Color drift in SPS

bamf25

New member
I have a few pieces that are frags that have been in my tank about 2 months. I was wondering what the reason are for color drift in sps frags. All seem to be growing nicely, having added a few branches buds and 3 or 4 mm in length since they were put in the tank. They all have full polyp extention at some point during the day. It is not that the pieces are losing color, and they do not appear bleached out, just they are colored different from the types general description, and have even changed color in my tank. I have a 120g with a diy LED setup my guess is around 16k temp. The light are on 8 hours per day, but they come on later in the day and stay on into the night (I work late many nights), so there is low ambient light more a fair portion of the other time. Calcium is 410, alk 8.6, salinity 1.025, mg 1350, temp 78, nitrate trace, phos 0.08, ammonia and nitrite 0.

the pieces in question

Blue cali tort supposed to be deep blue to purple mine is mainly purple with green accents.
Red planet many I have seen are mostly red. Mine is green body with red polyps.
Ora Blue mili again suppost to be blue mine is more light purple or lavendar.
 
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Cali torts often have green. Helps to tell them apart from Oregon torts. A green red planet is a red planet in lower light. Add par and it will redden. Too much par and it will be pink and white. Some people shoot for the sweet spot with a red top and green base.

Never had an ORA blue milli so I can't say.
 
ORA states on their page that the blue milli can vary in color based on the time of year. Anywhere from blue to purple to green. Even their stock photo shows purple on it.

Drew
 
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