Is there a trick to make acans keep their color?

Literallyhydro

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Almost every acan lord I get goes from super vibrant to an orange/brown color after about a month.

I have them down low in the tank away from any direct flow. Parameters are as follows:

PH 8.0
Nitrate 10 ish.
Phosphates 0.03
Calcium 450
Alkalinity 9.0
Magnesium 1440

I use black box leds. World wide told me they do that under intense lighting, so they said to raise the lights and keep the acans in more shaded areas.

Does that sound right? Or is there something I'm missing? I really love acans and want to have some nice ones for the lower reaches of my tank.
 

OhDumb

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That's been the case for me. Too much light and they lighten up and don't have much color. Different spectrums do weird things too sometimes. The black boxes I've seen in person have a really intense blue that makes the same coral look totally different under my AI Prime.
 

Pntbll687

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Almost every acan lord I get goes from super vibrant to an orange/brown color after about a month.

I have them down low in the tank away from any direct flow. Parameters are as follows:

PH 8.0
Nitrate 10 ish.
Phosphates 0.03
Calcium 450
Alkalinity 9.0
Magnesium 1440

I use black box leds. World wide told me they do that under intense lighting, so they said to raise the lights and keep the acans in more shaded areas.

Does that sound right? Or is there something I'm missing? I really love acans and want to have some nice ones for the lower reaches of my tank.

Does the color return after they have been in the tank? Or are they dying?

I have some acans, and they did what you described when I bought them and put them under my T5 lights. It took about 2 months, but they eventually returned to normal and are plump and fat now.
 

BigJim

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I only have a few acans but I have learned a few things to keep them colorful. The most important thing for me was adding T5 lighting to supplement my Kessil A360WE lighting. Acans seem to do better under T5 lighting in my experience. They also did better when I tweaked my lighting to be a little more blue. WWC is right about lower light as well. My acans are more colorful on the sides than on top because the sides get a little less direct light.
 

SashimiTurtle

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This guy is at the bottom of a 20" cube tank under 2 A160s at 30% color and 100% intensity for 6 hours. 3 hour ramp on either side. Lights are about 6.5" over the water. Last I measured, it was somewhere around 100 par peak.

20180307_191020.jpg
 
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Literallyhydro

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Does the color return after they have been in the tank? Or are they dying?

I have some acans, and they did what you described when I bought them and put them under my T5 lights. It took about 2 months, but they eventually returned to normal and are plump and fat now.
They don't die, but they also grow more slowly than average. Never actually lost any acans.

I also don't feed them. Do you guys with successful acans feed them regularly, or use any amino acids or trace elements?
 

OhDumb

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I feed them once or twice a week when feeding the fish. I squirt a mysis or other small frozen stuff on the polyps that have their tentacles out and watch them devour it. They eat pretty quickly, but just keep an eye on your thieving Cleaner Shrimp.

Red Acan.jpg


Joker Acan.jpg
 

sbash

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First, not all black box lights are the same.

I have my acans under black box lights (medium lighting I would say), I do not feed them, medium flow. My blues are almost 100% and whites on just enough to look almost like daylight (so maybe 20%).

Are you adjusting your light or moving them around the tank often?

Mine usually come in super faded (I get them shipped in), and after about a month the colours are vivid. I don't have any lords, but I do have a few different Ultra Rainbows...

I modified my black box on my frag tank (all my bb lights are purchased from the same place with the same specs) to have more 395 and 420nm diodes, that really made the colours pop.

My parameters are similar, although I keep my mag around 1300...
 

jakeh22

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Mine seem to do best when they are in areas where nothing disturbs them. My sand sifter kicks up sand on the ones on the sand bed and it irritates them for a few days when I have to get in there and move them. Try permanently glueing them to a rock on the bottom. I also have one where my Acro grows at the top high light and flow and it doing swell so the bottom theory is useless
 
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Literallyhydro

Literallyhydro

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First, not all black box lights are the same.

I have my acans under black box lights (medium lighting I would say), I do not feed them, medium flow. My blues are almost 100% and whites on just enough to look almost like daylight (so maybe 20%).

Are you adjusting your light or moving them around the tank often?

Mine usually come in super faded (I get them shipped in), and after about a month the colours are vivid. I don't have any lords, but I do have a few different Ultra Rainbows...

I modified my black box on my frag tank (all my bb lights are purchased from the same place with the same specs) to have more 395 and 420nm diodes, that really made the colours pop.

My parameters are similar, although I keep my mag around 1300...
I don't mess with my lights at all.

I use the Mars Aqua brand, I have the whites around 20% and blues somewhere between 70-80%, it's a dial with no markings so it's hard to be precise.


Edit: also taking the recommendation to try reef roids as directed on the video. Will report back on how that affects them.
 
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Saltyanimals

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+1 on acans that seem to be more colorful on the sides with less direct light. I'm on an SPS tank so lots of light.
 

Jimbo662

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I only have a few acans but I have learned a few things to keep them colorful. The most important thing for me was adding T5 lighting to supplement my Kessil A360WE lighting. Acans seem to do better under T5 lighting in my experience. They also did better when I tweaked my lighting to be a little more blue. WWC is right about lower light as well. My acans are more colorful on the sides than on top because the sides get a little less direct light.
I see the same with the lighting. I've got my Radions set to a bluer look so when only those are on and ramping up I see great colors on all of mine but once the T5s come on they start looking a little washed out. They seem to grow better and look much fuller under T5s...you have to choose your battles here. :)
 

Sea MunnKey

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Several months back I got a small Acan colony which strangely melted about 60% away. I knew they were going to "bounce" back and so I left them inside an old fish fry box (held firm by a magnet on side of tank glass) with sps colonies sitting on top & partly shading it from the T5's direct lights .... it has bounce back and grew back bigger polyps than it's actual size back when I first acquired them. Now I just need to feed the Acans ... and "force" them to multiply :D
 

Jimbo662

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I've got an orange colony that under more blue it's a dark blue outer ring and bright orange inner. Once the T5s come one the blue goes completely away.
 
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Literallyhydro

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This is most likely your issue. You can't ever assume that what is posted online from vendors is what that coral will look like in an individual tank.
World wide is local to me, I see the livestock in their tanks before they ever get bagged up.

However, I know you're right about how they can look very different from one light fixture to another. The thing is though, they are brilliantly colored for the first few weeks of ownership, then they begin to orange out.
 

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