Honestly, this is probably more on me than anything so I did not reach out.
They arrived in what I’d call decent condition, but I’m not an Acro expert. To avoid shocking or risking my existing corals, I put the tank into an acclimation mode with MyAI and adjusted lighting carefully. I measured my current PAR, then increased all light intensities by roughly ~50% to reach my target PAR. After that, I set my MyAI acclimation mode at the exact percentage needed to keep the PAR the same at the start, and I’ve been letting it ramp up slowly toward the intended level. I also checked with my par meter & kept the same spectrum the whole time stable so the light was the same but it would just slowly increase over time.
Where I think I went wrong is that the starting PAR may still have been too low for Acros, and/or I didn’t have enough flow. I also think the pH swing while I was away was more extreme than it should’ve been, and that could have contributed too them losing their color.
The Lagoon adds another challenge—there’s not much vertical space (only about 12" tall before you even account for sand and rock), and my rockwork is honestly too large for the tank (lol). On top of that, I already have soft corals and Duncans in the system that prefer lower PAR, so trying to keep everyone happy with the current light setup is tricky. I knew it was a risk when I picked up Acros, but it was honestly a mistake on my part—and to be transparent, I’m not even a huge fan of their look. I just wanted to give them a try since a lot of people seem to fall in love with them. My only regret is that they are a living animal and I should have been more careful.
That said, they may still be able to bounce back. I don’t think they’ve lost tissue/polyps, but they look dull, have lost some color, and I’m not seeing much polyp extension. My parameters have been stable otherwise.
(And just to clarify: I didn’t list every exact number here, but I did a lot of calculations and double/triple-checked everything with a PAR meter multiple times when changing the light. I also did that before they arrived and the acclimation mode is very very slow with the adjustment so I do not think it was light related.)
