Does Flow Effect The Color on Corals?

[braeden.cyra]

I was just wondering if anyone knew if a coral would fade in color if it wasn't getting enough flow.

Thanks

 

[jroovers]

It might, but a better indicator might be lack of growth.

 

[braeden.cyra]

Yeah that would make sense. The coral I am concerned about is growing slowly sooo....maybe it is not fed enough? Too much light?

 

[dvanacker]

I buddy of mine had amazing colors but blunted/rounded tips and very slow growth. You can tell from this appearance that the growth is slow as there is very little growth tip present. He had very little flow and I suggested adding another powerhead which he did and he did claim that growth greatly improved after.

 

[braeden.cyra]

Ok. That's interesting to hear. So it is probably something to do with light or feeding then right?

 

[jroovers]

Ok. That's interesting to hear. So it is probably something to do with light or feeding then right?

Without looking at your thread, if your coral is paling or losing colour it could be too few nutrients, or it could be bleaching due to too strong of lighting or changes in lighting. Either of these plausible?

 

[braeden.cyra]

Without looking at your thread, if your coral is paling or losing colour it could be too few nutrients, or it could be bleaching due to too strong of lighting or changes in lighting. Either of these plausible?

It isn't bleaching I don't think because it is still growing towards the light. Too few nutrients could be possible but all of the other SPS is thriving.

 

[karsseboom]

Check for pest.

 

[dvanacker]

corals can still grow while getting bleached infact sometimes when you blast them with light they grow real fast for a while and get lighter (bleaching)...then they seem to run out steam when they get really pale and stop growing.

 

[REEF SMAC]

IME SPS need to have proper flow to be happy. You can give them all the light you want but if they don't have enough flow, the light isn't gonna help.
Flow is just one of many factors that SPS need to be healthy.

It doesn't matter if everything else is perfect, you still won't have healthy happy SPS without proper flow.

Whether or not your SPS are happy and healthy has a huge effect on its colors.

 

[DNA]

If you know your flow is low it just one of the possible things that could be affecting your corals color so fix that and see if things improve.
Still it's so often that the real cause is something different than we think.

 

[dieselgrk]

YES! And here's how it works: flow effects health and health effects color!

 

[dan-in-gr]

Hi, I got rid of a couple of circulation fixed circulation pumps in my 120 a couple of months ago and put in 2 Tunze 6105's my SPS (30 of them) are doing much better and growth is doing great now.

The only thing that is being changed this week is light bulbs, when my Giesemann Infiniti bulbs came one year old I changed and setup and put in XM 20k one side (other side got Phoenix as my son broke one XM), the Phoenix side actually has newer corals and the growth is past the XM side, so it will get replaced this week (bulbs ordered), next I put in 4 ATI blue Plus, they look great, but my coral colors were much better with Giesemann Pure Actinics and going back to those this week also.

 

[braeden.cyra]

Thanks for all of the replies. I raised my light, reduced the photo period, and put an extra power head in, and the tank seems to be doing better. It is a little early to tell but we'll see.