Crazy color changes.......for the better?

[rynon]

This is really weird to me but my corals are changing color at a ridiculous rate. Within the past month or so my corals have totally changed in appearance. Most drastic are my blue/green tort, and my dark green and brown favia. The blue/green tort I have pictures of to show the difference........in case the picture is not clear it has changed from a blue/green, to a ice blue/red blue coloration, same placement in tank. The only change is some actinic lighting, I DO NOT think this has anything to do with the change. 92 gallon tank, 500 watts total of XM 10K, 130 watts of actinic. I have been told this is due to lower nutrients which makes sense since all my algae has disappeared......hair, bubble, etc. Anyway, here's the picture, please give me your ideas! Thank you. This is the now picture.

This is the before picture.

[ahullsb]

hmm. Probably just adjusting to your lighting and parameters. They change a little depending on the tank.

[SDguy]

Is that an ORA/cali tort?

[30reef]

I had that same problem with my blue tort, I started feeding more and the color came back. Now it is looking good again. Although not the wicked deep blue as some, I have not gotten that far yet. I'm glad you got rid of that Bryopsis. Here's mine since it colored back up.

[IMG][/IMG]

[kev apsley]

has a pastel color to it, could be low nutrients within your system. You could feed your fish more so your corals receive more nitrogen from the fish waste?

[rynon]

Thanks everyone! It is a blue/green tort distributed from a wholesaler local to my area.......I've seen them at the wholesaler and they look way more like the old picture. The wholesaler is A&M Aquatics (some stuff on LA's aquacultured page). I think I'm going to leave things the way they are since my overall tank appearance is better......my turquoise stag looks fantastic, my acropora granulosa went from whitish green to red with bright green polyps, the valida seen in both pictures has really lightened in color (less brown). Overall I am happy with how the corals look but found it amazing that this happened in one month. I still have excess nutrients apparently, stupid cyano will not go away. My zoa's are still spreading slowly, but interestingly enough my Xenia which was given to me from a friend has not spread and does not grow all that fast, in her tank it's a weed that has taken over everything. My mushrooms are shrinking and dying off but other than that everything looks really good. So I have signs of excess nutrients and signs of low nutrients, I'm not sure what the deal is? Maybe I just have cyano that has learned to adjust to a lower nutrient tank? Either that or it is sucking up nutrients allowing my corals to change color. Really, I have no clue . Thanks again everyone.

[Jester]

I started getting great colors after I started feeding more and changed my MH bulb... I don't know if it was the bulb or the food... but a regular feeding schedule seems to be causing extreme growth and color... for me I feed 2 times a week with coral frenzy... Good luck... keep us updated..

[teen]

the before pic is a more natural color IME for the tort. maybe a tad less green, though.

[palawan]

Bulbs can make a difference in the way the colors look too. 20k vs. 10k MH lamps, or VHO vs T5 or Compact Florescents. Thats why a lot of reefers research at lot before settling on the bulbs they want to run IMO.

[rynon]

I agree that the before picture is more natural, but the other acro's in my tank at that time looked less natural.....meaning brown. I am aware that bulbs make a huge difference in coral color too. I went from 12K reeflux to 10K XM's and everything changed color BUT this was months ago, like 6 months ago, so I do not think that has anything to do with the color change. As a little side note, my red Favia brain coral is dividing "mouths" like crazy, meaning it's gone into a growth spurt.....something is going on in my tank causing these changes. I just don't know what it is.