All Things Pink

[Nycifer]

I read your thread on coral coloration and reread your book, but still have some (probably stupid) questions concerning soft coral coloration. I'm running 440 watts of VHO, half white and half blue, aprox. 10' inches above the water. No matter what I get from another tank be it green, gray, blue or yellow, in my system it turns Pink. Not that I hate pink, but a little leather color divirsity would be nice. All the corals have a healthy appearance, grow like weeds, reproduce, and turn the same shade of pink. I realize it is a zooxanthellae issue and wondered if it was caused by overlighting, underlighting, hi nutrients, over skimming, all the above, none of the above, or should I just be happy with long lived pink softies?

Thanks for your time,

Michael

[MCsaxmaster]

I wonder if perhaps you are not seeing a color change, per se, but rather an apparent color change. That is, I wonder if perhaps the corals look pink under your lighting in particular. VHO bulbs often have a very violet/pink cast to them I would say.

Cheers,

-Chris

[clown2be]

edit. . Happy reefing !


Eric

[Nycifer]

Thanks MCsaxmaster, the only problem with that theory is that they start out green, yellow, whatever, and over a week or so slowly turn pink. I have many other things in the tank that remain vivid, it's just the soft corals (devilshand, kenya tree, finger leathers, cabbage, xenia, anthelia, etc.) that all turn pink. It may be VHO in general which turns them pink, yet I've seen others VHO systems where this doesn't happen? My quest continues . . .

Thanks again,

Michael

[StoneRhino]

My corals don't turn pink though they turn green. Any LPS I get turns a bright floresent green color. Torches Frogs Hammers Elegances Candy Cane. They all turn green after about two months of being in the tank. I have a Iwasaki 150 watt 50 000k and 440 vho half 03 actinic and half 10 000k.

The wierdest was a bright red and white donut coral the went bright green in 3 months.


I have a tank that basically with all green corals.

[Nycifer]

Just the softies go pink . . . LPS tend to go towards green, but not to that extreme! Maybe someone else has more insight?

[EricHugo]

what soft corals are we talking about?

[Nycifer]

Sinularia (Knobby Leather), (Finger Leather), Sinularia dura, Lobophytum pauciflorum, Lobophytum (Finger Leather), Capnella, Xenia and Anthelia.
All start out varried colors from other systems, achieve overall pinkness in my system. I have one Sinularia (Finger Leather, reference pg. 133 of Aquarium Corals, Borneman; bottom right corner) that has maintained just the green fluorescing tips but the stalk has turned pink. Sorry for prior lack of information.

Thanks for your time,
Michael

[EricHugo]

Well, all those corals tend to be rather pink to pinish-brown. Not much to add. You can find other colors, but with soft corals, the color patterns don't seem to be all that similar to the light-responses of fluorescing proteins in stony corals. You should probably keep your eye out for some different stock, and they'll probably stay more or les that color. I haven't seen grey or blue soft corals (except azooxanthellate ones), and yellow - only Sarcophyton, really...and it pretty much stays yellow to yellowish-brown.

[MiddletonMark]

Originally posted by Nycifer
I'm running 440 watts of VHO, half white and half blue, aprox. 10' inches above the water. No matter what I get from another tank be it green, gray, blue or yellow, in my system it turns Pink.

This is on a 125?
The bulbs are 10" above the water?

Personally, I'd bring them down. That might be part of it, IMO ... though always you want to change the light intensity gradually to allow things to acclimate.
Just an idea, could be wrong ... but that doesn't seem like `too much' light ... and that's a big distance from water to light ... nevermind to coral.

[J4Life]

Well I want to chime in here too since all I use is VHO's and I have softies as well.

If you do have a 125 like MiddletonMark stated (didn't catch it at the beginning of the thread). I would personally recommend adding two more bulbs.

I am not sure of the dimensions of your tank, but if its taller than 24 inches bringing your bulbs down would help like MiddletonMark suggested. I have found that 440 watts of VHO's is simply not enough IMO. You really need 660 watts otherwise switch to MH's since the penetrate the water better.

Also what brand of bulbs are you using? IME the only brand to use is the URI bulbs. You may also want to run 2 Super Actinic, 1 Aquasun, and 1 Actinic White in your 4 bulb configuration. If you go to 6 then run a 2:2:2 ratio

I run the 2:2:2 ratio and love the color and the results. If you would like to see a picture of my tank I would be more than happy to post one. By the way in the configuration I am running I have never had anything change colors other than get brighter.

HTH's,
Bill:)