Candy Cane coral OK?

[Spar]

My Candy Cane coral has been looking like it has had better days and just wanting to get some opinion here. I have other LPS that is doing similar, but this is the best example.

See the picture below. It looks like it is rescinding and in tentacles stick out a lot during the day. In the past it usually just swelled up to be bigger and I wouldn't see the tentacles until near dark.

Could this be a sign of too much light? I did fairly recently switch from LED's to MH's which upper my PAR by a ton (at least 3-4x). I have backed off the MH's to 6 hours just in case (was at 7 hours) but wanted to get opinions concurrently. Something other than light even?

 

[Jokerplayhouse]

they look fine to me. if anything they will adjust to the light in time. they dont look like they are bleeching out or anything. if anything i would worry about them touching the rocks. this can make them close up and eventualy make them rot where they are touchint the rocks

 

[rockslide123]

I would thin kits the new lights making them look like that. Don't worry about trumpets touching rocks. Mine have filled the space they live in between rocks and they are still splitting and growing like mad.

 

[cloak]

Other than the color being a little washed out, they look ok to me. If you did gain that much par though, perhaps you should move them to a different location for awhile. (lower lighting)

 

[Spar]

Well, didn't matter where I put the coral, it ended up continuing to deteriorate and then die

Other coral seem to be ok except for a whitening Acan. Same with that one, just not sure where I can put it to keep it happy, keep trying different spots every few weeks.

I'm just not sure what the core issue here is. I only have 4 250W MH bulbs over the 450g tank and only running the lights 6 hours per day (300-1000 PAR bottom-to-top). T5 supplement lighting, but very little (4x39W purple/blue ATI's). Given lighting is the main thing I have have been playing around with over the coral deteriorating period, I just figure that is most of the blame.

Thoughts?

 

[Michigan Mike]

300 PAR is too much for these, they should be shaded or place at the very bottom and sides of the tank.
Try 4-5 hours of halides. I see you have alot of SPS in the system as well? It may be too much light and not enough nutrients or something.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Nice candy cane

 

[cbatkinson]

is there a trick, aside from the intensity of the light, to getting them to "puff up"?

 

[marvelousone]

They are looking for food. i feed each one of mine small pieces of krill.

 

[Votts]

Yeah they will puff up if you target feed some mysis to them.. I try to target feed alm my corals 1 time a week and it has worked great for me.. as for the lighting that's not the problem cause I have a 30 head colony up top and I switched from pc's to ai sols and the led are at 60% which is a massive jump and they just puffed up even more.. what are you test params?

 

[Quaday]

Mine definitely swell up after they are fed some mysis. Just gently place one against those tentacles and they suck it up.