Acan Color Questions

[ArtemisGoldfish]

I picked up some various colored Acan frags about three weeks ago. They were fragged from the main colony a week prior to that date. I placed them into my Nano tank which was under a Metal Halide 150w. The coral ate and began to multiply like normal, however, I'm seeing only a darker orange amongst the different colonies via the new heads. The Acans were placed on the bottom of the nano tank at 24" from the Halide lamp. Now that my 180g is fully cycled, I moved the corals to the new tank which is under 250w Halides & 420 AC (1 week ago). The length from the light to the coral is now 36".

Essentially, the corals are still doing fine, eating, etc. but I still have this dark orange coloration rather than the various rainbows that I saw them as in the pictures when I first ordered and was wondering if I need to move the Corals under an overhang or if I should expect the colors to return in a number of weeks due to the initial fragging of about a month ago.

Additionally, my Bleeding Apple Scoly never showed any problems of darkening or bleaching in either tank in regards to light. So I'm a bit lost.

Pictures!

 

[ArtemisGoldfish]

What the Acans are supposed to look like according to what I ordered:

 

[HomeSlizzice]

Put them under an overhang, it will also help if you use lights towards the higher end of the spectrum like 20K.

 

[ArtemisGoldfish]

The halides are 20k. Also, can anyone tell me what exactly is going on in terms of color?

 

[fstar25]

Sure looks like some super actinics on those as purchased pics. Hope they color up for you. Good luck.

 

[ArtemisGoldfish]

For placing them under an overhang, does this mean they are completely shaded or should it only be a partial shade with half the frag in and half the frag out.

Also, wouldn't placement in a cave (complete shade) completely halt the photosynthetic process of the coral?

 

[dan10342]

two things.

First off, ultra rainbow type acans seem to do best under very low PAR. They benefit from lower light, with feeding, rather than being blasted with light. an overhang = shade.

Secondly,

LED flashlights, like putting a powerbrite right over the coral while taking a photo, can greatly enhance photos, as well as increasing the contrast and saturation of a photo in photo editing software. Also setting the cameras white balance, to be able to compensate for all the blue light, can be a tricky one. makes anything that should be blue, look white (as if it was under daylights)

to be totally honest with you... it looks as if the acans you got, were once originally what the pictured looked like, and most likely morphed before the person sold them. however, that is JMO.

 

[RokleM]

What the Acans are supposed to look like according to what I ordered:

As mentioned to be quite frank, no chance they're going to look like that because they've likely never looked like that. There are plenty of nice pieces on that site, but the colors are WAY off. As well if you notice, the pictures were taken as all of the corals were irritated and deflated. That commonly also brings out more vibrant colors.

From your pictures, looks like you indeed received healthy colors (maybe just not what you were expecting under the arguably false advertising that many vendors use). As suggested as a general rule, many of the aussie LPS will have better luck retaining colors if lit with less light. It appears with the 3x 250w on that tank, they probably will be getting a bit more light than ideal.

 

[footballdude2k3]

i got the same acans you did plus a couple others, now i did this knowing that they would not look like the pics he had on his website unless they were undere night LEDs or possibly actinics. I got them thinking that they would just be 3-4 color acans obviously not as much of a neon color, but just thinking that they would color up nice. Give them about a month or two, the acans i have bought in the past color up for about that long. so these do have potential.

 

[ArtemisGoldfish]

As mentioned to be quite frank, no chance they're going to look like that because they've likely never looked like that. There are plenty of nice pieces on that site, but the colors are WAY off. As well if you notice, the pictures were taken as all of the corals were irritated and deflated. That commonly also brings out more vibrant colors.

From your pictures, looks like you indeed received healthy colors (maybe just not what you were expecting under the arguably false advertising that many vendors use). As suggested as a general rule, many of the aussie LPS will have better luck retaining colors if lit with less light. It appears with the 3x 250w on that tank, they probably will be getting a bit more light than ideal.

I expected the colors to be less pronounced than the photo without a doubt however I was hoping to get a similar color pattern. Now they just went into the 180g under the 250's about a week ago so it's early, but I'm hoping the increase of 12" will be enough to deal with the lighting issue.

I shot an email to Bob Fenner about the issue also an he said not to shade them, so I'm getting conflicting info about putting them in an alcove or under shade, etc. I mean they are photosynthetic, so putting them in the dark would halt this process wouldn't it? I do feed them 3+ times a week also. Anyone have any suggestions regarding placement via the pictures I have versus where they are now?

footballdude2k3 i got the same acans you did plus a couple others, now i did this knowing that they would not look like the pics he had on his website unless they were undere night LEDs or possibly actinics. I got them thinking that they would just be 3-4 color acans obviously not as much of a neon color, but just thinking that they would color up nice. Give them about a month or two, the acans i have bought in the past color up for about that long. so these do have potential.

Under what lighting did you use? Also how/where in the tank did you place them?

 

[footballdude2k3]

i am sure that mine were much more stressed to start out with than yours because i had them shipped to wisconsin and they were delayed one day. i have them under t5ho's, they are in lower lighting, with all of my acans i do not shade them because i do not have lighting thats as strong as yours however i have 12 acans and they all color up for about a month, sometimes that goes a little longer. now my frags are only one head from him and that is something i have never had before, the smallest i usually get is 5 heads. give them some time and let them grow, i do not think that you will see their true colors for a few months. with them only being one head if you look at the picture a lot of the places where he cut them had unique colors. let me know your thoughts...

 

[ArtemisGoldfish]

I can faintly see colors in some of the striations of the coral, however the corals are mostly dark orange-ish, even the one that I've had for about two months that was originally a rainbow style. As for the lighting, I'm not sure what I can do in terms of moving them without hampering photosynthesis.

I'm wondering if anyone with some rainbow acans under MH's can provide some support regarding this?

 

[PJtree23]

I'm having the same general issues...the acan frags don't have the detailed coloring of the descriptions...

Lighting: 2 x 250 HQI 20k Phoenix bulbs + 2 x 54W t5 HO Actinic + 2 x 54W t5 HO AquaPink

(All photos are iphone4 with all lights on and no flash)
FTS

The "Incredible Hulk"

Sweet tart something...

Orange something...

My SPS have awesome color though.

 

[rsav]

no shade. high light. that's what I do.

 

[aandfsoccr04]

I think it's just a case of a vendor taking pictures under all actinics and/or photoshopping the corals to give them that super intense look. A lot of places do that..

 

[george1532]

no shade. high light. that's what I do.

your tank doesn't have high light....

 

[LeLutinBanni]

as mentioned to be quite frank, no chance they're going to look like that because they've likely never looked like that. There are plenty of nice pieces on that site, but the colors are way off. As well if you notice, the pictures were taken as all of the corals were irritated and deflated. That commonly also brings out more vibrant colors.

From your pictures, looks like you indeed received healthy colors (maybe just not what you were expecting under the arguably false advertising that many vendors use). As suggested as a general rule, many of the aussie lps will have better luck retaining colors if lit with less light. It appears with the 3x 250w on that tank, they probably will be getting a bit more light than ideal.

+1