Colorado anemone and color temperature

[Jeremy P]

Does the color temperature of a light affect the coloration of a Colorado anemone or just the intensity? I’ve always seen them shown under blue light but I’ve been wondering if that is how they’re grown. Assuming intensity doesn’t change, does a Colorado have to be grown under 100% blue light to get the best coloration or can it be grown under white light as well and be the same bright orange? Obviously it will look different when viewed under white light but does the white light change the actual color?

I’ve been searching for awhile and never found a good answer. Thanks.

 

[D-Nak]

The short answer is yes--color temperature will affect the coloration of a CSB. But it's a bit more complex than simply color temperature. Surprisingly, the type of light makes a difference, and what I mean by that is the LED chipset can cause two identical CSBs (clones) to look completely different. It's been anecdotally documented that many CSBs under Kessils are more yellow, while those under Radions are more red. I've seen this happen first hand because I have an SPS tank with Radions and an anemone tank with Kessil A360x and I moved my CSBs back and forth.

All that said, years ago you could not change the color temperature of a Kessil, and at that time there are a lot of yellow CSBs (some people were trying to pass them off as lemondrops). Nowadays, with the ability to fine tune color temperature, I'm willing to bet that if you set both a Radion and Kessil at the exact same color temperature and intensity that the CSBs would look very similar.

 

[Jeremy P]

Thanks for the information, I greatly appreciate it. I remember reading about Chicago’s turning yellow under Kessils but didn’t realize the same thing happened with Colorado’s. Very interesting.