Do acros ever look good from side view?

kartrsu · Dec 12, 2022

Been scratching my head on what to believe on acro color. Feel like photos online don’t represent how it would look in your tank from the side (no surprise here). I used to think that with torches, but I’ve found some solid pieces that look awesome from side and top down. How is it with acros? Feel like it’s the corallites that have the most color, but such a thin area only visible from the top.

ScottB · Dec 12, 2022

Short answer: not many. Some of the tables can look okay, but anything branching or reaching. No.

Another great reason to keep your aquascape low and shallow. Built my first one too tall and all you could see was the sides & undersides of my colonies. Build no taller than 1/2 the water height. Put the rest of the rock in the sump. The colonies will fill in the rest.

Waters · Dec 12, 2022

Depends on how much shadowing you have.....if you supply light to the sides, they will grow out and color up....normally.

kartrsu · Dec 12, 2022

Using LEDs so not gonna get the T5 spread. Trying to make sense of all these “rainbow” acros and multi color morphs. Had my eye on the Walt Disney, but it just can’t be real!

ReefAddict16 · Dec 12, 2022

I’ve seen some awesome looking acro tanks. I’d say it’s mainly harder to bring out the rainbow colors. Here’s a piece I purchased from TCK called RRC LV. Keep in mind this was taken under 50/50 blue and white light. Obviously lost color from shipping but you can see the potential. Unfortunately I was never able to keep the color. There are photos where they’re photo enhanced but the best looking ones don’t need it.

Pieces of the Ocean · Dec 12, 2022

It depends. Most are just brown or gray. But smoother skin type acros do give you colors from the side too.

Smite · Dec 12, 2022

Definitely need to choose your acro pieces based of how you most enjoy viewing your tank. If you're looking front on or from afar the majority of the time, I'd recommend making choices off growth structure and overall base color. You'll never see the detail from the front like you would in a top down picture but they can still be colorful from the front. If you really enjoy top down viewing through a porthole or taking macro shots then you'll be able to appreciate the detail you see online. Walt Disney is a truly nice tenuis alongside Sexy Corals Orange Passion. Enjoyable day and blue periods.

I don't want to start a lighting type discussion but as stated above you really have to think about from what angles your PAR is coming with acros if you want them colored well from the front. Also a bright bottom color by paint or clean sand can really help reflect some light back up.

ninjamyst · Dec 12, 2022

Fuzzy acros look great from the side. This is Pieces of the Ocean Mai Tai milli.

Pieces of the Ocean · Dec 12, 2022

ninjamyst said:
Fuzzy acros look great from the side. This is Pieces of the Ocean Mai Tai milli.

That looks familiar! Love it!

Smite · Dec 12, 2022

I painted the bottom of this tank white before setting it up. I kept my rocks a decent distance off the glass and had tons of coverage for lighting. That really helped keep the front and bottoms of the acropora healthy looking and colorful.

kartrsu · Dec 13, 2022

I’m grateful for the thoughts everyone. I bought a Malaysian tenuis acro that looked nice in videos with all sorts of colors, but when I got it, the coral just lacked the fluorescence from the side. Now the colors are fading cause my lights aren’t putting out anything above 200-250 PAR where I am keeping them. I think I’ve been more pleased with millepora overall. The ASD rainbow really shows it’s colors from both top and side. But yeah, the ones that stand out for me are the green slimer and Oregon tort even though they arent exotic or super colorful. Nice structure and solid base color.

92Miata · Dec 13, 2022

It really depends on lighting. The more focused and directional your lighting is, the more narrow the angle acros will color up.

More light sources help. Lights with wider spread help. Light positioning can help (if your lights are skewed forward, corals will color up more on the forward side), careful planning and positioning help. This is the primary reason I have an XR30 and 2 XR15s over a 24x24 tank. It's not because I need more PAR - it's because I want to increase the amount of surface area on acros that is being exposed to light. (and I'd probably be better off with light bars at this point)

PeterC99 · Dec 13, 2022

spsick · Dec 13, 2022

Yes. White light no filter:

That Walt Disney however is greenish with lavender tips under white light and pretty unremarkable.

SPS2020 · Dec 13, 2022

As previously mentioned, tables look nice (IMO) from the side.

Charlie’s Frags · Dec 13, 2022

92Miata said:
It really depends on lighting. The more focused and directional your lighting is, the more narrow the angle acros will color up.

More light sources help. Lights with wider spread help. Light positioning can help (if your lights are skewed forward, corals will color up more on the forward side), careful planning and positioning help. This is the primary reason I have an XR30 and 2 XR15s over a 24x24 tank. It's not because I need more PAR - it's because I want to increase the amount of surface area on acros that is being exposed to light. (and I'd probably be better off with light bars at this point)

Can we see a pic of how you mounted that many fixture over a 24” tank

hart24601 · Dec 13, 2022

There are some but as you can see not many. Even many examples shown are pretty, but at somewhat an angle so you get some of that top down look from the side. One nice thing is with acros they grow so fast you can keep it shorter at the front near glass for the color. Similar to how the coral Pieces of the Ocean showed where it’s tapered down near the front. If you keep the acros trimmed like that or low enough in the tank and short enough you can get that colorful top down look

92Miata · Dec 13, 2022

Charlie’s Frags said:
Can we see a pic of how you mounted that many fixture over a 24” tank

Aluminum extrusion. I don't have a recent photo - there's now trim on it and the XR30 is towards the front, with the two XR15s behind it and spread a little wider (to make sure I get light around the overflow). In retrospect, there's probably a leaner way that I could have done it, but c'est la vie. Next tank.

Potatohead · Dec 13, 2022

IMO they look just fine from the side. I do use T5 as my main lighting though, I imagine that helps.

Charlie’s Frags · Dec 13, 2022

92Miata said:
Aluminum extrusion. I don't have a recent photo - there's now trim on it and the XR30 is towards the front, with the two XR15s behind it and spread a little wider (to make sure I get light around the overflow). In retrospect, there's probably a leaner way that I could have done it, but c'est la vie. Next tank.

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