Yeah does anyone know the reasoning behind different anti-fouling colors? I've always just used the non-red versions as "modernized" anti-fouling paints without really knowing the justification.
Google the shit out of google and get random things like this:
Darker colors tend to have a higher copper content, as copper tints the paint.
The relationship between antifoul paint and topsides is an important one
I've noticed that in clean, hot, tropical water that white antifoul performed better than red, black or blue.
In modern times, antifouling paints are formulated with cuprous oxide (or other copper compounds) and/or other biocides—special chemicals which impede growth of barnacles, algae, and marine organisms.
cooper might affect the color of the anti-fouling paint.
from:
https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/bit ... equence=27
Color
Yachtsmen frequently choose the color of their
bottom paints for esthetic reasons. Since the best
toxic pigments are not of the desired colors, particularly
the greens, many inferior yacht paints
have been produced for this trade. Bottom paints
used on work boats of all sorts are not usually
especially colored. Submarines are frequently
painted black for tactIcal reasons. The introduction
of the tinting pigments commonly impairs the antifouling
effectiveness of the paint. A similar problem
is introduced in flying-boat hulls, where the
need for a pale color has precluded the use of
cuprous oxide, the toxic most approved in antifouling
paints for ships.
Color has also been considered an important
factor in determining the degree of fouling on
submerged surfaces
There was an another forum here in Norway, that was talking about it. but they are under service at the moment. But I have noticed that black antifouling here in Norway have a better survivability than other colors. for example my boat has black antifouling, and it have been on the water for 3 years straight, and there have never grown anything on it, except at the inlet!