All SPS turn purple

[SmyrnaReefer]

For some reason every SPS I put into my tank turns purple over time. It is a 125g AGA tank with a 12 bulb t5 fixture (6x39W per 3 feet). My parameters are: 9dKh, 440Ca, 78F. It is a mixed reef. Any thoughts?

[StarF]

Do you run carbon? that is the no3 and po4?

[josee1013]

How old are the T5s?

[rigleautomotive]

Light shock,photo inhibition would be my guess

edit
Woops,I sorry.I thought I read pale not purple.disregard my post.

[SmyrnaReefer]

Brand new in february
How old are the T5s?

[SmyrnaReefer]

no3 less than 10, had LFS test po4 last week and they said it was OK, yes on carbon, but need to replace what i have, its getting old

Do you run carbon? that is the no3 and po4?

[SmyrnaReefer]

i have the actinics coming on at 2:30 and going off at 10:30. the daylights come on at 3 and go of at 10. too much, too short??

Light shock,photo inhibition would be my guess

[JMalone81]

no3 less than 10, had LFS test po4 last week and they said it was OK, yes on carbon, but need to replace what i have, its getting old

What does the lfs call ok for po4? Sounds like no3 might be high. How old is the carbon?

[Reefer577]

Do you have a fts of your tank?

[SmyrnaReefer]

2 months old...
http://home.comcast.net/~sumthinfishy/IMG_6029.JPG

[Mordoff]

I see reds and greens and what not in there.

[SmyrnaReefer]

right, but for example, the blueberry stag on the back right of the frag rack in the middle is now solid purple like.. in the pic, you can see light blue and darker tips...now the whole thing is the color of the tips. its growing and polyping but clolr is off..

http://home.comcast.net/~sumthinfishy/IMG_5849.JPG

[tibob32]

don't complain, mine all turn either brown or green :p

[SmyrnaReefer]

ok, no more complaining then

[Zire]

Yeah, actually the tank looks like it's coming together quite nicely. You may need to balance out your lighting temperatures. As far as I know coral pigmenation is in large part due to a response in warding off harmful wave lengths of light, just like people tan when exposed to high levels of UV. Perhaps your lights are set up in a way that promotes the creation of purple pigmentation in corals? Just throwing my thought out there...

[jc-reef]

Yeah, actually the tank looks like it's coming together quite nicely. You may need to balance out your lighting temperatures. As far as I know coral pigmenation is in large part due to a response in warding off harmful wave lengths of light, just like people tan when exposed to high levels of UV. Perhaps your lights are set up in a way that promotes the creation of purple pigmentation in corals? Just throwing my thought out there...

+1 on lighting tempature. I agree, looks like its coming along pretty well for a new tank.

[Reefer577]

Yeah I think most of us wouldn't mind if all our acros turned purple. lol Your tank looks good.

[AquamanE]

+1 on lighting tempature. I agree, looks like its coming along pretty well for a new tank.

+1

[cato]

+2.

[strout]

Lighting tempature This is a term I havn't heard before. When you say that his lights may be set up in a way that promotes the purple pigmentation, what would, well I guess what I am trying to ask is, what is lighting tempature lol?

[SmyrnaReefer]

I'm thinking they're telling me my standard bulbs that came with light are crap and that I should get better lights with different wave length parameters...any light suggestions??

[ChicagoReefOne]

Yeah your lights may be shifting in spectrum and the coral are responding, how long have you been running those lights? What are they? What intensity and temperature (light temperature?)

I can't really tell if you have MH or T5 or what so, we need that info.

[SmyrnaReefer]

12 bulb t5 fixture (6x39W per 3 feet) bulbs are only 3.5 months old, but are the ones that came with the fixture....

[fourts1]

What's the light temperature(color) ie. 6500k, 10,000k, actinic

[sanababit]

well put an ORA red planet frag in there and if it turns purple then theres something wrong or something good in there, depending the way you see it, i wish my acros turned purple, lol

sana

[orthokardia]

strout-
the color temperature of a bulb refers to the black body radiation temperature in deg kelvin. a back body refers to a perfect radiator so the black body specturm is the wavelength (color) distribution of the photons (light) comming from the radiator at a given temperature. it is important to know the temperature of a bulb is actually the manufactures subjective approximation of what black body spectrum their bulbs output is similar to combined with a little marketing for good measure. this is why a 20k (20,000 deg kelvin) bulb is usually more blue that a 10k bulb, but two 20k's from different companies will look different.

-bart