I have been told it takes maybe a month to a year for color change but that is from being browned out.
From other information I had decifered that nutrient level really plays the largest role and I think it was phosphate. It is "fertilizer" for zooxanthallae. Good water will pretty much fix this, grow an algae or something, not Caulepera, it gives off a toxin and becomes a problem from overgrowth. As far as color goes related to light, bleaching is from heavy zooxanthellae loss due to stress(e.g. not acclimating to light) but this can be done at a lower level just to shed some excess zooxanthellae. I read about one "study" and I use that term loosely, they used a bunch of lighting set ups and time amounts from 30 minute sporadically to full 12 hour periods, pretty much lighting did not matter, phosphate was the problem. Now I can back this up too because at a store where I got two corals, both encrusted frags had been there a long time with many others, They all were browned out, not just slightly brown. All but the tips of the Marshall Islands was browned. This was right under VHOs with lights changed frequently and heavily skimmed, but the tank was fed often and it even had algae growing which would clean it up well. After that was the excess zooxanthellae problem is take care of, pigments come into play and sure color can chages and intensity of the coral color seems to with increased light intensity.
Last edited by rembranty : 03-21-2005 at 05:50 PM.
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Me want some 
How much did you spend on all that?
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