Acan with boring color

[timger]

Hi,

First, I would like to show you this good looking Acan, I got a while back



Look at those purple and green colors, I think it's so beautiful!

But look at it now



It's like, brown? Have no real colors, not really any purple or green left, just boring. The same story about the red to the right. In the start, it was bright red with blue around it. Now it's a boring red, with white/gray around it.

What can be the reason for that?

I've had some issues with high nitrate recently, but the corals lost its colors way before that.
My last measurements is Nitrate 10, Calcium 460, Alkalinity 11,7 and Mg 1275.

I'm not dosing anything, but I'm doing 10% water change every 1 or 2 weeks, and that's enough to keep it stable. I have used Red Sea Pro Salt so far, but have changed to the normal Red Sea, for lower values.

I have 2 Kessil a360WE over my tank, and my theory is, that it's something about the light, theres the reason for this?!
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if they had got to much light, they would be more white then brown?
Untill this week, my lightning schedule was:
11:30 they turn on
13:10 58% (from today, before 56%)
19:10 58%
22:00 turn off

Thats 6 hours peak time, at 58%. The lights are 28cm(11inch) over the water line. Is that to much or not enough?

Stats about my aquarium:
My tank is 90cm(around 35inch)x60cm(around 23inch) and 45cm(around 18inch) high.

I hope I've got everything here, else feel free to ask

I have a anchor coral too, with the same issue. Boring, brownish colors. Not the vibrant green and purple as when I get it.

Hope you guy's can help me, to get my good looking corals back

 

[Scorpius]

That's odd. My Acans love my Kessil A360we's. I run them no higher than 30% on the color spectrum though as I've found that white light does more harm than good.

 

[timger]

I think my color is 40%-50%.
What is your intensity like??

If corals gets to much light, they will bleach, right? Will they lose color and became brown with to low light?

When I started this tank up, the corals was growing. The anchor coral was splitting and new heads appeared. Now everything is stopped growing, and lost the color instead.

I Really hope someone can guide me in the right direction

 

[reefer333_]

I have the same issue. tagging along to see what might be the reason. Most of my rainbow acans are now just orange color.

 

[zchauvin]

I have the same issue. tagging along to see what might be the reason. Most of my rainbow acans are now just orange color.

Less light

 

[Scorpius]

I think my color is 40%-50%.
What is your intensity like??

If corals gets to much light, they will bleach, right? Will they lose color and became brown with to low light?

When I started this tank up, the corals was growing. The anchor coral was splitting and new heads appeared. Now everything is stopped growing, and lost the color instead.

I Really hope someone can guide me in the right direction

My color doesn't go over 30% and my intensity peaks at 40% currently. I have several acans that have kept their color and are growing happily.

The whiter the spectrum with the Kessil 360's the more my corals suffer. The bluer the better.

 

[organism]

The whiter the spectrum with the Kessil 360's the more my corals suffer. The bluer the better.

Agreed, the more blue light you can hit acans with the better the colors, and the more white light the greyer/browner the colors. I have yet to see a tank using only Kessils with really bright colors though, not a fan of those.

 

[timger]

Agreed, the more blue light you can hit acans with the better the colors, and the more white light the greyer/browner the colors. I have yet to see a tank using only Kessils with really bright colors though, not a fan of those.

I run my Kessils at no more then 40% color, that would be in the blue end of the spectrum.

Oh, really? That kind of sucks!

Maybe I should sell the Kessils, and buy another light?
I still think there is something wrong now, maybe with the light intensity, but if another light will make the colors pop better then Kessils, when everything is ok, I think it's worth make the change

 

[Scorpius]

I run my Kessils at no more then 40% color, that would be in the blue end of the spectrum.

Oh, really? That kind of sucks!

Maybe I should sell the Kessils, and buy another light?
I still think there is something wrong now, maybe with the light intensity, but if another light will make the colors pop better then Kessils, when everything is ok, I think it's worth make the change

Kessils grow and color coral just fine. Like any LED fixture its finding the right combo of intensity and color that works for your system. The nice thing about Kessil logic is no matter what color setting you choose you're not actually changing the spectrum of the light.

 

[organism]

I run my Kessils at no more then 40% color, that would be in the blue end of the spectrum.

Oh, really? That kind of sucks!

Maybe I should sell the Kessils, and buy another light?
I still think there is something wrong now, maybe with the light intensity, but if another light will make the colors pop better then Kessils, when everything is ok, I think it's worth make the change

I would try changing over to a heavier blue spectrum with less white. I don't know what the "color %" means on kessils but just make it visibly bluer or even as blue as it gets for a bit. I sold my Kessil and replaced with with a much better Halo light for the same price, but to each their own.

Kessils grow and color coral just fine. Like any LED fixture its finding the right combo of intensity and color that works for your system. The nice thing about Kessil logic is no matter what color setting you choose you're not actually changing the spectrum of the light.

Personally I've never seen really nice bright colors from only a Kessil and used one for a year or so with pretty blah results, growth was awful too. Actually it was the worst light I've ever used, most everyone I know who owned one sold theirs for the same reason, it's a hazy light :/ You were saying different regarding Kessils a couple of months ago, to quote you wanted to change because "Reason for the change is shadowing and I don't think my corals are at their full potential health/grow wise."....... Then why on earth recommend a light you already know is subpar?

If you have bright colors in your tank and use only a Kessil with no supplementation feel free to post up pictures and we can compare to the colors I get from a Halo, you might end up considering one of those over T5's.

 

[Scorpius]

Hey it looks like you forgot about this thread, just keep me posted when you post up your very colorful kessil coral pics so I can post mine and we can compare, thanks!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2569948

Miguel

No, I haven't forgot about this thread, but since you want to antagonize people with PM's I thought I'd respond even though it's pointless with people like you who want to have an internet fight.

I currently don't have any gel filters to show the true colors of my corals without the over saturation of blue that you get with coral pictures. I also would like to get the photos shot in RAW format so there's no discrepancies about photo manipulation. I know, excuses. :rolleye1:

Until then please don't PM me like this any further.

Thanks

 

[timger]

Ok, right now I have dialed my intensity down to like 20%, and color is 30. Is this the right way to go, lower intensity and colors? And is there something I can look for, to see if the corals is getting to low light?

 

[minus9]

Yes, sometimes they will stretch towards the light if it's low. Keep the color at 30% or ramp from 0% to 30% colour for two hours or so, hold at 30% during peak intensity, then ramp back down to 0% colour.
Also, are you feeding your acan?

 

[Chibils]

Is there anyone reading this thread who has had good luck with coloring acans under whiter light? They're my favorite coral but I don't like the super-blue lighting. Thanks.

 

[rffanat1c]

I have a colony of orange and blue acans. They came from the LFS that color then under the Chinese black boxes, they turned almost all brown. Now after just a week of being under radions running the radiant color graph (mostly blue), they've gone back to their amazing colors.

 

[Chibils]

Thanks @rffanat1c. I'm going to be running MH + T5, but it'll probably be a Reeflux 12K with actinic and pink supplementation rather than Radium/XM with blue supplementation. I'll see how it works and go blue from there if needed.

 

[suta4242]

My money is on the light.

Even with optimum lighting lordhowensis and similar acans are prone to colour changes, especially the rainbows. To give you an idea, one of the major exporters of these maintains them under a lot of actinic T5s. He insists you get the best colour under these conditions.

It's very easy to give these guys too much light, or change their colour when kept under the wrong spectrum. The worst results I've seen are under blue and white LEDs, where red typically transforms into an unappealing dull orange. Same with scolymia Australis. I know Kessils are a major improvement but I would keep them in pretty low light under these and see what happens in a months time. Maybe off centre and down low.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

:wave:

 

[timger]

My money is on the light.

Even with optimum lighting lordhowensis and similar acans are prone to colour changes, especially the rainbows. To give you an idea, one of the major exporters of these maintains them under a lot of actinic T5s. He insists you get the best colour under these conditions.

It's very easy to give these guys too much light, or change their colour when kept under the wrong spectrum. The worst results I've seen are under blue and white LEDs, where red typically transforms into an unappealing dull orange. Same with scolymia Australis. I know Kessils are a major improvement but I would keep them in pretty low light under these and see what happens in a months time. Maybe off centre and down low.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

:wave:

Thank you :fish1:

The guy i bought them from, had them under LED's, and I had them under LED's for month, without the colors was changing.

And then I was just remembering a thing.

When I moved all my corals, from my old tank to the new with Kessils, growth exploded, and things was looking really good. The first month-month and a half, I ran my system without a skimmer, cuz there was none in stock.
Then I put the skimmer on, and as I remember, that's when the corals started to loosing colors, and haven't grown ever since.
I do not feed them actively.
Could that be the reason? I have a rather large skimmer, for a system like mine. So can it skim to much out, so the corals have nothing to live by? And when I don't feed them, that's why colors disappeared and growth has stopped?

Last night, I fed them mysis, because that was what I had home.
I don't know if it was wishfull thinking, but like 30 minutes after I fed one of the Acans, there was the beautiful, green color several small places on it? :eek1:

 

[suta4242]

If you feed lordhowensis and related acans regularly they not only grow faster, but recover quickly if exposed to an adverse event IME. That said, not sure that I've seen substantial difference in colour after feeding.:reading: the lighting seems to be the main factor here and if collected offshore, nutrient levels. If collected from inner areas, they are exposed to much crappier water.

Main thing is moderate nutrient levels and, if collected from the southern GBR, temperatures @26c or under.


HTH
:wave:

 

[timger]

So I will keep my low intensity light for now, and see how it's going.
And then start feeding more regularly - do you guys have anything you can recommend for feeding corals?

I was pretty sure, that feeding could not help that much, and especially not that fast, but look at how this Acan look the day after I fed them Mysis. There is actually some green in the two heads down to the left?