Devil’s Hand with a green tint. How to discourage the green.

[nano7g]

I recently acquired this huge (for a 7g tank) colony that I thought was more white/beige but is actually purple with a neon green tint under mostly white light above (looks blue in photos but is not). My tank is running mostly white light and I’m not interested in the neon colors this coral is giving out (although beautiful in a blue running tank). Is there a way to discourage the green tint? Like lower placement, flow, or spectrum?

I read anecdotally the when corals get large, they can develop the green tint. Maybe cut it down to a smaller size? Any ideas?

 

[sfsuphysics]

I assume you're using LEDs for your lights? If so that "white" light actually has a very healthy dose of blue in the 460nm range or so, which is one of those wavelengths that will make certain coral proteins fluoresce which is probably where the green is coming from, the "purple" probably is also from that blue spike in your light just as a reflection off the surface more so than anything.. No way to really "discourage" it outside of killing the coral which usually isn't the desired outcome, if you have the ability to tune your spectrum on your lights (i.e. turn up/down certain color LEDs) you could try reduce the blue channel a bit, there still will be blue from your white LEDs but a little less blue could make the green not as prominent. That said white is usually not a healthy color for a coral, so having some color can mean it's actually healthier than when you saw it ... well where ever you saw it to get it

Gotta say, first time I've heard someone say they wanted a coral to be less colorful.

 

[nano7g]

Yes, it’s AI prime 16HD. I should clarify, it’s aesthetically white when you look at it with the naked eye. In actuality, it’s 20K spectrum using mostly blues. But the white is set high to the point of still maintaining 20K so to the eye it overpowers the blue and makes the tank look white (just not in photos). So I’m not too worried about the coral health as there’s still a healthy amount of blue. I have macroalgae, grube’s gorgonians and nepthea that all look better under "white" light. (Almost like a seahorse tank look). But the neon green throws off the whole look of the tank, so I want to mute the neon tint and express the lighter shades of this coral. I’ve found that depending on the light, you can manipulate the color of grubes gorgonian which can change shades from pink to tan depending on what light it grows under. With a fiji leather coral, I’ve read blue vs white light can darken out the coral and mute it’s true yellow coloration (not a light effect but true color). I’m wondering if this is true of devil’s hand.

 

[Darkxerox]

I think those primes use cool white as well instead of warm white or amber LEDs so they run very blue as @sfsuphysics mentioned. You'll have a hard time bringing out yellows and browns, but it will get the fluorescence to come out (green).

If you upgrade to a larger tank, you could try light with warmer colors, most of the ones I'd recommend are kind of overkill for a pico tank like this.

 

[tribbitt]

I will say that during a couple scuba dives I saw a couple leathers and acropora that were visibly green in a couple feet of water, under the natural sun. Attached examples of acropora that did that.

I think you can get pretty dang close to beige with warm whites, but green fluorescent protein is really good at being visible, especially with our eyes being more sensitive to green than other colors.

In contrast to what non-green coral looked like:

I think your problem might be the coral itself.

 

[nano7g]

Yeah, I’m considering trading the coral. If I could get the coral to look like that, forest green, that would be the perfect solution. Unfortunately I’ve already invested in the AI prime which only has the cool white and moonlight channel to change the whites. I’ve almost certain I can’t achieve that shade with the light I have, assuming that’s the same neon as my devils hand.