Acan color change

[jabberwock]

Other than the color change, it seems healthy. Opens fully, good feeding response. It took about a week to change from red to green. Last pic is current color under moonlights. I don't really mind the change unless it is a health concern. I do 64 oz water change every other day. It is in a 32 gallon biocube. Purchasing premixed Red Sea Coral Pro water from LFS. It is on a small rock on the sand band, moderate flow. I target feed it reefroids and mysis. Had it for about 3 months. All other inhabitants are doing well except I have been slowly loosing a hollywood stunner. It has been loosing tissue. Seems to have stabilized at about 1/10th of itself left.

Parameters are:
Temp 79
Specific Gravity 1.026
pH 8
dKH 9
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0
Calcium 400

What happened to make the Acan change color? Is it bad?

 

[James M]

When a acan gets too much light they change colors

 

[DSC reef]

Acans changing color is usually due to lighting spectrum/intensity change. It's pretty common, I wouldn't worry. The coral looks healthy.

 

[jabberwock]

So it went from fancy LFS lights to mediocre Biocube LEDs. That makes sense. Thanks for the info!

 

[Oscaror]

Looks pretty cool tbh, really bright

 

[Lloyd Williams]

So it went from fancy LFS lights to mediocre Biocube LEDs. That makes sense. Thanks for the info!

Try the Steve’s LEDS upgrade. Awesome investment

 

[John3]

So it went from fancy LFS lights to mediocre Biocube LEDs. That makes sense. Thanks for the info!

That’s interesting though. The biocube lighting is pretty weak which fits an acans lighting requirements better than blasting with LEDs. That leads me to think it’s not your lighting.

I wonder if your water has high levels of iron which helps green coloring in corals. I don’t know if I have seen as drastic a color change as yours. What I can say is that I have seen first hand green/purple acans gain red/orange. That’s a pretty interesting thought. Below is my example.

 

[jabberwock]

Try the Steve’s LEDS upgrade. Awesome investment

I don't doubt it, but it costs more than the tank did...
I would buy a second biocube first and do a seahorse tank.

 

[John3]

Here’s the way that acan looked when I bought it. I always thought it was s water quality issue that made the color change because it’s change coincided with me getting my parameters under control.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Acans changing color is usually due to lighting spectrum/intensity change. It's pretty common, I wouldn't worry. The coral looks healthy.

You are correct. Any hard coral will change color due to a lights spectrum and intensity. There's some other things that can make a coral shift color as well, but usually is from pale to darker or darker to pale.

 

[jabberwock]

So, what about moving this acan up to the top of my tank? I have a lot of empty space up there. I am guessing it would not be too much light due to the lack of intensity of the stock biocube LEDs.

I don't really care about changing the color back, but if it would occupy a previous empty space, that would be good. Should I move it?

 

[John3]

I think it would be fine to slowly move it up. I’ve got a colony up high under a G4 radion for over a year now and it’s been fine.

 

[jabberwock]

It has a tiny new head, so I am just going to leave it where it is happy!

 

[DSC reef]

It has a tiny new head, so I am just going to leave it where it is happy!

If its growing and happy then I would leave it be. Congrats on the new growth.

 

[MariahP]

OP - did you ever figure this out? I had the exact same thing happen and I’m using a Biocube as well. Bought them blue and red and are now like green and gold.

 

[GlassMunky]

OP - did you ever figure this out? I had the exact same thing happen and I’m using a Biocube as well. Bought them blue and red and are now like green and gold.

its just what acans do with different lights.
We bought some that were crayola yellow in someone else tank and within 2 days in our tank they were red.

 

[jabberwock]

OP - did you ever figure this out? I had the exact same thing happen and I’m using a Biocube as well. Bought them blue and red and are now like green and gold.

I did not, and then I had a tank glass failure 5 months later... Pretty sure that Acan croaked first though. But I am back. Check out my Tank Thread.

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!