Too much or not enough?

[Darren]

Folks I need your advice. A couple of months back I got a nice rainbow acan lord colony. When I received it and for a few weeks it had a nice light blue / white outer polyp with orange, red, and green inner. Now it is turning into a green outer polyp with red inner polyp common looking aussie lord. I have it on the bottom about 30 inches below my lights (2 x 150W 14k phoenix). Do you think it is getting too much or not enough light? Thanks.

 

[oceanparadise1]

i would think to much, acans like low light and ive seen some bleach out with to much light, i would try giving it a lil shade and see what happens

 

[Nate82]

they don't really bleach just turn all red... so shade it hopefully it'll come back

 

[Darren]

Yea it is not really bleaching if anything it is getting darker.

 

[oceanparadise1]

yea i didnt mean bleach wrong term, more of the colors will bleed into one

 

[dan10342]

based on past experiences,

acans under very high light turn a very pale color. if they dont bleach of course.

they also become transparent under too low of light. IMO perhaps its just morphing uder your lights. if its growing and all, i wouldnt mess around with it. its a shame many NICE corals morph in our tanks. sometimes for the better, but many of times, worse.

since u say 150s, and 30 inches deep, i take it its probably a light deficiency. try moving it up a bit, but do it slowly. aso try feeding it. remember, 30 inches away from a light is quite a distance. esp for 150 halides. the telltale sign that your acan is morphing for the worse is, DOES IT HAVE ITS RAINBOW COLORS UNDER ACTINICS?

 

[roshi719]

Bottom line Acans morph. I have had one mother colony that has morphed 4-5 times on me, without being moved. All of the acans I have seen morph at some point in captivity.
You could try moving it, but I would leave it in any new location for at least a couple months to adjust to new light and flow. They hate being moved around.

 

[Hypertek99]

If it's turning into the reddish color then too much light. The rainbows like lower shaded area to keep their rainbow colors.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I agree shade it even more...

Move it to the side of the tank. My rainbows like that spot best.

 

[demonsperm]

SPS perfer good water flow and feeding habits over lighting issues. Your lighting issue would have appeard much sooner. I think lack of flow or food could be stressing it and a sign of poor health.

 

[Tankguy001]

I've got some rainbow acans under 150W 14K's. About 18 inches from the lights and under low flow. They love it and are growing nicely.I also target feed. I recently saw the same coral under 250W ( about the same distance ) and was a completely different color.