A couple growth shots of my Acan

[graveyardworm]

This piece was sold to me as a Blasto at the LFS, and was overlooked by many aquarists and sat in thier tank for over a month, and the lighting it was under really made it look more like a pile of dog poo, I got it for a really good price. Is it proper for this piec to be on the sand, or would it be more at home on rock?

Here it is in April when I bought it. You can see the tissue recession. These pic were taken in my coral QT under NO flourescent tubes

Now here it is today under 14k MH in my 180.

 

[b0bby1]

thats not a lord, thats a mini micro colony you have there. nice

 

[All Delight]

wow piece turn out really nice. good job!

 

[kawicivic]

yea I can't believe the difference.... good pickup!!

 

[graveyardworm]

Mini micro, huh. I'm a bit baffled by how to figure these things out. Polyps are around 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter, and the colony is about the size of a fist. Is it still an Acan even if it is a mini micro, or are they two completely different things?

 

[Hogfish77]

^ If the polyps are big like you said, then it's definitely not a micro. Funny how someone who's never seen it in person automatically says it's a micro. But yeah it has turned out sweet. Great pick-up!

 

[graveyardworm]

Checking out Acan lord on Coral search one of the colonies pictures seems to resemble the puffy polyps of mine, but the coralite structure appears different. Unfortunatly when I try to expand the pic of the bare coralite skeleton all I get is red X.

 

[Bcollins111900]

acan lord, to large of poyps for a micro. Nice lord colony btw.

 

[currentking]

that was sweet.

 

[mile sq. reefer]

Whatever it is, nice piece and good job in bringing it back to a healthy state.

 

[reefman13]

Great job with that beautiful Acan Lord colony! It looks real happy.

 

[moppy]

Sorry, but nobody answered the original question:

Will this coral do better in the sand or placed on a rock?

And what are the minimum light requirements for it?

thanks

 

[reefman13]

In regards to placement, I would really just put it where ever it is happiest (see where it opens up more) then you know where to keep it.

What lighting do you have it under now? Because honestly, if that second pic is how it is now, then I really wouldn't make any adjustments to its environment...

 

[neyugn0w01]

Looks to be a very nice looking lord.

 

[Phillips]

You are asking us???

You are asking us???

Acanthastrea colonies normally grow attached to LR in the wild, but I'd say you're doing a great job to get it to recover and grow that much in 6 months.

So tell us, how have you been caring for it? Light, flow, food etc???

 

[racerw]

I would have to say it looks very happy where it is
Nice job getting it to look healthy & very nice color change

 

[graveyardworm]

Its been in my 100g lagoon tank on the sand about 14 inches under 3 6500k overdriven 40 watt NO flourescent and 1 VHO URI super actinic ( all 4 run on an icecap ballast )

Now its in my newly set up 180 about 22 inches down under 250 watt MH on tha sand. Lights are about 20 inches over the tank and will be slowly brought down to ensure everything gets properly acclimated.

In both tanks flow is low to medium, and the colony gets food almost every night. It looks good on the sand so I think I'll keep it there. My reason for asking was just wondering how they're normally found in the wild. I'm a little concerned that as it grows the sand may become a problem to the new polyps forming around the edge.

 

[fierceseaman]

I was under the impression the the difference between micros and acans are their skeleton structure. You have exposed skeleton in the first picture. You should be able to use that for identification. There are very big micros and very small acans out there.

 

[graveyardworm]

I posted the pics of it with Eric Borneman awhile back, and he was fairly certain it was an Acan, wouldnt pin it to species, but felt it was most likely a lord.

 

[al abaqueta]

That was a nice save on your Acan colony! Great job!