[MCsaxmaster]

Nnnnnnn...no.

Higher kelvin bulbs make some corals really stand out while others become very muted in appearance. It depends on which pigments the coral is producing.

The colorful pigments a coral is producing aren't related to light capture though. These coral pigments, if anything, simply reduce the amount of light getting to zoox. There's no evidence that corals produce different pigments in response to different spectra of light though, only different intensitites of light (for some pigments). The pigments that have been characterized that might be used by corals to block light are blue, purple and pink/red for the most part. Green pigments (related to GFP) probably don't have anything to do with this and the production of GFP often is not related to PAR.

Bulbs of lower intensity tend to cause corals to calcify (grow) more slowly, regardless of spectrum. There's no reason to think that different spectra actually induce corals to produce more or less of various pigments (at a given intentsity) though some pigments do "pop" more under blueish light. Other pigments, however, become very washed out.

cj