have a question for the lighting experts pertaining to coral color

[tunedtank]

i got a question i have been searching all over cant really find a difinitive answer. or atleast one that makes sense to me. i want to know when changing lighting on a tank(say from mh to led or vise versa) other than the color change that you see instantly based on spectrum changes will the corals also change color over time due to the change in spectrum. say ypu have been running a b and c corals under led lighting for a year if you were to add t5s to the lighting other than any color changes you see instantly will the corals also change colors over time due to the t5 lighting?? if any body has a nice difinitive answer that would be so awesome if any body has any experience with this experimentation i would love to see pics of and hear there results. just so this thread doesnt go the wrong way lets say all water parameters remain as stables the only variables being light spectrum. on a side note:- if any body wants to add in or touch on nessacary intinseties as variables as well, to induce certain pigments i would like to hear about that as well

any help would be more than greatly appreciated iv been scanning advanced aquarist articles and my brain for weeks trying to work this help lets hear from some vets in the game or steer me towards the info im looking for

 

[thegrun]

Yes, you will likely see a gradual shift in coral color. I certainly did changing from MH/T-5 combo to LED lighting.

 

[Timfish]

Sorry but there's too many variables for an easy answer. To start with researchers have probably only identified about a tenth of the fluorescing and chromo proteins made by corals. The same fluorescing protein in two different species can have different excitation and emmision wavelength bands or absorption bands for chromo proteins. A fluorescing protein may be used differently by a coral depending on light intensity. A flourescing protein may be used for very different reasons in two different species of coral. What you need to do is ask for peoples experiences with specific corals.

 

[GeoJ]

A good example would be when we had many of the coral prop shops change over to the LEDs. We got faded pastel colors. Lots of light but not enough of the right wave length. You take that same coral look at it under 390-450 nm it looks great, not so much under full spec.

Most corals you would get temporary color shift, with the change in light. I have had rics starts out orange then with a light change they went red. Move the coral they revert back to orange.

 

[doctorwhoreefer]

I would say it depends on the coral as well. I've seen changes in coloration where new growth sections occur but not overall. I've seen the pastel effect, but in hindsight I would say it was a lack of food because when I bumped up the feeding, the colors deepened. It was like changing to leds gave the corals better spectrums, but the imbalance was already present for lack of planktonic levels.

Which I've seen some people remark happens when you acclimate corals to higher light levels, you need to feed more as well to prevent the imbalance since they're able to "work harder" with the increased light.

Though it still seems to be a fairly unexplored tangent of corals in our tanks.
Its like the discovery of leptoseris and pavona existing 300-600ft deep, but yet they respond surprisingly well to higher par levels.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I've only had LEDs on my tank, so I can't say anything for sure about the corals changing colors, but I do feed my coral daily and their growth rates have been great. Not sure if they'd get as much use out of the food if the lighting wasn't as bright or not. I wouls speculate that there could be different zoo bacteria within the corals that respond to different wavelengths better than others, so over time in a different light spectrum the better suited bateria strains may become more prevalant.

 

[Aqualund]

Yes, they will change. Sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse....and some particular corals may not change...but many of the colors will change. This is mostly for SPS though.

 

[Jim Z.]

Under T5's, coral color was good, but not great. My T5's did not have enough of the high energy wavelengths to compensate for the overall white lighting. My current LED setup is producing more higher energy wavelengths (blue through violet) than my old T5 setup. And I'm getting more florescence and strong colors. Some of the SPS took about a month before they were adjusted, others like ORA Bird of Paradise colored up immediately. Duncans are turquoise blue and green under my LED's, they were brown and green under T5's. I run warm whites, royal blues, purples, blues, and ocean coral whites on independent channels with a Coralux controller. I bias the overall spectrum to blue and violet and use the remaining colors for color balance. This produces light that provides more energy than what photosynthesis can handle and results in florescence. Overall the tank has a slight blue cast, but coral florescence and color balance are quite good............Jim

 

[Aqualund]

Under T5's, coral color was good, but not great. My T5's did not have enough of the high energy wavelengths to compensate for the overall white lighting. My current LED setup is producing more higher energy wavelengths (blue through violet) than my old T5 setup. And I'm getting more florescence and strong colors. Some of the SPS took about a month before they were adjusted, others like ORA Bird of Paradise colored up immediately. Duncans are turquoise blue and green under my LED's, they were brown and green under T5's. I run warm whites, royal blues, purples, blues, and ocean coral whites on independent channels with a Coralux controller. I bias the overall spectrum to blue and violet and use the remaining colors for color balance. This produces light that provides more energy than what photosynthesis can handle and results in florescence. Overall the tank has a slight blue cast, but coral florescence and color balance are quite good............Jim

Do you have PAR comparisons between the T5 and the Leds? Im willing to bet you have more par now, and the sacrifice of less spectral range.