Acro light acclimation.

[Indytraveler83]

Hey everyone,

Just got my second acro frag. My first was a “green slimer” that I got for $10 just to see how my system would handle it. I put it in one of the most intense high lighting spots on the tank after about a day’s adjustment and it thrived.

Decided to get another piece (it’s been 2-3 months) and went with one that the store wanted to call a “pink lemonade” acro, which has strong yellow hues mixed in with the green.

I’m wanting to be a little more careful with this piece, as it didn’t come as cheap, but also have read that the yellows turn green if it doesn’t get enough light.

Right now it’s sitting in the sand bed with pretty low, indirect light and seems to be fairly happy, despite being placed in the tank about 12 hrs ago. (No I don’t have a par meter)

What should my process be for moving it up to the top? Am I overthinking it just because it’s a more expensive piece?

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

What type of lights do you have, distance from the waters surface and at what intensity are they running? What type of lights was it under at the LFS, placement of the cortal at said LFS. I usually place mine on a magnetic frag rack and only lower it a couple of inches from it's normal resting place. Depending on the piece, it could be in 150-600 PAR that it's used to. There are LUX apps that for you phone and calculators that will allow you to ballpark your PAR measurements.
I run a Radion XR15g4Pro over a 29g Biocube and run 75% intensity, most of my acros, including frags stay in the 350-600 PAR range. Hope this helps.

 

[Indytraveler83]

What type of lights do you have, distance from the waters surface and at what intensity are they running? What type of lights was it under at the LFS, placement of the cortal at said LFS. I usually place mine on a magnetic frag rack and only lower it a couple of inches from it's normal resting place. Depending on the piece, it could be in 150-600 PAR that it's used to. There are LUX apps that for you phone and calculators that will allow you to ballpark your PAR measurements.
I run a Radion XR15g4Pro over a 29g Biocube and run 75% intensity, most of my acros, including frags stay in the 350-600 PAR range. Hope this helps.

I’ll have to look into the apps, once I replace my dying phone...

I’m running black box (Viparspectra) only a few inches off the water surface of a 54g corner tank. Right now the blues run at 25% and the whites at 5% (but I only run the whites 4 hours)

The highest rockwork comes about halfway up the tank, and the green slimer sits there, dead center under the lights.

The employee that sold me this new piece didn’t know exact par values it was under but said they keep acros under “pretty intense” light.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Usually, "pretty intense" is in the 500+ PAR.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Do you belong to a local reef club, I know mine has a PAR meter for borrowing, bulk reef supply has ones you can rent with a deposit.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Well I didn’t have a pat meter accessible, so I simply repeated my method with the green slimer, moving it up into the (hopeful) final spot within about a day. So far so good, color is great and it’s looking very healthy, more so in fact than it did at the shop.

Ill keep an eye on it, but so far so good.

 

[madweazl]

Acros rarely need an acclimation period and in my experience, usually does more harm than good. Unless they're coming from a severly under-lit tank, plop them down where you want them and go.

 

[Daddy-o]

I am not familiar with your exact light fixture, but I dont think you are going to have any issues "baking" the coral with only 5% white and 25% blue.
Cheers! Mark

 

[Indytraveler83]

I am not familiar with your exact light fixture, but I dont think you are going to have any issues "baking" the coral with only 5% white and 25% blue.
Cheers! Mark

I’ve struggled with that on a few softies; but glad to hear that acro won’t be too upset by immediate exposure to it.