A question of color and honesty

[sfsuphysics]

After my reply on the pink polyp'd monti (I don't see pink), I'm curious to what standards people use to dictate the colors of their corals? Is it basically whatever tank it's in that's the color people call it. I'm specifically speaking about when you (or farmers/estores) sell/trade corals. Now it's always good to mention what lighting things are under, I totally dig that, but to say stunning orange! or awesome pink polyps really might be subjective to what lighting things are under.

Example, the infamous big brown protopalythoas, ugly as all hell (IMO ), but with enough actinic light and bluer spectrums (14k+ bulbs) the centers have a greenish look to them, so is the honest thing to say green centered pps? Do you talk about what color they are under a range of bulbs? Or do you just mention the bulb that makes the colors most appealing?

Why this hit me today you might ask? Well the past few days I've been working on my sps tank, and as such removed all my lights so I wouldn't do anything stupid, and I noticed something, my purple undata (or confusa.. jury is still out) that looks really purple I was thinking might be an artifact due to my 12kK Reeflux bulbs, but low and behold with the "softwhite" bulbs in the ceiling the damn thing looked really purple! So did the rim of my purple rimmed green cap, and funny thing, so did my "blue" millepora. So I started wondering do I have a purple millepora or a blue one? My bright orange with pink polyped cap looked the same color (granted not as intense) and so did my orange and red polyped nodosa.

So if i ever trade or sell any of my coral what do you people feel the honest way to describe a corals coloration? Bring it out in the sunlight? Or simply whatever lighting I have is offically the coral's color?

I'm curious to what others think.

 

[Frankysreef]

The sad thing is some people photoshop thier colors for a better look...

I take pictures of the tank, and whatever color is in my tank is what I call it.

Of course I have had many acropora change color in my tank.. mostly blues to pinks... greens to blue...You cant predict it.

 

[Frankysreef]

my avatar was taken under 175 mh with actinic supp....but the same coral under 250 20kis bright blue with 6500 k sunlight.

 

[dots]

You do make a good observation that color perception is different under different bulb colors.

Perhaps since 10K is a baseline and is considered "white" then perhaps that should be the reference for colors.

But I think as consumers we should take into the account of bulb colors and how they bring out the colors of the corals, or not.

 

[jay24k]

Most put the color in the tank. I've gotten a really nice purple coral that was brown in my tank. This wasn't a brown from moving/stress or color loss but immediately. Unfortunately, there is no other real way to describe it. Flash washes colors out.

I personally think under a true white bulb like a 10k, you can see TRUE color.

 

[xtrstangx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7880801#post7880801 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Frankysreef
The sad thing is some people photoshop thier colors for a better look...

I photoshop some of my pictures to make them more true to life (because my camera sucks at the colors), but won't make them look better or ultra-flourescent.

 

[JB NY]

Most vendor sell their color colors based on 20K MH and heavy actinics.

 

[goda]

these were called BLUE palys when my friend got htem
when the gavve them to me this is how they looked. ( under almost any lighting.. even out of the tank)

 

[JAANDGC]

photoshop

photoshop

I never have to Photo shop, my corals just glow by themselves

See what I mean


LOL
Actually I've have stopped buying for color, because it always changes.

 

[goda]

sometimes i think people who name this stuff are blind.
imo it should be called what it looks like under natural day light when removed from the tank

 

[xtrstangx]

Re: photoshop

Re: photoshop

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7881724#post7881724 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JAANDGC
I never have to Photo shop, my corals just glow by themselves

See what I mean

LOL
Actually I've have stopped buying for color, because it always changes.

Are you dosing toxic waste? :lol:

 

[CSS Reef]

I have had trouble with this in the past when trading frags via mail. There were some who always seemed to see more colors in their frags then there actually was. Calling light brown frags Blue. It started to **** me off after a while and I decided to trade only items I actually saw in person or from reputable traders...

 

[Eric Boerner]

Re: A question of color and honesty

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7880769#post7880769 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sfsuphysics
Example, the infamous big brown protopalythoas, ugly as all hell (IMO ), but with enough actinic light and bluer spectrums (14k+ bulbs) the centers have a greenish look to them, so is the honest thing to say green centered pps? Do you talk about what color they are under a range of bulbs?

I have a large colony of those big brown palythoa's and they have bright green mouths under Iwasaki 6500k with no actinic lighting. If I ran 20000k XM's those same palythoas would turn pink around the cap and the mouth would look almost yellow. But under 6500k, it remains green.

Feeding/supliments for corals may have alot to do with colors in addition to lighting spectrum.

 

[tnyr5]

i simply think there should be three pics for every coral on the internet, 10k, 20k , and sunlight, then we wouldn't have any problems

 

[twon8]

If the person behind the camera knows what they are doing, and has a good camera, an accurate pic can be taken under any lighting that shows what it actually looks like in that tank. If you saw sunlight pics most corals would not be desirable, besides who uses only sunlight on their tanks? If you are experienced enough to buy sps online you should be aware of the pitfalls of other people's photo's, especially those trying to sell you something.

 

[143gadgets]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7884205#post7884205 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by twon8
If the person behind the camera knows what they are doing, and has a good camera, an accurate pic can be taken under any lighting that shows what it actually looks like in that tank. If you saw sunlight pics most corals would not be desirable, besides who uses only sunlight on their tanks? If you are experienced enough to buy sps online you should be aware of the pitfalls of other people's photo's, especially those trying to sell you something.

I agree!

 

[onehundred20]

Re: photoshop

Re: photoshop

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7881724#post7881724 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JAANDGC
I never have to Photo shop, my corals just glow by themselves

See what I mean


LOL
Actually I've have stopped buying for color, because it always changes.

is that the new blacklight orange cap!

 

[gcarroll]

The majority of sps keepers run a 10K+ bulbs. Very few are running less than 10K. The reason I say this is because even people that run 10K or less are supplementing those bulbs because they complain about the yellow tint. Remember if you can see even the slightest blue tint to a bulb, its spectrum is 20K+.
I got into sps for the same reason the rest of you did. I admired those tanks that I was seeing on RC and other internet sites. The colors were spectacular. I used to run unsupplemented AB 10K when I first set up this tank. I loved the bright white look. I used to post pics but never got complements. People used to come over and the subject of the conversation was always about how other peoples tanks look so good and the colors being vivid. So I bit the bullet and went for the blue bulb. The Magic Bulb as as I like to call it. Now I have color and everyone who sees pics or come over thinks so also. I normally ever sell frags other at a few local frag swaps but Even with the blue bulbs, my corals have true color as anyone can tell you.
So if most people are running blue bulbs why does anyone selling need to provide pics under different lighting conditions other than what they have them under. I do feel it is important that the seller or person posting pics advise what lighting the corals are under. I have never understood why people wont just update their profiles in RC (like tose so called experts who give advise but won't show the level of success that they have acheived). All my equipent used is in my "current tanks" profile, pics are also available. I don't photoshop and have never even installed the program. I keep no secrets and am willing to help anyone who wants to keep sps. If knowing what equipment I'm running will help them, then great. But until TOTM winners are dominated by people running straight 10K, most people are going to continue wanting to see the pretty pictures provided by the guys running blue bulbs.

 

[jay24k]

I can somewhat agree with that but I've seen alot of 10K tanks that look very nice. I have 10K XM's and my colors pop very well.

 

[gcarroll]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7885845#post7885845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jay24k
I can somewhat agree with that but I've seen alot of 10K tanks that look very nice. I have 10K XM's and my colors pop very well.

Sorry, but based on you specs you use 10K w/ actinic. That puts you in the 10K+ club.