Last candy cane colony I had, I was forced to split the colony in half and use the two halves to figure out where placement would be best for him in my tank, this took me a couple months and the poor fella was looking so tattered by the time I actually found "his spot" but once he was in the right lighting and flow, he grew very quick and looked awesome. Was in a 55g, under 4 x 54w T5's, located about halfway down the tank, not shaded, but not full blasted with light either. Flow is what I had the hardest time with, if it wasn't just right, he did horrible.