A couple of inches can make the difference..

["Acro Sheen"]

Hello I'm new to this site but not to keeping sps. I have read hundreds if not thousands of threads about achieving the best color with acros. As we all know stable parameters are for the most part the most important but I think a lot of times placement gets overlooked. With so many different species and variations out there its hard to always guess the right spot in your tank for all acros. How many of you have seen red planet or other acros that are different colors in different tanks? I'm sure a lot of you but how many of you have seen 2 pieces the same coral in the same tank with different colors. Over the years I have done this with multiple frags of acros and found that a couple of inches can completely change the coloration on an acro. I guess what I am getting at is finding a happy spot for a frag can be just as important as your levels to get the best colors out of your corals. Lighting intensity and flow will be different in almost every spot in your reef tank so don't just settle for the first spot you stick your coral if your not happy with the coloration. How many of you have experienced this or have the same coral in 2 different spots in your tank and the colors are different? Post some pics and join the discussion! Happy reefing!!

 

[brocstrongo]

What's your suggested time to allow a coral to sit in one spot to adjust and color up?

 

[jservedio]

What's your suggested time to allow a coral to sit in one spot to adjust and color up?

I'll try and get a friend of mine to post a picture of his Miyagi (or lookalike) Tort that demonstrates exactly this in a single coral. He placed it toward the bottom of his tank and it was pretty browned, being a light loving coral. However it has been steadily growing upward for a months and months now and after growing about 6" or so vertical, all of the new shoots coming out of the top most branches of it are absolutely beautiful in color. Within the same coral, the part just 6" lower is browned (and completely unshaded) and everything slightly higher is perfectly colored and a posterchild for what that acro should look like. I'd never seen anything like it before. I've seen duplicates of the same coral look different at different depths, but never on the same coral.

 

["Acro Sheen"]

I'll try and get a friend of mine to post a picture of his Miyagi (or lookalike) Tort that demonstrates exactly this in a single coral. He placed it toward the bottom of his tank and it was pretty browned, being a light loving coral. However it has been steadily growing upward for a months and months now and after growing about 6" or so vertical, all of the new shoots coming out of the top most branches of it are absolutely beautiful in color. Within the same coral, the part just 6" lower is browned (and completely unshaded) and everything slightly higher is perfectly colored and a posterchild for what that acro should look like. I'd never seen anything like it before. I've seen duplicates of the same coral look different at different depths, but never on the same coral.

this is a perfect example of what just a few inches can do. For me my biggest example is the ORA red planet I had a piece on top of my LR closer to the lights and it had a nice bright red with pink and my frag lower near the bottom was all green at the base along with the nice deep reds. I also enjoy buying maricultured acros that are dull but show potential and doing the same with them. It's amazing the changes these can go through with the right care. Within months they can look like a designer colony you paid hundreds for.

 

[bct15]

I try to identify the species of the coral, then look up its natural environment (upper reef slope, lagoon, etc) then place it in an area that best replicated those conditions in my tank.

 

["Acro Sheen"]

This all depends. There are several variables to this like what the frag the right colors when u put it in n the tank, is the coral doing well just not the color you want, was it a mariculture or cultured, was the frag under a different type of lighting priviously. If it's staying healthy just not coloring up give it a few weeks and see what happens. There isn't an exact science to it and that's part of the fun.

 

["Acro Sheen"]

I try to identify the species of the coral, then look up its natural environment (upper reef slope, lagoon, etc) then place it in an area that best replicated those conditions in my tank.

I agree with you here for 100% for a starting point on placement but corals can do so amazing color shifting (some good some bad) when placed under a different level of light then they naturally come from. I have seen some maricultured deep waters turn some amazing colors when placed higher in the tank but with that being said I have seen some all but die (dragon varieties) from placing to high.

 

[Eric N]

Canaries

I will sometimes buy 2-3 of the same frag and place them at different hights. Once the best location is found, I move them all together and let them grow into eachother. If it's a big colony you can set the mother colony on the bottom, let her recover from the shipping and handeling, the remove a branch and and place that branch as high as you want. This way you don't have to keep moving around your big colony and risk harming the whole thing. Finally, pigments are ment to protect the coral from excess light and UV radiation, and they will respond according to demand. I pushed my overall lighting in the UV direction and got a more color out of most of the corals. .

 

[tomtep]

I had good result by acclimate slowly from bottom to top. You just have to move around until you find a perfect spot.

 

[Velodog2]

I'm not rich enough to buy more than one frag of a type, but I will often take little pieces - either broken branch tips or particularly flakes that break off the plug itself - and attach them at different points in the tank. Sometimes a difference of a few inches away that doesn't seem significantly different in lighting can be big.

A simple little ORA Plum Crazy frag is a great example where the encrustation that was stuck to the plug is outstripping the frag itself in growth and is really pretty impressive in color by comparison with hot blue tips and glowing aqua coralite edges where the momma is just a light purple overall, and is only a few inches away and at about the same level.

 

[fishroomlady]

It would be great if people could post pics with their comments

 

[jservedio]

It would be great if people could post pics with their comments

I'm sure most people, like myself, are at work and can't take pictures showing exactly what the OP is talking about from their desks. It's only been like 5 hours since the thread started. Give it a few days - I am sure you will see a ton of pictures.

 

[bct15]

This simplex turned into this after I dropped it on my floor and moved it too over 500 PAR and super high flow. Growth form is crazy, and is actually kind of growing downward. It used to be purple, now it is just purple at the very tip. I put a piece low in my frag tank and it is turning purple again.

Old pick about a month after I dropped it on my floor and shattered it. Can still see some of the old purple, and it had more upright growth before it ended up in a million pieces all over my floor.

 

["Acro Sheen"]

Thanks for sharing the pics Bct15. That's a great looking simplex I'm not sure that I have ever seen one grow that way with all new growth going side ways. Do you have any FTS looks like you have a killer tank just from what I can see.

 

[Sahin]

Nice thread. Acro sheen, do you have a build thread either here or in another forum? You sound like an old school reefkeeper, be nice to,see your tank.

 

[WhoKnew]

Where do you look this information up for the corals natural environment.

 

["Acro Sheen"]

Nice thread. Acro sheen, do you have a build thread either here or in another forum? You sound like an old school reefkeeper, be nice to,see your tank.

I moved this past year and was forced to sell off my my tanks. I have some pics from those (crummy quality) I can share. I'm currently setting up a 29g rimless cube BB with minimal LR. It's gonna be all SPS Japanese style and I just finished my beast of a DIY LED to light it. I promise you there will be pics to come!! This nano will be one for the books you can count on that I'm planning a stock list that's making my wallet hurt just thinking about it! Just think Reef Raft and you will understand! Luckey for me I have some friends with big systems that allowed me to keep alot of my corals from past tanks until I get this 1 going.

 

[bct15]

Where do you look this information up for the corals natural environment.

http://coral.aims.gov.au/info/factsheets.jsp

It says the parts of the reef the coral live in, then you look up the conditions in those parts.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Really cool discussion. Following along...

 

["Acro Sheen"]

Really cool discussion. Following along...

I enjoy sharing ideas and things I have learned over the years as well as hearing about others experiences to learn from as well.