Best additive for getting the best colors!

[New York Reef]

hey guys im looking for the best additive to bring the colors out. Some stuff has decent color but others need to color up alot. Any ideas would be great thanks! My pho4 were high i just brought them down to around .03 and aminos i add make it jump up again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't generally think that additives are the main path to color, despite what manufacturers claim.

There are many things that can be done, and additives can sometimes be useful.

Are you also monitoring nitrate?

Which amino acid product do you think boosted phosphate?

Can you describe what corals we are talking about?

 

[New York Reef]

Ok first of all its all Sps, i have not monitored nitrates at all, and i have used acropower and nyos coral neactor and nyos absolute aminos

 

[biom]

Best additive IME is light .

 

[Cory]

Yes light can change the "appearance" of the color of coral. But ultimately its still the same color. Just depends what is reflected from the coral.

But what changes its color is what changes its skin pigment. What changes skin in humans maybe is similar to coral.

For example eat a lot of carrots, your skin can turn orangish. With coral perhaps its phyto and plankton that brings out the green/ reds. Get a sunburn and you darken up. Same with coral and uv i would assume.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

For example eat a lot of carrots, your skin can turn orangish. With coral perhaps its phyto and plankton that brings out the green/ reds. Get a sunburn and you darken up. Same with coral and uv i would assume.

Except that pigments from light exposure in corals are not brown.

Feature Article: How to Make Corals Colorful, Part One: New Information, With Particular Attention to Blue-Green Fluorescent Pigments
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/1/aafeature1

from it:

Light intensity and its spectral characteristics play important parts in promotion of coral coloration. Certainly, these are not the only requirements and become deciding factors only when other conditions such as water motion and water chemistry are correct.

and

In conclusion, the amount of light required to make corals 'color up' is not particularly difficult to achieve, although the low and high coloration thresholds can be fairly narrow (as in the case of Pigment 486 found inMontipora digitata). Perhaps more importantly, the production and/or maintenance of cyan pigments are not as sensitive to spectral quality (especially to red light) as some of the pigments we'll examine in future articles.

 

[Cory]

Except that pigments from light exposure in corals are not brown.

Feature Article: How to Make Corals Colorful, Part One: New Information, With Particular Attention to Blue-Green Fluorescent Pigments
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/1/aafeature1

from it:

Light intensity and its spectral characteristics play important parts in promotion of coral coloration. Certainly, these are not the only requirements and become deciding factors only when other conditions such as water motion and water chemistry are correct.

and

In conclusion, the amount of light required to make corals 'color up' is not particularly difficult to achieve, although the low and high coloration thresholds can be fairly narrow (as in the case of Pigment 486 found inMontipora digitata). Perhaps more importantly, the production and/or maintenance of cyan pigments are not as sensitive to spectral quality (especially to red light) as some of the pigments we'll examine in future articles.

That article is very scientific lol. Head is hurting.

So if we feed carrots to our coral, it wont bring out the orange?

Surely if our fish food lacks a b vitamin for example, then "pigment a" that needs that b vitamin for example, wouldnt be present? And thus "pigment a" that glows for example under 660nm (red light) would be less red under it. No? Dietary needs is the word i was thinking of.

Your making a coral coloration article? Id love to read it!

My point about light is if you shine a red light on coral you wouldt see anything but red coral. The green or blue would be absent i imagine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That article is very scientific lol. Head is hurting.

.

Agreed. The simple point is light can bring out colors.

 

[New York Reef]

So i guess its safe to say light will produce the colors

 

[New York Reef]

And basically all those products that say they bring out the colors are a scam?

 

[Cory]

Well id say your system isnt lacking anything for coral color that is dietary. But playing with the light might bring out different colors. Try 12k (bluish white) or 6500k (whitish yellow) and see the difference. 20k light will make flourecent colors pop.

Also ive personally seen coral color change under super low phosphate. So po4 may have something to do with it.lower po4 is better.

 

[Cory]

And basically all those products that say they bring out the colors are a scam?

This article says this:

"Tubipora and certain Alcyonia (soft corals) are red or yellow from unclassified pigments that contain iron. The blue skeletal color of the non scleractinian coral Heliopora also results from an iron containing pigment."

So if your trying to get some red/yellow/blue you might try dosing some iron gluconate. Ask Randy for the dosage.

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0597/0597_2.html

 

[Cory]

And in that article he said something like i was trying to say how carrots make your skin orange, but with nudibranchs:

And, they all obtain these pigment produced colors from their diet. As an example, certain nudibranchs get their color from the type of sponges they eat. Raised without the sponge, the nudibranchs lose their color. This type of experiment has been repeated in many cases, the notable exception seeming to be the lack of trials with corals.

 

[Zacco]

I do believe there is a lot of Snake-Oil being sold out on the market. But I do have one company in question. Is there any comments or testimonials from people running Korallen-Zucht's Zeovit System or Supplements? I have seen tanks running on this system that look absolutely outstanding in coral color and polyp extension.

 

[toaster77]

some color is due to fluorescent proteins (which are synthesized from amino acids and then contain a chromophore), and other colors can be due to pigments that are typically small molecules.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do believe there is a lot of Snake-Oil being sold out on the market. But I do have one company in question. Is there any comments or testimonials from people running Korallen-Zucht's Zeovit System or Supplements? I have seen tanks running on this system that look absolutely outstanding in coral color and polyp extension.

The mantra of the zeovit systems seems to be to drive inorganic nutrients very low, parttly starve the zooxanthellae in corals and thereby reduce the brown int hem, bring out a pastel look (which some like and others do not). The system then feeds them other materials to make up for the low nutrients (such as amino acids).

Many people are quite happy with the system.

As to the individual products, they do not typically reveal the ingredients or concentrations, so one cannot evaluate them except by trial and error.