is the food (Hmm andrenlintriphosphate??? (sp). and nadph is reducing power. both form organic compounds the coral can use as food.
Now the ammounts of these pigments in corals is not a carved in sstone thing, they can have more chlorophyll’s and less carotenoid's or visa visa and this can influence the color of the coral and/or clam. So how does that influence the light we use??? most of the pigments chlorophyll have a strong ability to gather light in the blue and violet range. the other more dominant pigment carotenoid peridinin mostly absorbs blue light waves, but does absorb violet and a tiny bit of green. So you make the call on the K of the bulb you wish to use (or combination).
So now lets move away from the aglae that is providing food and take a look at some of the actual colors of the corals, because as we know not all corals are brown (thank God).
Also with in the coral are more pigments. they have a variety of different purposes and requirements. they reside with in the tissue of the coral itself. Now these pigments do not have the ability to traansfer light energy, but it has been found that in very deep waters they ave the ability to alter particular color wave lengths. This is done by absorbing one color and the fluorescing a color the coral can use. SPS or shallow water corals produce large ammounts of pigments under high lighting intencity. So lets get into the meat of it.
Most pigments in coral tissue are called pocilloporin and are catagorized as either Brightly Colored Low Fluorescent Pocilloporins or as Highly Fluorescent Pocilloporins. Highly Fluorescent Pocilloporin pigments have the ability to absorb light with a specific wavelength and then fluoresce or emit this light into a different wavelength. Most of the highly flouresent varity act as UV protectorants. protecting the coral and algae from UV's and to much light. the lower flourescent types tend to help the Zoox pgments convert uv and /or violet leght into something useable.
these pigments absorb light basically with in the zone of 400 to 620 nm. violet to blue to some green and some yellow and some red. they absorb those light but fluorese dofferent colors back out. the colors the fluorese out are the colors we see in oour tanks.
So conclution...sorta. most of the light waves corals use for growth are in the range of blue and violet. this is for food but not necessarly the color of the coral. the pigemnts inside the corals tissue, have a roader range of absorbtion and emit a different color then they absorb (usually). but it has nothing to do with thier feeding process.

Anyway I hope I didnt make it more confusing.

Mike

[Casey]

Ok Spanks heres where you step in and put what Mike said in Laymens terms duh

[MiddletonMark]

Confusing is good

Thanks guys ... I had a feeling it was far more nutrient/light related than most people let on. IMO many of these other gadgets are pretty anecdotal in effect - that it could be the gadget and it could be some other change concurrent with the gadget that cause the change/improvement in coloration.

Interesting what you say Spanky about lower light and lower nutrients ... jives with your 2 hour a day MH use and low nutrient tank ... also with my experience with 2 175w MH's and nicer colored corals than some 250 & 400w SPS tanks that I've seen.

But then again, there's those great tanks with outrageous light/power bills too.

Thanks for the long response Mike, much appreciated as well. Now just to have you guys repeat these same things about 10 times and maybe I'll finally get it synthesized into my brain [somewhere between those rocks I keep up there ]

[Spanky]

I'll try.

Several years ago we did a study on corals (SPS reef building types) and lighting at the old place in Cudjoe Key. Partly out of boredom but mostly because we had a couple of grants we had to eat up (hey, it's your money BTW!).

Anywho, we ran every known combination of lighting you can think of. From 12 hours constant to 30 minute bursts every few hours.

Bottom line, it's not only tied into available water soluble nutrients but also how much they are fed (actually that's the same thing). The more nitrogen and phosphorous compounds available = the more zoox. Plants + fertilizer = more plants.

You can reduce the numbers of hosted zoox two ways. Reduce nutrients or increase lighting. Increasing lighting just causes the corals to constantly shed more zoox, regulate their numbers. The more fertilizer the more efficient the zoox are and the coral needs less too.

They do have tails BTW.

[Casey]

Ok that helps alot so more water changes and more light??

[bigjohn]

Help, my IQ has fallen and I can't shutup!

I am in the process of ordering/upgrading MH lights for my 6 foot tank. I was intending to get 3 - 250 MH with 10K bulbs. Would I be better to have a mixture of bulbs (2 - 10K, and 1 - 20K) or not??

[yardboy]

Cool thread, since I've recently observed something interesting in my tank. Moving corals out of my 70 into a 20 with 110W PC. corals that had somewhat faded or browned under the 250W MH began putting out more color under the PC's! What's up, other than the obvious, the 70 is nutrient-rich. I think that not all corals have much for colored pigments. As you increase the light, the zooxan populations diminish, leaving behind...not much.
Guess that's what happens when you get corals on a "great deal"!

[photobarry]

But zooxanthellae aren't colorful, they are brown. Plus, depending on location, they could be getting more light in the 20 than they did in the 70.

[SPC]

Originally posted by photobarry
But zooxanthellae aren't colorful, they are brown. Plus, depending on location, they could be getting more light in the 20 than they did in the 70.

Yea thats what i was thinking too, Barry .
Steve

[Spanky]

They could be putting out more color simply from shedding zoox from the move too. They will do that sometimes.
Or it could be lower organics in the 20, higher flow (less zoox needed for oxygen production/respiration), etc

[jaypee]

Originally posted by Spanky
The more nitrogen and phosphorous compounds available = the more zoox. Plants + fertilizer = more plants.

Just as an aside, I've been doing a lot of research on cyano lately. It's revealing how repeatable the reaction you describe is throughout nature.

This study wants to purify groundwater of nitrate and intends for cyano to perform the function. This is a non nitrogen fixing strain of cyano the takes nitrate and converts it to ammonium through nitrate and nitrite reductase.

It wasn't until varying degrees of phosphate were added to the groundwater, that the cyano could be spurred into large nitrate uptake. Even the largest amounts of added phosphate were consumed in short order in the test systems.

The study concludes quite conclusively that phosphate is the limiting nutrient. (for cyano at least, which is what I was looking to verify)

Do you suppose the next gimmick, will be cyano cultivated in a refugium as a de-nitrifyer? Pour in the phosphate, you're good to go.

[Spanky]

LOL Jaypee

Phosphate is in such demand and in such competitive short supply, you can just about always blame phosphate.

It's usually the limiting ingredient.

[MiddletonMark]

Originally posted by jaypee
Do you suppose the next gimmick, will be cyano cultivated in a refugium as a de-nitrifyer? Pour in the phosphate, you're good to go.

Why a refugium? Seems like a lot of people are cultivating it on their DSB

Ok ... back to the topic at hand ...