acan tricks?

R

reefer1970

New member
I'm new to acans. I have 2 large frags 2 months old that are showing color but shriveled up. I see pics of them all plumped up and wondering, whats the trick? They are currently on the sand bed and thought Id ask here before I moved them. I have A LOT of light- 3 Kessil 360s and (4) 24" T5's. (Ramped by Apex) maybe too much light. 125g mixed reef, Parameters within range
 
A blanket response of "Too much light" is useless.

We don't know how high you have the Kessils or T5s over the tank or what you have them set at so there's no way to judge how much light you have.

I have Acans growing in very high light and they're fine.

Have you tried feeding the Acans ?

If you haven't I'd suggest it. They can survive without supplemental food for a while but they come from turbid water that's full of food. I'd try mysis or even pellets. If they haven't been fed they may not show a feeding response right away.
 
I just popped the PAR meter in a tank with Acans and Kessils/T5s. They're thriving and the PAR is 475.

I feed them mysis twice a week after I've fattened up all the fish so they don't steal it before the Acans can get it inside them.
 
Yep, saying too much light is about as useless as someone saying they "popped the PAR meter" and PAR is 475, to 99% of the reef owners that DON'T HAVE A PAR METER :hammer:
 
Try dimming the lights for a day and see if they reach for the light. Also like above poster mentioned try feeding, in the dimmer light after adding some liquid food. Good luck, Acans are fairly easy to grow out if fed properly.
 
Dkuhlmann said:
Yep, saying too much light is about as useless as someone saying they "popped the PAR meter" and PAR is 475, to 99% of the reef owners that DON'T HAVE A PAR METER :hammer:
Click to expand...

No it means there's an actual basis for my statement. Not just conjecture.
 
My (3) 360's are 10" above the water on a 24" deep tank (as far up as I can get them) They are on from 11am to 12pm and intensity ramps from 14 to 40 and color from 0 to 50 at 4pm and ramps back down till midnight. I just recently added my old T5's (2 24" bulbs on one side and same on other) after hearing all the talk about hybid lighting. They are on from 4-8 pm as the LED's start ramping down. Not sure if they are necessary. I did lower the Acans under some shade and the rainbow seems to be responding. As far as feeding, they will take large meaty food????? This hobby blows my mind every day
 
I feed mine PE Mysis and Coral Frenzy with a squirt feeder (small turkey baster made for feeding coral). You may have to open the tip a bit. YouTube will show you what they look like when eating.
 
reefer1970 said:
As far as feeding, they will take large meaty food????? This hobby blows my mind every day
Click to expand...

They will if they have the strength to open up and feed. If they haven't been fed since they were collected or fragged then feeding something they can filter will hopefully keep them alive until they can take larger food.

In good health they open and extend to feed in the dark. You might want to explore with a flashlight an hour or two after your lights have gone off.

In their natural environment the water would be saturated with food as the tides move in and out.
 
reefer1970 said:
My (3) 360's are 10" above the water on a 24" deep tank (as far up as I can get them) They are on from 11am to 12pm and intensity ramps from 14 to 40 and color from 0 to 50 at 4pm and ramps back down till midnight.
Click to expand...

Even with ramping a 13 hour light cycle is way too much and you're hitting them with a lot of whiter light, I'm surprised you don't have hair algae eating everything. Also it's not about light intensity as much as spectrum. I blast Acans with about 12 hours of only blue LED light and they look incredible, but anything over 4 hours of 30% whites a day and they start looking awful. More than one white T5 bulb will burn or fade them too.

If you cut your whites to 0% for a week or two then slowly turn them up they'll probably look a lot better if it isn't a water quality issue.
 
organism said:
Even with ramping a 13 hour light cycle is way too much and you're hitting them with a lot of whiter light, I'm surprised you don't have hair algae eating everything. Also it's not about light intensity as much as spectrum. I blast Acans with about 12 hours of only blue LED light and they look incredible, but anything over 4 hours of 30% whites a day and they start looking awful. More than one white T5 bulb will burn or fade them too.

If you cut your whites to 0% for a week or two then slowly turn them up they'll probably look a lot better if it isn't a water quality issue.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with this. I just got new lights for my tank, I was running the Chinese Black Box and just got a Ocean Revive Arctic T247. The settings I decided to do were Blues on at 5am at 60% off at 7pm. The whites I set to 40% on at 7am and off at 5pm. The medications I take make me very sleepy around noon or so and I take a nap at that time. Well I looked at my tank at 1pm and all was well. I slept until almost 4pm and my Acans were all dead looking no extension at all. They still had their florescence but were basically all skeleton. This was only my Acans and Elegance were affected this badly, my blastos were fine and so were my micromusas.

I then turned off my whites and reset them to come on at 10am and off at 3pm this seemed to work better. I may change that and lower the whites to 25-30% just not sure yet but will for sure have whites on 10-3.

So yes too much light will affect them and since I don't have a PAR meter I can't say anything about what the intensity is. These new lights are deceiving in how bright they actually are so if you have similar be careful with how long or at higher percentages. I will monitor them closely today and see how it goes. Most of my Acans have for the most part recovered but a few still are looking pretty bad. :( :sad1:
 
I agree with everyones statements on acans liking bluer light and can say that white light is their enemy.
 
I've been struggling with Acans for a while myself. Got some great advice from my LFS and that is 'light and flow'. Well, I had light covered, so I knew that wasn't the problem and tried placing them under areas of much higher flow.. low and behold, they started puffing up the next day.
 
sixpackgarage said:
I've been struggling with Acans for a while myself. Got some great advice from my LFS and that is 'light and flow'. Well, I had light covered, so I knew that wasn't the problem and tried placing them under areas of much higher flow.. low and behold, they started puffing up the next day.
Click to expand...

I only have one Acan lord colony so take it for what it is worth. It stays puffed up and it's feeders are out almost all the time.

It is currently on the sandbed of a 90 with what I would guess is the high end of low light and a good bit of flow that causes it to wiggle. It is also spot fed 1-2 times a week with meaty food plus whatever it catches(my regular feedings are "messy", I do not rinse my frozen and I dump in enough for it to circulate around the whole tank). It responds well to the flow and loves feeding time. I would like to see what it would look like with higher light but it is happy where it is at.
 
well acan just tricky isnt it. I got mine 4 big colonies, happy healthy under a maxspect razor - but then suddenly one of them not happy and melt. all parameter in check..
 
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