Blue sps turning green
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: SPS
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions SPS corals.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=64911
Printed Date: June 01 2025 at 9:28am
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Topic: Blue sps turning green
Posted By: Bryce
Subject: Blue sps turning green
Date Posted: June 10 2013 at 10:34pm
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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? ------------- 65g Reef |
Replies:
Posted By: Mr.Gray
Date Posted: June 10 2013 at 10:50pm
| it is most likely light based. If your blue coral is "defending" itself against a lot of green light it will tend to be more green. Your options are to turn the green down on your radions, or you can place the tort lower in the tank since blue penetrates further in water than green. give it some time with less green light and odds ate it will get blue again... hope this helps! |
Posted By: Ryanscott
Date Posted: June 10 2013 at 11:02pm
| My Cali tort is blue and green . I think it looks good. It changed after like 8 months of being solid blue. |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: June 10 2013 at 11:47pm
------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Mr.Gray wrote:Posted By: Hogie
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 12:06am
| I got a blue Mille from Anne, under my LED's it's now a green Mille. |
Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 12:08am
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Cali torts, tend to have green hues, especially in shaded spots of the coral If it is a true Oregon tort, it should be solid blue, but it has been well documented on RC that led users have not been able to keep Oregon torts blue in color long term (> 6 months) |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 8:27am
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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. ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 12:18pm
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Bryce,
I find that with my LED's I have to acclimate corals VERY slowly to keep them from browning or bleaching. I think we forget how intense the LED light can be compared to other reflected or difused light sources. It might just be lightening up a bit because of the more intense light and will darken back up once it's had some time to adjust. I know my Red planet was completely brown when I got it and questioned over and over that it really was. It finally started to green back up after 9 months! It is looking great now! ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 1:07pm
  ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: AcroNem
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 1:15pm
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I have LED lighting over both of my grow out/holding tanks and I haven't seen any SPS turning green that aren't supposed to be. The acclimation process I use is pretty much the same. Honestly it looks Pretty good even though it's not the correct color. Always here to talk reef 801-850-7577 Justin. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 1:20pm
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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. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 4:43pm
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FYI - the most common thing I've read when doing my LED survey/research is that people had their SPS turn green. But, keep in mind, most people haven't had much of a green spectrum. Most of them seem to just run blues and whites (which contributes a tiny bit of green.) Saying that...the Ecotech should provide enough of the various parts of the spectrum. The second picture looks just like a healthy Cali Tort should. If that's how yours is looking, then that's spot-on. If you had an Oregon Tort looking like that, then I'd be concerned. I'm going to guess the previous lighting wasn't what they wanted. ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 5:00pm
| 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. |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 10:10pm
Ok here is a pic, thanks again for all the replies. Sorry I do not have a nice camera. Sold to me a cali on left, oregon on right. ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: June 12 2013 at 3:42am
| 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. |
Posted By: suiso man
Date Posted: June 18 2013 at 10:41am
| Bryce my cali looks just like the one on the left. I have 175 watt mh I wouldn't worry about it. if you don't like the color drop the frag lower in the tank and give it a week. to see how the color changes. if you don't like that color raise it higher. Every tank is different and every light setup is different because of that. I just got a tyree red dragon from Billy yesterday and we had this discussion. he like the purple pink color but I like the red so the frag is sitting at the bottom of my tank. it was at mid level in his tank. hope that helps |
Posted By: Akira
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 10:08pm
| 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. |
Posted By: Akira
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 10:21pm
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Heer is a challenge ....Put a Halide on a led tank and tell me the color.... if the led grows crazy keep it up. but natural light halide , t-5 , led should be close to the same ? Or am I just crazy .... |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 10:46pm
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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? |