PC Rainbow Color

Sarah24! · Jul 10, 2018

Hello,

@Bpb your pc rainbow looks pretty, what lights do you use on your tank? I am curious how far up you have it placed, as it may help others who have not had colored success with their’s. Mine is towards the top, maybe ten inches below water level, so almost midway but not quite (still 7 inches to go).

Bpb · Jul 10, 2018

Sarah24! said:
Hello,

@Bpb your pc rainbow looks pretty, what lights do you use on your tank? I am curious how far up you have it placed, as it may help others who have not had colored success with their’s. Mine is towards the top, maybe ten inches below water level, so almost midway but not quite (still 7 inches to go).

I’ll give as many details as I can and hope it helps.

Lighting is an 8x54 watt ATI Sunpower
Bulb combo from front to back:

Blue+
True actinic
Purple+
Blue+
Blue+
6500k
Purple+
Blue+

Fixture is hung 12” off the water. Tank is 24” deep, coral is about at the absolute center point of the box that is the tank. Mid way up. Mid way side to side, mid way front to back. So roughly 24” from the lights.

It is at the meeting point of the two powerhead streams meet so it gets brutalized by very turbulent and aggressive flow all the time.

It quickly Bleached almost solid white/gray/tan when i got it, but began coloring back up very quickly.

7.0 dkh
430 ppm ca
0.03-0.1 PO4
2.5-10 NO3

Calcium reactor to maintain elements. Vodka to maintain nutrients. No other things dosed. Wish I had a par meter. Every time I think about buying one I buy more sps instead.

Bpb · Jul 10, 2018

bubbaque said:
Does anyone have a pic of what it was originally sold to look like?

I know I already posted. But here’s my own progression. Sorry I can’t get them from the same angle anymore. Same lighting, phone camera, and identical Lightroom settings.

5/9/2018

7/7/2018

bubbaque · Jul 10, 2018

Bpb said:
I know I already posted. But here’s my own progression. Sorry I can’t get them from the same angle anymore. Same lighting, phone camera, and identical Lightroom settings.

5/9/2018

7/7/2018

You have colored it up nicely!

I meant if anyone had the original pic that Sonny used to advertise the pc rainbow when he first started selling it.

Sarah24! · Jul 10, 2018

Bpb said:
I know I already posted. But here’s my own progression. Sorry I can’t get them from the same angle anymore. Same lighting, phone camera, and identical Lightroom settings.

5/9/2018

7/7/2018

Wow thanks for every detail lol, I wasn’t expecting that but nice job. It looks like it has grown (encrusting) more than up and color is good. I’m not super good at t5 setups but seem like your running mostly purple and blue (I may be wrong I do see one 6500).

I’m curious if those having issues are only running leds or if it’s all types.

Bmasculine · Jul 10, 2018

I run led t-5 combo and mine did the same thing looked like it was gonna bleach out then turned dark reddish brown. Great polyp extension growing well just not colorful. May try moving it down, mine is about 6” below water, and my lights sit about 8”above the water. I run b+ actinic c+ b+ with a hydra 26 hd over a 60 cube. Hydra runs at about 60%

DQM5 · Jul 10, 2018

Mines was all green, now it has orange and red bit of yellow and lots of green. It’s still growing

Bpb · Jul 10, 2018

Sarah24! said:
Wow thanks for every detail lol, I wasn’t expecting that but nice job. It looks like it has grown (encrusting) more than up and color is good. I’m not super good at t5 setups but seem like your running mostly purple and blue (I may be wrong I do see one 6500).

I’m curious if those having issues are only running leds or if it’s all types.

Correct for the most part on light. After years of experimenting I’ve found the purple+ bulbs do a tremendous job of taming the green color that blue+ bulbs tend to put off. The combination between blue+ and purple+ is absolutely fantastic at rendering and displaying both reflective and fluorescent colors, but also keeping a full spectrum ambience without looking too blue. I’m not afraid to use more than 1 purple bulb in a mix.

Even though you only see one white bulb in the mix, a single 6500k tube can easily dominate an 8 bulb mix. Two 6500k bulbs and 6 blue+ almost look as white as 10k halides do. So unless one wants a very white tank (which I can also appreciate), two 6500k bulbs isn’t necessary

Mattrg02 · Jul 10, 2018

So consensus seems to suggest that high light causes solid red brown, low light causes rainbow? This is all assuming high flow down below.

BoomCorals · Jul 10, 2018

Mattrg02 said:
So consensus seems to suggest that high light causes solid red brown, low light causes rainbow? This is all assuming high flow down below.

Yep

Bmasculine · Jul 10, 2018

Well I’ll be moving mine down and keeping tabs on what happens. My entire tank has good flow, two gyres on a 60 cube running a random anti sync flow pattern. I really should invest in a par meter as I have no idea what my lights are putting out. Lol I really like this coral and would like to see it color up

DQM5 · Jul 10, 2018

Mattrg02 said:
So consensus seems to suggest that high light causes solid red brown, low light causes rainbow? This is all assuming high flow down below.

Sometime the color change due to high nutrients

Bmasculine · Jul 10, 2018

DQM5 said:
Sometime the color change due to high nutrients

I was assuming that nutrients are under control with everyone, I have other sps with great color just not this one. But yeah high nutrient will for sure make brown coral.

trido · Jul 10, 2018

BoomCorals said:
Not to derail our PC thread but I think my vivid looks darn good. Pics under 20k Halide. I have one softball sized:

And this backup colony isn't even baseball sized yet but the colors are coming through great.

My PC has the colors I would expect, I wish my vivid rainbow looked like yours. .

Bpb · Jul 10, 2018

trido said:
My PC has the colors I would expect, I wish my vivid rainbow looked like yours. .

I wish I HAD vivid rainbow

ctpeasy · Jul 11, 2018

trido said:
My PC has the colors I would expect, I wish my vivid rainbow looked like yours. .

My vivid is the size of a medium dinner plate, but this picture has too much blue in it to highlight the color. After AEFW war I had, everything is finally settling into stride with color.

Close up on growth tips of PC rainbow.

goldenhurricane2 · Jul 11, 2018

So since the PC Rainbow is known to have pretty vast color variations, what "rainbow" or multi-color acropora is most likely to keep it's colors?

BoomCorals · Jul 11, 2018

goldenhurricane2 said:
So since the PC Rainbow is known to have pretty vast color variations, what "rainbow" or multi-color acropora is most likely to keep it's colors?

I actually think the PC Rainbow is one of the easiest to keep. Problem is most people put the PC Rainbow under too much light. Keep it lower and it will color up beautifully.

goldenhurricane2 · Jul 11, 2018

BoomCorals said:
I actually think the PC Rainbow is one of the easiest to keep. Problem is most people put the PC Rainbow under too much light. Keep it lower and it will color up beautifully.

Mine isn't under a ton of light - I have it about 12 inches below the water surface (roughly 200ish par).