How often to feed Acans?

Oldsalt01 · Aug 10, 2017

I've read everything from once a week to daily. Right now I'm target feeding Reef Roids every other day. It looks like the heads that were attacked by my Peppermint's are still receding but the other piece is feeding nicely. Dosing All and CA every other day to keep my levels up. Nitrates at +/- .5, Phosphates at 0 with my new low-range Salifert kit.

NickNiz · Aug 10, 2017

What size tank is this? Every other day seems like excess, even if it's to help corals recover. I stick to 2x a week in my 12 gallon, and do 1.5 gallon WCs the day after for nutrient export. Also, increasing nitrates might help the Acans a bit. I've found that they, and most other LPS, thrive at around 5-10ppm.

EDIT:
Here's what mine looked like 2 months ago, after a person taking care of the tank left the circulation pump off for 6 weeks...

Here's what they look like currently, with the scheduled feedings and water changes.

Oldsalt01 · Aug 10, 2017

14g Biocube. 15% water change weekly. Floss change at the same time. Stock carbon insert, but considering going to bulk in a bag in the second chamber. Not running a skimmer as I've not read great reviews on the Biocube brand. Thinking about a HOB in the future, but not right now. Lights are Hydra 26 with controller, about 5" above the surface. I'm still playing with light intensities; W: 10%, V: 7, G: 10, R:10, P:10, DB: 30, RB: 30, UV: 40, 6 hrs on with a 1.5 hr ramp time up/down favoring blues.
Ur frags are looking great! I'm hoping my damaged frags come back, but the shrimp pretty much cleaned out the centers and just left the outer edges so all I can do is wait to see.

NickNiz · Aug 10, 2017

Nice! I've got the Prime HD with these settings:
UV: 25%
B/RB/V: 40%
G/R: 8%
CW: 15%

This has worked great for LPS so far. I've only had the light for about 10 days, so I'm still acclimating corals. Not sure what this would translate to for your light, since it's basically two of mine. I do 4hr ramp times with 2 hr at peak...

Oldsalt01 · Aug 10, 2017

I wanted a Prime, but the "bank" said NO. I managed to get the 26 from a friend with an LFS for cheap when he upgraded his tank lights at the store. I do know they have extensive burn times but they seem to work fine. My bubble algae seems to love it, lol. I cut down the greens and reds as I have read those wavelengths encourage nuisance algae at higher levels. Hasn't seemed to have negatively affected the bubble tho.

ChiCity · Aug 10, 2017

Feed once every 7-10 days...
I know you want to feed more because they're pigs and will eat every day if fed every day, but for their health and your tank's chemistry; it's best to only feed them 3-4 times a month

George Lopez · Aug 10, 2017

I spot feed mine twice a week with coral frenzy 1mill pellets. They love it

Nutter · Aug 11, 2017

Mine grow quite well and have sharp colors (will get a picture tomorrow when the whites are on)...and honestly I very rarely target feed them. They feed with the fish and I dose the tank with Red Sea Reef Energy A+B every other day. Once a week I broadcast some reef roids or coral frenzy.

lou dog420 · Aug 12, 2017

Mine are doing very well for almost a year, I have never fed them!

jerry lee · Aug 14, 2017

I don't ever target feed mine and they are doing pretty well. This one started as a single head frag about a year ago.

Oldsalt01 · Aug 16, 2017

Nice! Mine still seem to be receding ;Bored

George Lopez · Aug 16, 2017

Oldsalt01 said:
Nice! Mine still seem to be receding ;Bored

Well my lighting is week and i have them in a very low flow corner of my tank have you tried relocating?

Oldsalt01 · Aug 16, 2017

Last night I pulled them off the bottom front of the tank and put them in a hanging frag rack I made from eggcrate, on the back bulkhead between the return and the intake grate. I think that's probably the lowest flow I have in the tank. I don't want to move them around too much, as they were already stressed when I got them and then the shrimp attacked one frag, which now looks pretty pathetic. The other one seems to be receding too. I'm bummed.

Waters · Aug 17, 2017

I don't feed mine but if you do, they prefer some meatier foods, like Mysis.

roberthu526 · Aug 18, 2017

What kind of water parameters do you guys keep? My did fine for about a month then started to recede.

NickNiz · Aug 18, 2017

roberthu526 said:
What kind of water parameters do you guys keep? My did fine for about a month then started to recede.

I keep...
10-15 Nitrate
0.02 to 0.05 Phosphate
450-500 calc
8.5-9 Alk
~1300 Mg
1.026-1.027 salinity

As for lighting mine are under an AI Prime HD fixture.

Oldsalt01 · Aug 18, 2017

Maybe that's my problem. My water's too clean. When I got home last night the piece that had been doing OK has also started to recede. I'm really bummed, now. Can't seem to keep zoas either. I'm obviously doing something wrong but I can figure out what. I do seem to have a fair amount of GHA and BA but my test kits say 0 phos and less than 5ppm Nitrates.
I'm just about ready to make it a fowlr and say to heck with corals.:mad:

George Lopez · Aug 18, 2017

Oldsalt01 said:
Maybe that's my problem. My water's too clean. When I got home last night the piece that had been doing OK has also started to recede. I'm really bummed, now. Can't seem to keep zoas either. I'm obviously doing something wrong but I can figure out what. I do seem to have a fair amount of GHA and BA but my test kits say 0 phos and less than 5ppm Nitrates.
I'm just about ready to make it a fowlr and say to heck with corals.:mad:

My tank also runs too clean for zoas and acans but when i feed i kill my return pump for at least a half hour (i leave on my wave makers) and i did the same when feeding the coral twice a week. It seems to work for me

Oldsalt01 · Aug 18, 2017

I always shut down my pump for 1/2 hour when I feed. What makes me crazy is the GHA and Bubble Algae are doing great, but the zoas and now the Acans just melt away. The only thing I can think is the GHA and BA are up-taking the phosphates so I'm showing zero on my low-range Salifert kit. I also have a great deal of trouble keeping my Alk and Ca up where they should be, but I attribute that to all the Coralline I have on my rocks, so I test, then manually dose alternate days. All I can say is that the only difference I can detect between a beautiful reef tank and this one seems to be the lack of nuisance algae in the former, and the prevalence of it in mine. If I thought I could house all my critters in my 5.5g QT, I'd pull them all out, yank the rock, sterilize the whole bloody thing and start all over again. Or, seriously consider Malawi Ciclids. I'm very frustrated at this point, but cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE QUIT THIS STUPID HOBBY! Sorry. I just had to get that out.