Should hammer corals only fluoresce under actinics?

[teatimecrumpet]

Hi, I'm new and just bought a hammer coral. It looked pretty green under the sellers lights which had a lot of actinics but should hammer corals still look green under white lights? I'm looking to upgrade my lights bit thought the coral would still look green under white leds. Attached is a pic of what I got under the white leds. Also is that droopiness normal (first day in tank). Paid $20 for like 2.5 heads. Thanks!

 

[Tripod1404]

The reason why coral appears to fluores under actinic light is because our eyes are not sensitive to light in UV spectrum. So our eyes dont "detect" the source light from the bulbs (that is why they look dim, whereas in reality, they are as bright as any other bulb) but the florescent proteins absorb the light in UV spectrum and emit it back as light within visible spectrum (like green). So the background light appears dim to our eyes compared to what is being fluoresed. Under white light, same effect doesn't occur because background light no longer appear dim to us. You can still see them fluores, but the effect is much less impressive because it gets washed out. You can imagine this as watching TV in a dark room, vs watching TV with sunlight over the TV.

I assume to corals that fluores under actinic light doesnt look that impressive to animals that can see into UV spectrum, such as birds.

 

[teatimecrumpet]

The reason why coral appears to fluores under actinic light is because our eyes are not sensitive to light in UV spectrum. So our eyes dont "detect" the source light from the bulbs (that is why they look dim, whereas in reality, they are as bright as any other bulb) but the florescent proteins absorb the light in UV spectrum and emit it back as light within visible spectrum (like green). So the background light appears dim to our eyes compared to what is being fluoresed. Under white light, same effect doesn't occur because background light no longer appear dim to us. You can still see them fluores, but the effect is much less impressive because it gets washed out. You can imagine this as watching TV in a dark room, vs watching TV with sunlight over the TV.

I assume to corals that fluores under actinic light doesnt look that impressive to animals that can see into UV spectrum, such as birds.

Thanks Tripod! I guess I was also asking are there hammers that look greener in white light or is my hammer like a "low grade" hammer if that kind of distinction exists? Side question: does my hammer look unhappy? thanks

 

[Tripod1404]

Thanks Tripod! I guess I was also asking are there hammers that look greener in white light or is my hammer like a "low grade" hammer if that kind of distinction exists? Side question: does my hammer look unhappy? thanks

It looks happy .And yeah, there are more green hammers. But if you want something intensely green, torches are a better option.

 

[Uncle99]

Many corals "pop" under the blues rather than the whites.
Best way to determine colour is to pick under white/normal.
Looks fine to me.

 

[sde1500]

Yea seems like a normal hammer and a solid price that you paid for it. If you want the pop, but want a natural look too, run heavy blues only for a little while morning and night.

 

[teatimecrumpet]

Thanks all, I'm coming from freshwater so green plants are just varying shades of green for the most part. So corals that look dull in white but super colorful with actinics is new to me.