red planet acro

ibbennyb · Feb 24, 2012

does anyone have info related to the "growth cycle" of red planet acro?

when i first got it wasnt doing well was basically just bare / red.

Then over time gained some green color. Then added red "fuzz" appearance to the entire frag and couldnt see any of the green. Now. it appears that it is losing the "red fuzz" look. nad is showing more of the red / green appearance but you can see new growth.

anyone familiar with this acro and if this seems right? due to a few RTN's i always get nervous when anything that was there starts disappearing. . lol

poolkeeper1 · Feb 24, 2012

ibbennyb said:
does anyone have info related to the "growth cycle" of red planet acro?

when i first got it wasnt doing well was basically just bare / red.

Then over time gained some green color. Then added red "fuzz" appearance to the entire frag and couldnt see any of the green. Now. it appears that it is losing the "red fuzz" look. nad is showing more of the red / green appearance but you can see new growth.

anyone familiar with this acro and if this seems right? due to a few RTN's i always get nervous when anything that was there starts disappearing. . lol

The Red and Green is normal for this Acro, The better your lighting the more Red you will see and the lower it's placed the more Green you will see. The Happy median is up to you!
Bill

falconerr · Feb 24, 2012

I know when i had mine under 250 watt radiums it was an awesome red color but when i upgraded to 400 watt radiums it turned back to mostly green. Never moved the coral just changed lighting, have recently moved it to a different tank with t-5's instead mh it has turned back to the awesome red color. That coral in my opinion to get the red to come out likes lower light levels.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC

poolkeeper1 · Feb 24, 2012

falconerr said:
I know when i had mine under 250 watt radiums it was an awesome red color but when i upgraded to 400 watt radiums it turned back to mostly green. Never moved the coral just changed lighting, have recently moved it to a different tank with t-5's instead mh it has turned back to the awesome red color. That coral in my opinion to get the red to come out likes lower light levels.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC

Every tank is different and this does not suprise me at all, I have seen the same coral look totally different from one tank to another even when they have the same lighting. So many factors to consider that may cause color shift and even growth patterns are effected by different flow patterns alone.
I never was able to get the Red Planet to look like it was supposed to for very long before it changed either green or just browned out.
Red seems to be the most difficult color to keep long term JMO
Bill

orthokardia · Feb 25, 2012

I had mine under 400w 12k reeflux about 8" from surface and it was growing fast and nearly all red. I moved it down about 4" and changed to a 400w radium and it got the green also just like it is suppost to have, but growth slowed considerably. I changed back to a 12k reeflux (best bulb on the planet JMO) so I am hoping to gt the growth and the more red coloration back.

mrsaltwatertank · Feb 25, 2012

I had 2 frags in my old 90g. One was half way down, off center from the lighting. It was red/green and never grew at all over 2 yrs. I hated that frag!

The other frag was up high, still off center from the light. It turned blue/purple and grew like weeds!

poolkeeper1 is correct that every tank is different and what corals do in one tank vs. another can vary widely.

Case in point is Vivid Aquariums' Ultra Blue Tenuis. In my tank it was blue/purple tips and the rest was brown. I sold lots of frags of it to other reefers and in their tanks it turned blue, green and other colors. Very strange!

ibbennyb · Feb 25, 2012

yeah i had it under the 12k and it was all red. now that i switched to radiums it seems to now turn green / red.. def see growth on it.. even some new sprouts coming from it.. soo guess time will tell..