Acclimating Duncan Corals?

Kiui1849 · Oct 14, 2022

I added a duncan coral to my tank yesterday and it’s my first time adding coral. Everything is good and going smoothly except it closes every time I turn on a light and thrives in total darkness. I have a 14k light that came with my tank and it doesn’t adjust brightness or anything. I researched a bit and someone said the light reaches around 159 ppfd on average. I tried moving the light higher (to make it dimmer) but that didn’t help either. The smallest bit of light makes it close. How should I acclimate it to the light? My clown probably would like to see the sun/light again.

T-J · Oct 14, 2022

Duncans are pretty forgiving corals. I have a large colony that has been in full light and (currently) in mostly shade.
Keep them at the bottom of the tank. Leave it in a spot and don't move it. You just added it yesterday. It's going to take time to adjust, so put it in low/medium light and flow and it'll most likely be fine.

Rick's Reviews · Oct 14, 2022

Its great that you have identified the problem 'lighting'
maybe you could place coral under a cave or overhang/shadow in the 'lowest part of aquriam' and see if you can turn down intensity of lighting.
Alot of lights have various settings that you can adjust, your clown fish will be ok adjusting to a lower light setting (if possible)

TheBear78 · Oct 14, 2022

If you have a net or cover on the tank you can easily shade the Duncan for a few days while it acclimatises. Mine was unhappy initially but always seemed better in the morning under natural light before my tank lights came on. I used a small piece of card on my net and positioned it above the Duncan just to shade the light shining directly on it without the rest of the tank having to suffer. I gradually moved the card over a few days until it was happy to accept full power!