Coloring up Maricultured Colonies

[nanoreefer22]

So I got this maricultured colony of what was supposed to be a red milli. Turns out all the corallites are blue now. Only problem is the base still has a tan color to it. No where near as dark as before. I've had it for maybe a month and a half.

How long does it usually take for these colonies to completely color up? It's encrusted and growing with really nice blue tips, just want a better looking base.

 

[ming]

it may be your lights which are changing the colors to what you are seeing. A lot of times, the corals colors look different in my tank then other people tank because of lighting.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Hmmm well it was brown when i got it and brown when i put it in my tank:lol2: You think it will ever fully color up? That's if it isn't fully colored now

 

[pecan2phat]

When I have Mari's shipped, they NEVER look like what the wysiwyg pics. Now I'm familiar with the industry's 400w 20k lighting but most blue acros come in green and other colors come in brown.
They definitely will need to adjust to your lighting and water parameters but usually it takes anywhere from 1.5 to 4 months for the Mari's that I've purchased online to get to a decent color other then green or brown.
Store bought Mari's will do much better. They also loose color on me initially but regain quickly.

 

[salt-rookie]

I've had great success taking local hobbyists maricultured corals and keeping them for a couple of months to color them up. What lights do you burn? How long is your photoperiod? Do you feed? How agressively do you skim?

 

[nanoreefer22]

Thanks Warren. I thought it might just need some more time since everything else is doing great. I did buy this one in store, but it was pretty brown when i got it.

salt, I'm running a 250watt phoenix 14k DE on about 8 hours a day. I feed my fish twice a day, once with pellets/flakes and once with a cube of mysis. I have a 40g and I'm skimming wet(cause it won't let me skim dry) with a Remora Pro w/ mag 3

 

[NYreefNoob]

kris alot depends on type of coral and water parm's. ive had them color in a few weeks and had other really never color up months later

 

[nanoreefer22]

It's a milli. Everything else in the tank is doing extremely well. I guess it's worth mentioning that when I got this colony I broke it off the plug/base mari-colonies come on. I then placed it on its side when i glue it to the rock work. I know that will probably make it take just a bit longer, but it looks a lot nicer without that plug.

 

[regal]

...Now I'm familiar with the industry's 400w 20k lighting but most blue acros come in green and other colors come in brown.....

Can you tell me what you know about the industry's lighting secrets? Type of bulbs and ballasts?

 

[FaviaFreak]

maricultured come out of the ocean as you know so that means more than likely you will intially lose the colors and depending on your parmeters and lighting it will take a while to lock them back in, your talking natural sunlight to 400w bulbs, it's no comparison

 

[salt-rookie]

While I agree with you Favia, I burn XM 10K SE bulbs and I run a 13 hour photoperiod. I run my 2 X 6 foot URI Super Actinic VHO's for one hour alone before and after the 11 hour halide photoperiod. I selected XM 10K on Magnatek M-58 ballasts because that was the best PAR I could get on my tank. I extend the photpperiod to make up for some of the loss of energy that natural sunlight has over halide. I also feed my corals golden pearls a couple of times a week at lights out. Then I skim agressively all night to pull the nutrients out. That allows them to feed and not have a spike in nutrients. I find that my Millies are the most sensitive corals to water conditions. I change my bulbs when my Millies colors get dull.

 

[NYreefNoob]

< runs his 250w mh with 14k phoenix 5 hr's a day and antic's for 9, sun only pass's over a reef for a few hr's a day as far as what the really recieve, noticed no diff other then in my electric bill, actually would probably say i am getting better colors now