Is my Acan reaching for more light?

[GrimReefer51]

Good afternoon everyone,

My Acan seems to be happy and growing but the polyps on one side extend unusually long and it looks like they are searching for more light. I've already turned my lights up about 3 months ago and its still like this.

Last time I checked it was sitting around 120 PAR. I'm afraid to turn up my lights even more and cook some of my other coral.

What do you guys think?

It doesn't always look like this but lately its been the norm. It looked like this for a long time but now that it has more heads its not the same.

This is what it used to look like..

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It looks like the duncans and some zoa's are also stretching out......

 

[GrimReefer51]

It looks like the duncans and some zoa's are also stretching out......

My thoughts exactly. Having a Par of 100 on my sandbed seemed high for an LPS and softies tank but maybe more light is what I need. My corals do tend to brown out and turn a pastel color. Wasnt sure if that was because of high light or low light. Have been scared to turn it up more.

 

[Lavey29]

Have you done an actual par meter check? I thought my lights were perfect until I rented a par meter and was shocked to find how low my par actually was.

Cool nano tank....

 

[Lavey29]

My thoughts exactly. Having a Par of 100 on my sandbed seemed high for an LPS and softies tank but maybe more light is what I need. My corals do tend to brown out and turn a pastel color. Wasnt sure if that was because of high light or low light. Have been scared to turn it up more.

Browning can be also due to excessive amino dosing or just excessive nutrients in the tank in addition to low light.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I agree, browning is not so much a light issue as it is an excess nutrients issue IME

 

[GrimReefer51]

Have you done an actual par meter check? I thought my lights were perfect until I rented a par meter and was shocked to find how low my par actually was.

Cool nano tank....

I was fortunate enough to have a buddy rent me an Apogee Par Meter and thats how I came to those values. I'm renting it again this week just to confirm. My Phosphates sit around .04 and my nitrates at 10ppm.

Alk is 8
I don't dose Aminos and feed mostly P.E mysys shrimp which I rinse before feeding my coral and one fish.

Losing color on my corals drives me nuts and I can't find why. Everything grows and gets pretty big but the color is lost

what the heck could it be?