Is there a reason my most successful coral colonies are the same color?
 

Hi all.

I've had my tank for about a year and a half. During that time corals have come and gone, and some have been much more successful than others.

There is a very obvious pattern though, and I'm wondering if there's a reason, or if it's just a coincidence. Every single one of my successful sps corals are purple. I have a couple purple montis, and a couple purple stylophora.

I have tried growing other montipora that are green for example and they don't do nearly as well. I have also tried growing acros of other colors but I won't count those since I haven't really grown any successfully.

It's a little frustrating, because I feel like my reef is kind of monotone right now.

I am wondering, could there be a reason for this? Like does my lighting feed these coral colors more effectively or something?

Hard to say. Did you try something like the bali green slimmer? It's, well, green; and really a pretty easy SPS to keep.

Its possible I guess..
Many times coral coloration will change depending on the tank they are placed into and the lighting/elements,etc....

It could also just be your own personal preference dictating it subconsciously to you..

Probably just coincidence.
Sometimes coral will shift color if conditions aren't optimal, but I haven't experienced not being able to keep certain color corals, especially greens. Those always seem to be the most common, easiest.
True blues and true yellows are rarer. But purples, reds and greens should all be equally doable and found in easier to keep corals.

Try red plating montipora.
And for green, another easier one (for me anyway) is ORA Frogskin. Big and bright.

I'd believe this. There are patterns in nature where certain colors appear more frequently at different depths. That could play in to your success in terms of specific colors.

Also, from a spectral perspective. There are definitely lights that favor one spectra over another. Corals have color because of different responses (reflection or florescence) to different spectra of light. If your light is skewed to a specific spectrum that purple corals favor, there you go...

While all corals can become more vibrant or 'shift' slightly, I've really only seen actual large color shifts in acropora. Most likely, your lighting is causing the perception of coral color to your eyes rather than changing the coral color itself. Just my guess, I could easily be wrong.

Is there anything that would cause a starburst polyp colony to loose it's green hue (this happened to me and though the coral looks healthy enough the brown color isnt very good looking).

This is also something I've considered.