Help getting deep red polyps on Montipora Forest Fire

[MBX]

Hello everybody.

I'm running a 20g Nuvo mixed reef, and just got a new Montipora Forest Fire frag. The color of the polyps is dark orange, but i'd like them to be deep red. Any tricks to enhance the coloration of both the polyps, and the green base color?

Lights are Radion XR15 gen4, and running the AB+ preset with cool white at 0%.

Thanks.

 

[Wolla]

Bump

 

[LARedstickreefer]

What PAR is the coral under? How about nutrients? Those tend to affect colors the most, I believe.

 

[SeaDweller]

How long have you had it and why aren’t you running cool whites? I wouldn’t think one warm white diode is enough.

 

[MBX]

I'm not sure about the par value, but they are right under the lights in the middle. Nitrates are at 15-20 right now, but I'm working on bringing them down. Had it for 2 weeks.

Actually both warm and cool whites are at 0%.

 

[SeaDweller]

I'm not sure about the par value, but they are right under the lights in the middle. Nitrates are at 15-20 right now, but I'm working on bringing them down. Had it for 2 weeks.

Actually both warm and cool whites are at 0%.

why are you running an all blue spectrum only? Corals DO need and benefit from full spectrum lighting; even though you may be running reds and greens too, but I've found when corals aren't the best colored or more towards turning green, that's alleviated with full spectrum lighting. Maybe try adding whites to your program.

May be your issue, maybe not. Could be that it's a new frag and adjusting.

 

[MBX]

Thank you for the suggestion. I just like the blue spectrum, because many corals tend to get softer/more pale colors under a whiter spectrum. But I'll give it a go with CW at 24%. That's the most white I can handle I have bought aquaforest component A+B+C and potassium, which should enhance coloration.

 

[jda]

You are going to need red, green and yellow spectrum light for this. No way around it. Full spectrum to render the best color and then you can blue it up to view it. The heavy-blue/windex cannot bring out colors that are not there.

If you have competent tank parameters, then adding aminos, elements and stuff is like throwing a baseball at a freight train compared to getting full spectrum lighting. If your parameters are not competent and decently stable, then this can help a ton.

 

[MBX]

Well my parameters are pretty much spot on and stable. The only thing is nitrate that's a little high. I just found that if I turn up the warm whites to 24% and CW to 10%? How do I get the yellow spectrum?

 

[madweazl]

It would be most prevalent in your warm whites I imagine.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

Well my parameters are pretty much spot on and stable. The only thing is nitrate that's a little high. I just found that if I turn up the warm whites to 24% and CW to 10%? How do I get the yellow spectrum?

Your whites probably have some wavelengths close to yellow.

I also don’t like whites, so I set them to come on when I’m at work. Blue in the morning and blue when I get home.