Blue sps turning green

What would cause blue torts to turn green? Water is 420 calc, all 8-9, mag 1450, nitrates about 5, sg 0.026, temp 78, light is a ecotech radion led usually running at the 14 to 18k setting with a peak of 65% intensity. All other sps look normal colors like my red planet, green slimer, pearl berry, tri color acros, everything else. No big changes in light, water parameters, corals have been in tank 4 months, good polyp extension and growth, weekly 10% water changes, run Gfo and carbon, skimmer, chaeto, tank is 7 month young, any experience or ideas?

Edited by Bryce - June 10 2013 at 10:43pm

My Cali tort is blue and green . I think it looks good. It changed after like 8 months of being solid blue.

I got a blue Mille from Anne, under my LED's it's now a green Mille.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I have both cali and oregon (no lineage proof but sold to me as such from reputable people & vendors) and I do know that both were fragged off mother colonys in tanks using T-5's. I dont think they look "bad" but was just wondering what most likely was causing it. I will check out how much green my radions are using. Thanks again.

Krazie4Acans wrote: Bryce,      I find that with my LED's I have to acclimate corals VERY slowly to keep them from browning or bleaching.

Yea but my sps corals were all pretty much added at same time 4 months ago and I have been acclimating them with the radion at 2% light intensity increases every 2-3 weeks over that 4 month period and am only up to 75% for 4 hours a day with 10 hour total photoperiod so 3 hour ramp up, 3 hour ramp down so my light has been a very slow acclimation and is still not overkill in my mind as I only have 1 over a 65g and my other SPS all have the coloring they should, just my blues and purples have lots of green. Below are pics (not mine) but its what is happening to my torts that were once solid blue or solid purple, not a fast change but gradual over 4 months. (And i dont know what the below corals are they may not be blue torts, Im just using them as a color example of what my blue torts are turning to). Mine are fully encrusted with new growth tips and branches

Edited by Bryce - June 11 2013 at 1:18pm

A pic would help. For what it's worth, in my years of reef keeping the color response of corals is usually not due to the same color being used but in a color that is opposite (not secondary but in that range) of the color that they are responding to. For instance, blue and purple corals normally display the best colors for me when I have bright white and a bit of yellow/orange. Reds are more intense when there is some green in the lights, etc.. See if you see the same response. That's just my observation YMMV.

Corals change colors due to a pigment change within their skin. It is a natural response to color intensities in lighting. This is how places grow specialized corals. It can happen quick or slow. Also, some corals will develop fluorescent pigments temporarily when lighting changes as a response to bright lighting or bright, differently colored lighting.

I dont know but it looks as if you have the names reversed? Oregon on left, Cali on right. They both look fine. The Oregon looks a little green on the main stem but it should go away with time. Mine did the same thing for a few months.

So my limited experience here is what i have seen. Ran a vega for several months . Wasnt pleased, so i tossed the vega and went back to mt halide T-5 and everything had a yellow hue.  Purple was yellow had a false color with the vega. Went back to T-5  Not to bag on led but what is best lighting? Think its a personal thing and the quality of lights. 

The thing about lights..... Companies change the light output of t5s, MH, and LEDs to suit what they think is the "best" intensity at each wavelength. If you look at the spectral graph of each type, some will have different graphs for each type of bulb. A 10000k t5 from zoomed will have a different output than a 10000k t5 bulb from coralife. So what you need to do is gauge what you think is best for your tank. The cool part about custom built LEDs is you can mimic any of those other lights if you can figure out the relative intensity vs. wavelength and what LED bulb is suitable for it.

many of the LED companies are still catching up to the ideas that T5 and MH companies have already figured out. So a blue/white fixture of LEDs is not adequate in comparison. A multi-bulb fixture (as some companies have begun to sell) is going to be closer to what you've experienced with other lights. So your Vega may not have been as good yet...

some links to sample wavelength vs. Intensity graphs...
http://reefbuilders.com/files/2010/07/Purple-Plus-t5-bulb-lighting.jpg
http://www.petsolutions.com/C/T-5-Aquarium-Bulbs/I/CoraLife-High-Output-T5-Bulbs.aspx
http://www.qualitymarine.com/Lighting:-Bulbs-and-Accessories/Ushio/Ushio-Aqualite-150w-10k-Double-Ended-Bulb
http://www.aquaillumination.com/vega/specs.html

notice how the Vega is more representative of a 20,000k MH... Probably good for deep coral, probably not so good for coral from shallow depths.
does this help?