Acans melting when mounted sideways?

[swannyson7]

Whenever I have my acans growing on a flat surface, they thrive. However, when I try to attach them to the side of some LR, they seem to slowly melt away. Has anyone else encountered this? It doesn't seem to matter what level of light or flow they have... they always die off when mounted sideways in my tank. Is the feeding responce too poor to fight gravity? :squigglemouth:

 

[Speg]

I've mounted them sideways...no issues here.

 

[dakotasreef]

I am not a LPS expert, but I would think that it should not matter. I know when I have gotten acan frags in the past, as they heal they grow new heads which grow vertical down the side of the plug.

 

[swannyson7]

I wouldn't think it would affect them either, but it seems to happen with 90 percent of my acans. The only thing I could really attribute it to is poor feeding responce, because I've tried them in the shadows and in high light with all ranges of flow and it always seems to yield the same result. Maybe with them up off the sandbed, the fish are picking the food out of their mouths easier?

 

[firsttime]

I would suspect something else going on .

Do you lose acans in the same spot or are they at multiple different spots?
Do you dose any carbon source? ( vodka, sugar)

 

[swannyson7]

I would suspect something else going on .

Do you lose acans in the same spot or are they at multiple different spots?
Do you dose any carbon source? ( vodka, sugar)

I lose them in multiple spots as long as they are mounted sideways. However, when they are on a flat surface (whether on LR or sandbed), they grow very well. I'm currently running EcoBak, but had the same problem before I used EcoBak and before I ever dosed vodka/MB7. I suppose that the simple solution would be to just keep them on level surfaces, but I'd like to keep an open sandbed and the sides of my LR seems like a great place to put the rainbow acans in shadows under ledges. The polyps don't melt or anything like they have brown jelly disease, they just slowly shrink and eventually die off almost like they're starving. Once they start to shrink, they no longer extend their feeders. I tried shining a flashlight in the tank after lights out to look for pests and came up with nothing.

I'm just trying to see if anyone else has ever had a similar problem...

 

[drainbamage]

I've mounted a few almost vertical, but they've always had at least one mouth pointing in the direction of the light. The ones I've mounted that way though have always been in my display which gets only very rare feedings, maybe a couple times a month max. The Acans are still growing great and thriving, perhaps not quite as fast at growing as the ones on the sandbed, but still quite good growth. What sort of lighting are you running?

 

[DaveA]

What other corals are within 6" of them?

 

[swannyson7]

I've mounted a few almost vertical, but they've always had at least one mouth pointing in the direction of the light. The ones I've mounted that way though have always been in my display which gets only very rare feedings, maybe a couple times a month max. The Acans are still growing great and thriving, perhaps not quite as fast at growing as the ones on the sandbed, but still quite good growth. What sort of lighting are you running?

On my 180, I have 3 of Luke's LED fixtures and 468 watts of T5 with ATI Blue+ & Purple+ bulbs.

What other corals are within 6" of them?

I've even had them on a piece of newly LR that's in the back of the tank with no other corals close by. Still the same result. I don't get it... am I the only one? :squigglemouth: