If there’s one single topic that beginner to intermediate reef builders most want to know about it’s how to have the most colorful corals possible. The subject of coral coloration is a delicate and challenging topic that we’ve been asked about for years and years but one day we actually managed to distill coral coloration into a simple answer: Coral Health!
It’s actually quite astounding how many articles, posts and videos have attempted to discuss the finer details of coral coloration over the years, almost always with a singular focus on lighting but it doesn’t matter what you do – if your corals aren’t healthy they also won’t be colorful. You can have the best light, best flow, best chemistry and most trace elements in the world but if the coral isn’t inherently in good health and blossoming as a living organism, it won’t be very fun to look at, let alone have any decent coloration.
There’s certainly a hierarchy of parameters to achieve better coral health and subsequent coloration so in the latest session of Reef Therapy we discuss everything you can do to make your corals more colorful mostly by improving coral health. Once the aquarium has achieved an optimal environment for promoting thriving corals and good growth, there’s only a few small things you can do to boost overall color, notably trace elements and amino acids, but these are icing on a cake that’s already baked, and will generally only boost coral colors that are already present.
We sincerely hope that this 100 minute long conversation between Jake and Mark helps to stir up the ideas reefers can use to help boost coral coloration and better yet, help to frame those goals through the lens of achieving even healthier corals. This Session of Reef Therapy is by no means the complete guide to everything there is to know about achieving coral coloration and how it changes with environment but we feel pretty confident that nailing down these parameters and getting your corals in the peak of health will do nothing but help make your corals both more colorful and attractive.
