Nice scoly color change

[OneReef]

Somehow, within the last couple of weeks, with my increased blue lighting and increased coral feeding, my red/green scoly has added a purple streak in it from out of nowhere. It was never there before, I just noticed it this morning. Pretty cool to see if any other colors develop. I guess I will have to attribute it to the change in actinic lighting and the feeding. I really turned up the blue spectrum in my actinic lighting over the last couple of weeks, and that is when this happened. I also bumped up my amino acid feeding.

 

[SaltH2OLover]

SWEET!! I got my light in. I hope I have my settings pretty good so far. Everything seems to b doing great. Keeping colors and everything, opening and all that so, keeping fingers crossed it keeps going good!

 

[neuroslicer]

not sure it has anything to do with the actinic lighting, since blue absorption usually produces light emission more in the middle of the visible spectrum. I've had many experiences when just transferring a coral from one tank to another causes a drastic color change. looking nice no matter what color it is!

 

[OneReef]

not sure it has anything to do with the actinic lighting, since blue absorption usually produces light emission more in the middle of the visible spectrum. I've had many experiences when just transferring a coral from one tank to another causes a drastic color change. looking nice no matter what color it is!

All of my corals colors have improved since increasing the blue strength in my actinics. Even in this months "Coral Magazine" on the iPad app, the lead article is on coral coloration and the effects of blue lighting.

 

[Acropolooza]

That's pretty sweet!

 

[Reef264]

Coolio!Looks incredible!

 

[jabo]

Jay can you explain exactly what you are feeding and how often. Where do you get amino acids for a tank?

 

[OneReef]

Jay can you explain exactly what you are feeding and how often. Where do you get amino acids for a tank?

My new routine the last few weeks has been:

Twice daily 1 Tablespoon of Reef Nutrition OysterFeast and RotiFeast mixed together

Once daily 2ml of Brightwells Coral Amino

Once or twice a week .5ml of Selcon broadcast into the tank


I bought my CoralAmino online, because I didn't think a LFS carried it. I think Kermits carries Brightwells line, they may have some.

Everything has been looking better. I have begun to see a small patch or two of diatom, nothing much, but I may be at the tipping point of feeding too much. I may back it down to every other day to be on the safe side. My biopellets do an excellent job of handling the excess nutrients. I can say for sure that things do look better with increased feeding. But with every tank, you have to find out what is too much and what is not enough. Have to experiment a bit I guess. I may even add some more biopellets to my reactor since they've been running a few months.


Edit: Now that I re-read what I posted, I think back and it seems every time that I feed Selcon is when I see diatom. I may cut that out altogether and see. I don't feel that Selcon is essential to my tank, I was just adding some because I had it on hand. I feel that Reef Nutrition products and amino acids should be plenty sufficient for my tank. Bye bye, Selcon...lol

 

[OneReef]

Good news, I tested my phosphates this morning with the Hanna digital phosphate meter and the results came back .03. I strive to keep my phosphates at .03 or less. I haven't changed my filter sock in a couple of days, have been feeding heavily, and its been about 1 1/2 weeks since a water change. So I am very happy with the levels. It should help my SPS continue to thrive.

 

[OneReef]

Here's the beginning of the Coral Magazine article. Worth a full read. This is just the first few lines..


BLUE LIGHT
by Cecilia D’Angelo and Jörg Wiedenmann

AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE COLORS OF STONY CORALS


Blue light is an important component of the lighting in coral-reef aquaria. But how does this light radiation affect the development of coral pigments and our perception of their color?

Blue light with a wavelength of 430-490 nm penetrates most deeply into the clear water of tropical coral reefs. For this reason it has proved beneficial over the course of evolution for corals and other invertebrates to specialize in this light color for the regulation of metabolic processes via light. One well-known example of this is the synchronized mass spawning of stony corals, which is triggered by the blue light component of moonlight, among other factors.

It has also long been known in the marine aquarium hobby that an increase in the blue part of the spectrum encourages growth and color in corals and other aquarium occupants. However, it is not clear precisely how blue light affects color intensity: Is the human eye simply better able to see the coral pigments under light of this wavelength, or does blue light actually encourage increased pigment production in the corals? And how does the light-dependent population of symbiotic algae influence the pigmentation of the host?

For many years, we have been studying the pigments of corals and other actinians as part of our research work on these animals. In the process, we have also been able to explain some of the effects of blue light on coral colors and growth.