colors of coral in nature vs our aquariums

[michaelr]

hey everyone,

Ive been looking around but couldn't find an answer to this. I don't understand why corals lack so much color in nature but have a ton of color in aquariums. I understand why they don't have color in nature: they push the Zooxanthellae to the surface to allow better photosynthesis. the Zooxanthellae is a brownish color so that is what you see. What i don't understand is why don't corals do this in the average aquarium. especially since the light obviously isn't as strong in an aquarium. Any light on the situation would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[breakdanc3]

im somewhat interested in this .. alot of cameras fail to capture any color because they're drowned out in blue blue-green . if you've ever see a picture where a white flash was involved tho . its an explosion of colors .. so if you've been there at the reef and seen it for yourself that might change your opinion . .. or do u see alot of wild collected species that are more brown in color ??

See the flash of color in the foreground .. but in any background there is hardly any color . its the ocean color filtering . a white flash is needed to see all the colors.


<img src="http://s.ngm.com/2011/05/great-barrier-reef/img/great-barrier-reef-diver-615.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

<img src="http://s.ngm.com/2008/07/kingman-reef/img/underwater-reef-615.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">


<img src="http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/images/Best2006/CoralReefEduc.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

<img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2011/2/23/1298488013408/Coral-reef-near-Fiji-007.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">


<img src="http://aquaviews.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Great-Barrier-Reef.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

 

[Borchers]

Always wondered the same. But I gotta say we can never touch what true nature does at home

 

[TheFishTeen]

especially since the light obviously isn't as strong in an aquarium. Any light on the situation would be appreciated.
Thanks

Ive noticed the same thing, and Im sure most others have too, but that statement isn't as obvious as you might think.

I clearly remember a friend of mine telling me he took his PAR meter outside (and this is mid summer SoCal btw), then took it to his tank and got higher numbers. Now I'm not saying 'lighting strength' = PAR, but it definitely contributes to it.

So basically, Halides and loads of HO fluorescents over reefs might actually be 'stronger than the sun' in a sense.

 

[FocusFin]

im . .. or do u see alot of wild collected species that are more brown in color ??

I never thought of that, it's not like the coral are going to "color up" in the shipping box lol.

 

[michaelr]

im somewhat interested in this .. alot of cameras fail to capture any color because they're drowned out in blue blue-green . if you've ever see a picture where a white flash was involved tho . its an explosion of colors .. so if you've been there at the reef and seen it for yourself that might change your opinion . .. or do u see alot of wild collected species that are more brown in color ??

See the flash of color in the foreground .. but in any background there is hardly any color . its the ocean color filtering . a white flash is needed to see all the colors.

I was just in bermuda actually which is what made me bring this question up haha. And sure there are some colorful but where i was it was mostly only the gorgonians. If you notice alot of the colors are a yellowish tan which is the zooxanthellae

 

[michaelr]

Ive noticed the same thing, and Im sure most others have too, but that statement isn't as obvious as you might think.

I clearly remember a friend of mine telling me he took his PAR meter outside (and this is mid summer SoCal btw), then took it to his tank and got higher numbers. Now I'm not saying 'lighting strength' = PAR, but it definitely contributes to it.

So basically, Halides and loads of HO fluorescents over reefs might actually be 'stronger than the sun' in a sense.

hmm that is interesting. that surprises me honestly but it makes sense in a way/

 

[michaelr]

and yeah haha its one of those things that nobody thinks about

 

[xCry0x]

It depends where you go but you also have to consider that in tanks we often put special lights on corals to bring out colors. If you put a 10k halide over a tank you get yellowish/brown coloration on everything. If you put a 20k over the same tank you get more of the blueish tint and more 'pretty' colors come out. The 20k light IIRC is supposed to be similar to the lighting color at 40-50' (?) of depth where the warmer light colors are less prevalent than blue. You probably didn't have someone following you shining an actinic t-5 or a royal blue LED light on everything in the ocean.

As far as location, a lot of the corals we get are from the indio-pacific region (australia, indonesia/fiji/tahiti etc) If you go diving in the bahamas or carribean which is literally halfway around the world you would have to expect to see different things. Again, IIRC the bora bora/fiji area is supposed to be the capital of soft corals - I personally have never seen a soft coral because I have only gone to the bahamas and Hawaii which as far as I know are almost all hard corals. That said, when I was just in Maui the reefs were much more impressive than what I saw in my last trip to the bahamas but the colors were still limited to blue, yellow and brown and a few green things IIRC.

-edit-

I actually thought it was cool seeing the yellows because I was not used to those being a normal color in reef tanks outside of NPS corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

One should understand that we buy the most colorful corals available in nature.

There are all sorts of brown corals around, and I have some in my tank alongside the colorful ones, but we greatly enrich our collection and buying for the most colorful ones.

Like keeping pet birds. Birds at a pet store are way more colorful than your average bird, but that's not because of conditions in the store. It is because that is what people collect for sale.

 

[mtrcyclefish]

I think the color spectrum of the light plays a part, too. The sun is obviously a more yellow then the bright white and blue we use over our tanks.

 

[michaelr]

One should understand that we buy the most colorful corals available in nature.

There are all sorts of brown corals around, and I have some in my tank alongside the colorful ones, but we greatly enrich our collection and buying for the most colorful ones.

Like keeping pet birds. Birds at a pet store are way more colorful than your average bird, but that's not because of conditions in the store. It is because that is what people collect for sale.

wow that didnt even cross my mind randy haha. that is very true

 

[michaelr]

It depends where you go but you also have to consider that in tanks we often put special lights on corals to bring out colors. If you put a 10k halide over a tank you get yellowish/brown coloration on everything. If you put a 20k over the same tank you get more of the blueish tint and more 'pretty' colors come out. The 20k light IIRC is supposed to be similar to the lighting color at 40-50' (?) of depth where the warmer light colors are less prevalent than blue. You probably didn't have someone following you shining an actinic t-5 or a royal blue LED light on everything in the ocean.

As far as location, a lot of the corals we get are from the indio-pacific region (australia, indonesia/fiji/tahiti etc) If you go diving in the bahamas or carribean which is literally halfway around the world you would have to expect to see different things. Again, IIRC the bora bora/fiji area is supposed to be the capital of soft corals - I personally have never seen a soft coral because I have only gone to the bahamas and Hawaii which as far as I know are almost all hard corals. That said, when I was just in Maui the reefs were much more impressive than what I saw in my last trip to the bahamas but the colors were still limited to blue, yellow and brown and a few green things IIRC.

-edit-

I actually thought it was cool seeing the yellows because I was not used to those being a normal color in reef tanks outside of NPS corals.

That is also a good point. i bet spectrum makes a huge difference

 

[sirreal63]

It depends where you go but you also have to consider that in tanks we often put special lights on corals to bring out colors. If you put a 10k halide over a tank you get yellowish/brown coloration on everything. If you put a 20k over the same tank you get more of the blueish tint and more 'pretty' colors come out.

Actually that is just a myth, you can grow just as colorful corals under a 10K as a 20K. I have used 4.2k, 10k, 14k and 20k halides and found very little difference with the exception of the 4.2k bulb but I didn't leave it over the tank for very long, it just wasn't appealing to the eye.

This a previous tank, a 6' 125 and the shot was from one end to the other, lit by 10K halides and a single VHO Actintic. Even with a really crappy camera you will see a lack of "brown" corals. The colors in person were very vivid but my point and shoot did not like the tank very much.

A few close ups...

The color a coral portrays is much more than the color of the light shining on it. 10k bulbs have a very strong 420nm color spike, in most bulbs it is the highest color spike, our eyes don't see it as easily as other colors which appear more dominant but are not. Randy makes an excellent point and there are many brown corals in nature but we tend to not buy those.

 

[michaelr]

Actually that is just a myth, you can grow just as colorful corals under a 10K as a 20K. I have used 4.2k, 10k, 14k and 20k halides and found very little difference with the exception of the 4.2k bulb but I didn't leave it over the tank for very long, it just wasn't appealing to the eye.


Randy makes an excellent point and there are many brown corals in nature but we tend to not buy those.

hmm i guess what randy says is the reason then unless there is some unknown factor we cant begin to understand

 

[billsreef]

Ive noticed the same thing, and Im sure most others have too, but that statement isn't as obvious as you might think.

I clearly remember a friend of mine telling me he took his PAR meter outside (and this is mid summer SoCal btw), then took it to his tank and got higher numbers. Now I'm not saying 'lighting strength' = PAR, but it definitely contributes to it.

So basically, Halides and loads of HO fluorescents over reefs might actually be 'stronger than the sun' in a sense.

The sun is considerably stronger over the equatorial regions where tropical reefs are found than it is in the more northern latitudes of SoCal. Really need to compare the PAR of the sunlight over the reef to our tank lighting

I was just in bermuda actually which is what made me bring this question up haha. And sure there are some colorful but where i was it was mostly only the gorgonians. If you notice alot of the colors are a yellowish tan which is the zooxanthellae

Tropical Atlantic corals on the whole are duller in color as compared to many tropical Pacific corals. Much lower species diversity as well. That said, there are still some nice looking Atlantic corals

 

[michaelr]

The sun is considerably stronger over the equatorial regions where tropical reefs are found than it is in the more northern latitudes of SoCal. Really need to compare the PAR of the sunlight over the reef to our tank lighting




Tropical Atlantic corals on the whole are duller in color as compared to many tropical Pacific corals. Much lower species diversity as well. That said, there are still some nice looking Atlantic corals

haha i guess there my reason to go on vacation. :beer:

 

[Prince916]

The sun lights puts out different colors than what we normally have in our aquarium. If you look at reefer who uses natural sunlight with no suppliments, the colors of thier corals are brown, yellow, or green. Couple month back a person was TOTM here in RC and he too uses natural sunlight, when he dont use any suppliments to the light there is hardly any colors to his sps but when he did, colors such as blue and purple would come out.

 

[KCombs]

I've been in this discussion before....
isn't sunlight like 5000 or 5500K?
just my opinion, but I would think millions of years of evolution would have corals adapted/optimized for the <10K color temperature as opposed to 20K ... but I suppose there is that light/water penetration factor et....

colors not withstanding, I thought corals grow faster in the lower temperatures under 10K ? no?

 

[6Speed]

I've been in this discussion before....
isn't sunlight like 5000 or 5500K?
just my opinion, but I would think millions of years of evolution would have corals adapted/optimized for the <10K color temperature as opposed to 20K ... but I suppose there is that light/water penetration factor et....

colors not withstanding, I thought corals grow faster in the lower temperatures under 10K ? no?

the water filters the light. deeper water means more bluish light. Shallower water is more towards yellow.