Acanthastrea lordhowensis question

Old Man Of The Sea · Feb 12, 2008

OK, there has to be one person here who sticks out among the rest for I need here no second guessing, but rather main facts to ones best knowledge.

OK, at this moment I'm looking at a large number of Acanthastrea lordhowensis at this link:
http://www.vividaquariums.com/10Browse.asp?Category=Coral+And+Invertebrates:Aussie+Corals

They appear to be beautiful and demand a good high price>

Now I know that the lighting isn't of issue here being that I will first start off with the 175 MH and later change over to 250 watts MH. But the question is, being that I will have for the most part SPS corals, water currents will be quite strong and im guessing really if these coral will do as well on the bottom of the tank for which some are listed that they should be positioned along the top half of the reef tank and currents will be at their strongest there. SO should I look for some other corals or I should be able to mane these corals place at the bottom of the tanks? And of course, at first I can position the Acanthastrea lordhowensis frags above the halfway mark of the tank, but later when I add the stronger pumps for the SPS corals, I would then move these corals to the bottom. Is this idea acceptable?

And also if this is a coral that I be able to start out with, I can not follow that this coral is listed as an easy coral, but it might not be a coral that I can start out with. If the coral will works for me, once im ready to begin with some corals, how soon might I add a few of these corals?
Thanks

Buddy

reefboy · Feb 13, 2008

You should be fine I keep ours under t5 and under 400 watt halides once fraged havnt had a issue yet.They are off set a little to the lighting so not derectly underneath but still getting good lighting just not blasted and there in high flow which they seem to like.These are hardy corals Ive only lost two of the 80 colonys i've gotten ware as there indo cousins its ben about 50/50 on survival.And one more thing I ve got clients that have put them in derect halide lighting as well and there doing fine but I would say medium to low light to be safe and med to low current to also be safe.

gflat65 · Feb 13, 2008

Acan lords are typically very hardy. Even pieces that look half dead usually come back over a month or so and look fine. You don't need tons of light for them. I had them under 250W DE's and VHO in an SPS tank (most were not shaded) and they were anywhere from midway up the tank to the sandbed. They didn't seem to like all of the flow they were getting. I've since moved them into a small dedicated tank with T5's and low flow and they are much more inflated. The T5 fixture is one of the highly inefficient cheapo's with a single flat reflector, so it doesn't blast them like an individual reflector setup might. Some plain janes have turned into rainbows under the new lighting, but many have lost a little color (more radial striping is one thing I've noticed, though many of the original colors remain in the center).

alexpescado · Feb 13, 2008

I keep my acans under T-5's. Some of the colors look better under low
or indirect light. I do have lots of flow in my acan tank. The tank is very low tech so I like to keep the water moving. I noticed that many of them have their feeders out all day. Here's an old pic

freeze · Feb 13, 2008

that is an awesome shot alex!

MG21 · Feb 17, 2008

Awesome pic. Alexpescado. I keep both sps and lps in my 240 with a wavebox and 2 6100 tunzes and my acans are fine. They are mostly on the bottom of my tank that is 24 inches deep. Also run 250 halides so your acans will be fine.

cee · Feb 17, 2008

Ditto what everyone else says, you'll have no trouble with them. Some of mine are even in fairly direct Tunze 6100 flow paths and, other than getting bantered around a bit, don't seem to mind the flow too much.