Acro coloration/growth shape and light intensity.

[kevensquint]

I am wondering if any of you have read or by your own personal experience, know by an Acro's coloration or growth pattern what kind of light intensity it likes. I am about to start to stock an upgraded reef and I have bigtime lighting, I don't want to get lower light corals/acro's from deeper water. But the only thing that I remember reading on this, was that bushier thicker frags are more likely from near the surface hence strong light/current and ones that are more brown are from deeper water. So whats the deal?

 

[PUGroyale]

IMO the deal is this...

Don't overcomplicate things. We really have no way of knowing whether a given coral was taken from just below the surface or 20 meters deep. Even if we did... any given variety may adapt and flourish at different depths. In our tanks, we only have a foot or two to play with... not much at all really :lol:

If it concerns you, you might try what I do: I mount all my frags on small pieces of LR and then mount those to my reef structure. This way if I determine a coral might need more or less light I can move it without really distressing it at all. Good luck

 

[kevensquint]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7742785#post7742785 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PUGroyale
IMO the deal is this...

Don't overcomplicate things. We really have no way of knowing whether a given coral was taken from just below the surface or 20 meters deep. Even if we did... any given variety may adapt and flourish at different depths. In our tanks, we only have a foot or two to play with... not much at all really :lol:

That is a good point, although I could also say that from top to bottom the intensity is prolly all about the same, however from one side to the other it is'nt, I use mainly 20k's on one side and mainly 10k's on the other, making one side more intense. Too much for some corals IME.

 

[PUGroyale]

Yeah if yer running different temp bulbs side to side that might be the case. It certainly gives you plenty of different intensity to experiment with. Still I think observation is really the only way to tell how a coral is responding to it's placement.