Acanthus won't inflate

RJ Harris · Oct 13, 2016

My acans never seem to open up. There always shrunk up. There not dying or anything they still have good color but they never open and never grow. Just looking for suggestions as to what could be happening. All my water parameters are within acceptable levels

There down on the sand bed too

helen ann · Oct 13, 2016

Mine were doing the same until I gave them more flow. Are they in a low flow area?

Lonny · Oct 13, 2016

Try moving them up a little. All of my acans are just below mid tank level.

JaimeAdams · Oct 13, 2016

My Micromussa (what acans are now classified as) are at the bottom of the tank with very little flow and are opened up like champagne glasses. Are they shrunken when you first turn on the lights? Do you spot feed them at all?

RJ Harris · Oct 13, 2016

I hate auto correct by the way.

They are In a low flow area so I'll try both of your suggestions Helen and lonny

JaimeAdams · Oct 13, 2016

It might help if you tell us what type of lighting you have. Just simply stating placement in a water level doesn't really tell you much. Is it halfway up in a 12 inch tank or a 36 inch tank. Are you running 400W MH 6 inches from the water level or a T-5 fixture 24 inches above the tank? Those are much different scenarios. In an ideal world we should be talking about PAR or PUR, but most folks don't know those numbers.

Also when people say that their water is in acceptable levels that really doesn't tell us anything either. Are we talking no traces of nitrate or phosphate or 5 nitrate or 20 nitrate?

I have one frag out of around 20 Micromussa frags/colonies that never likes to really open. I have found that when I spot feed it often (daily) it expands it's flesh much more.

RJ Harris · Oct 13, 2016

@JamieAdams I run LEDs ones a reef radiance 240 and the others a Chinese black box that's 160w. That ones at about 9 10 inches from the top of the tank the reef radiance is at about 14 I'd say. The tank is 22 inches deep and if I was made of money I'd have a par meter but I'm not. I spot feed them and they stay closed all day. I have never had nitrates above 5 and no phosphates. When I get home from work I can test my water for you if it matters that much. I do weekly water changes and my tank does not have a very big bio load so my water is near perfect accept I don't dose but I never have and I've had acans in other tanks that did just fine

JaimeAdams · Oct 13, 2016

RJ Harris said:
@JamieAdams I run LEDs ones a reef radiance 240 and the others a Chinese black box that's 160w. That ones at about 9 10 inches from the top of the tank the reef radiance is at about 14 I'd say. The tank is 22 inches deep and if I was made of money I'd have a par meter but I'm not. I spot feed them and they stay closed all day. I have never had nitrates above 5 and no phosphates. When I get home from work I can test my water for you if it matters that much. I do weekly water changes and my tank does not have a very big bio load so my water is near perfect accept I don't dose but I never have and I've had acans in other tanks that did just fine

i was simply stating that when people on forums talk about their placement being halfway up or on the bottom or near the top it doesn't really mean much unless they also include distance from a specific light source. There are coral vendors on here that keep certain coral at 40 Nitrates. It seems that the new thing to do is have some nitrates and other dissolved organics in the water. You see people blaming issues on their water being too cleaned these days. That is why I asked. People with zoas growing like wildfire with 40 nitrate would say that their water parameters are acceptable. I personally wouldn't suggest running 40 Nitrate, but to some people that is what they feel is perfectly acceptable. The same thing can be said about flow. We all say keep it in low flow or high flow. This is also something subjective. All of us do it, myself included.

john.m.cole3 · Oct 18, 2016

I'm oe of the high nitrate/low phosphate people. My nitrate is at 35 and phos .042. No chemicals.My acans also didn't puff up until I brought my alk up to 10.2. I used to keep it at 8.3 and was waiting for my nitrates to slowly decrease. They didn't so I bumped up the alkalinity. I'm not saying that what I did is the magic answer to your acans, but that's what happened with mine

Derekchristopher763 · Oct 18, 2016

Are they getting irritated by the sand at all? I know I've had a colony on the sand bed that would never inflate and I took it out of my sand bed and it got way better!