sps color changes

[Rob Top]

Please help! I am having the hardest time finding this in my books and brain. What makes sps change colors? Bright purple in one persons tank, and brown in another. I know this! It's driving me nuts. High nutrients?? Poor lighting?? Both?? Help

 

[hamlet]

I bet the Acro that is purple has more intense lighting than the one that is brown.

I have purchased numerous brown Acro's that colored up under my 400 watt MH's.

 

[imow]

I think it could be several things, including lighting, alk levels, temp, current, etc, etc.

 

[golfish]

I agree, it could be a few different things, lighting would be my first thought.

 

[esmithiii]

Lighting (spectrum and intensity) and nutrients.

Ernie

 

[Anonymous]

Colors in corals arrive only from animal pigments. It is thought that the coral animal itself uses these pigments as a protection from UV and intense PAR light.

The brown color in corals comes from the zooxanthellae inside the tissue. As we are all aware, the zoox provide carbon for the coral host. It is hypothesized that low levels of light do not provide adequate nourishment to the coral host because the zoox cannot photosynthesize enough to translocate fixed carbon. In response, biochemical changes within the host allow zoox populations to increase, thus causing the coral to appear more brown.

A lack of zoox lends to a whitened color known as bleaching.

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
Any one have any experience with current affecting the color of Acrop? It is certainly something that's new to me...

 

[Anonymous]

I've been involved in studies that indicate current in growth rates. High currents on Stylophora pistillata caused much higher growth rates with more fragile branches. Little to no current caused the much more common dense colonies with lower calcification rates. Light and environments were otherwise identical. Neat study. We have the skeletons where they were died with phlatomine pink and you can see what happened after two months growth by looking at the pink versus white skeleton.

Didn't really change the colors though.