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Why Blue Light?
Blue/Antinic light seems to make the colors pop more.
Why? Has anyone tried using red, yellow, orange lights?
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#2
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Maybe some pigments flouresce on the UV (purple, blue, etc) side of the light spectrum, making them "pop"? Some/most (???) marine life cannot see colours on the IR (red, yellow, orange, etc) side of the spectrum since it's naturally filtered out by seawater. The deeper you go the less red light can penetrate into the water... that's why there are more red fish the deeper you go, they seem invisible to most animals since red light isn't represented well. So maybe for corals to stand out they need to utilize the blue spectrum...maybe?
At lest this will stir the pot. Scott
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#3
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Everything Ive heard/read states that it is mostly for our pleasure only. The blue light makes everything look pretty! I do see what scythanith is saying about utilizing the blue spectrum and this might have some basis but I haven't heard much about it so.......
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#4
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Scythanith is correct, the blue side of the spectrum is what is utilized by sea life. Red side is reflected off the surfface(for the most part) and this is why you get burned so qiuckly when your swimming.
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red|house|blog "i like bubbly, and i love animals - so it works out well" "there are a lot of people out there who think they have a modern house simply because they have alot of steel in it" |
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isnt it like plants. using the RED and the BLUE spectrum for growth
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Addicted to the Reef Chris "to many tanks not enough r/o" |
#7
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Wow, okey dokey there's a tad of misinformation above.
The zooxanthellae in corals use chlorophyll a as their primary light harvesting pigment, but have a variety of other accessory pigments which absorb and transfer light energy to chl a. Chl a absorbs strongly in the blue and red portions of the light spectrum. Chl c2 used by dinoflagellates absorbs strongest in the blue/cyan and red/orange, extending the range a bit. They also have several other pigments that absorb between the red and blue (~650 - 500 nm). All of this has absolutely nothing to do with coral coloration unless you're talking about brownish shades. Zooxanthellae, with their various pigments absorbing in the above wavelengths, look brown. Corals produce a variety of colorful proteins. None of these have anything to do with blocking UV and do not interact with UV at all. Please for the love of goodness do not equate coral pigments to UV light--there is no relation between the two. Some of these pigments likely protect zooxanthellae from too much light by absorbing it and either reflecting it or fluorescing. Others probably have a function completely separate from their effects on light, but nonetheless they just so happen to absorb/reflect/fluoresce. Many fluorescent pigments are some derivation of green fluorescent protein, GFP, and GFP absorbs in the blue. If you change the structure of the protein a bit you can modify its absorption wavelengths and emission wavelengths. So, normal GFP absorbs in the blue and fluoresces green. Modify it a bit and it will absorb in the cyan and fluoresce yellow. Lots of non-fluorescent proteins are similar to GFP in structure too. If they absorb in the green (and reflect blue and red) they look purple. If they absorb in the green and red they look blue. If they absorb in the blue and green they look red. You get the idea. Chris
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FSM ~ Touched by His noodly appendage ~ |
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One of the coolest things I've ever seen was when I took a submarine ride in Hawaii. I have a tribal tatoo band around my arm that is red and black and around 3 inches thick. When we got down deep enough the water had filtered all of the red out of the color spectrum. My band looked solid black.
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#11
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MCsaxmaster, that was very concise and informative.
One Question I have, though: How is Zooxanthellae actually pronounced?? thanks!
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Matt. |
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zoh-zan-thel-ee
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Chris
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Why not get with Anthony Calfo and straighten him out on this. He and other professionals who raise coral might have different experienc then you. How long have you been growing them? |
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MCsaxmaster, do you happen to know of literature stating that the presence/intensity of UV light has no effect on pigment production/concentration?
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#17
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There have been multiple articles that state UV does very little.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/2/aafeature#h2 http://www.reefs.org/library/aquariu...98/1298_2.html Quote:
MCsaxmaster isn't pulling this out of his hat, this is common knowledge in the hobby. Of course common knowledge isn't alway correct. |
#18
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Experience growing corals does not make GFP-like proteins absorb significant amounts of UV. Experience in this case is completely meaningless. We are talking about a measurable physical property. Likewise, a person could have thousands of hours of flight time, but there is no way they are going to get a plane without wings to fly. A person can grow corals for decades, but that doesn't mean that GFP-like proteins are produced to deal with UV. They are not. I've been growing corals for a bit more than 7 years now. Chris
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The one exception may be GFP which looks to be related to reducing oxidative stress, and just so happens to fluoresce green. In other words, the fact that it interacts with light is a harmless side effect of its structure. GFP doesn't absorb significant amounts of UV, so it isn't acting as a UV shield, but it does tend to be expressed more in organisms undergoing oxidative stress and in many non-photosynthetic organisms. It was recently found in Amphioxis, for example. See work by Salih, Dove, Kawaguti, etc. Chris
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FSM ~ Touched by His noodly appendage ~ |
#20
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http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic33101-13-4.aspx
The folks having trouble with browning corals did not do their homework. The problem is their sheeting or glazing (not to mention that apparent lack of understanding for principal mechanisms for coral pigmentation). There is no easy answer here either... their expectations in a GH are about as unrealistic as their expectations in aquaria when they mix corals from drastically different parts of the reef. There is no way you can expect a Euphylliid from 60ft that mfgs FPs to capture/retain weak light to be as colorful in the same tank as an Acroporid from 10 ft of water that mfgs FPs to reflect light. It may be impossible to get both to have optimal color under standardized lighting (UV blocked no less). There is no secret why blue bubble corals turn brown under bright(er) aquarium lights... and why electric colored shallow water sps turn brown under weaker captive lighting (UV blocking and total light altering/reducing) sheeting for the GH in this case. The matter is made worse by these cheap hobby greenhouses having really poor quality sheeting/glazing. The folks with brown corals frankly got what they paid for (low investment in their education... low investment in their facility). I mean that literally... not as a slight (please don't take it out of context - to all). . Anthony Calfo |
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Anthony is a wonderful aquarist and I have great respect for him, but the suggestion that UV intensity is important in promoting colorful pigment production in corals is simply incorrect. It seems he is making that suggestion here, and all I can say is that all the available data sharply disagree. These pigments aren't produced to deal with UV light nor does UV induce their production. Many fluorescent and non-fluorescent GFP-like proteins vary in production with incident PAR, not with UV. GFP doesn't show much correlation with light intensity or necessarily UV, and seems to have functions completely seperate from the fact that it interacts with light. Chris
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FSM ~ Touched by His noodly appendage ~ Last edited by MCsaxmaster; 12/28/2007 at 12:37 AM. |
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Chris
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FSM ~ Touched by His noodly appendage ~ |
#24
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So all the money spent on non-UV blocking glazing is a hoax then?
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#25
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I couldn't say. I can say that the UV is not benefitting a person by causing the corals to produce more colorful proteins though (possibly with the exception of GFP, but that isn't even straightforward).
Chris
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