Acan Browning...First Stage Bleaching?

[jml1149]

Hi All-


I think I know the answer to my question, but here goes. I just put a new Acan lord in my tank, on the sandbed, in a 29g tank, with an Aquamana COB LED ~18" off the water. Settings 15% white and 30% blue. Right now, I use an eggcrate cover from Home Cheapo, which obviously reflects alot of light from the tank when it is on.

So today, I took the eggcrate top off for a bit during feeding, and I noticed the color in the normally purple area of the acan had shifted brown. I replaced the top, and a couple hours later, the acan had returned to normal.

So I'm thinking:

1. The eggcrate top reduced and dispersed the intensity of the LED's, so when it was removed, the lighting changed, and the acan didn't like that.

and

2. Indirect lighting is probably OK. I have a spot picked out just south of a frogspawn, at the base of the rock, which appears to get most of its light reflected back from the sand and the glass.

Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks!

 

[Reef Bass]

IME, color shifts don't happen that fast. Browning is often from too little light. I always put my corals in direct light.

 

[Tweaked]

Or too much zoox within the coral.. ie high nutirents