elegance coral - low light or high light

[redFishblue]

Is an elegance a high light or low light coral?
It seems like one person swears that high light will kill it while someone else says
they need that high lighting.
If anyone has been able to keep them long term, what lighting have you kept them under?

 

[Crimthann]

Both . From what I have read is that it depends on where it's collected. They use to be collected from shallow reefs and due to massive harvesting and high popularity they're now collected from wherever. Which tends to be lower light areas. I had to move mine around a few times until i found a spot that it likes. They like being in the sand so try shading it for a couple of days and if it's not happy move it. Mine lets me know right away when it's not happy. Hope this helps ya out!

 

[lvreefer]

These corals have been increasingly hard to maintain. Some believe it is a light issue, others think it might be a D.O.C. issue. It seems hit or miss on these guys. I tend to let them sit at the LFS for at least a week before picking them up. It seems that with in a couple of days, at my LFS, they either start to pull away from the skeleton or open up and show no signs of stress.

 

[Redbellyjx]

i just picked one up tonight. it was at th eLFS for two weeks. showed no signs of pulling away

 

[csloo]

The brighter light, the more it's will expand...

 

[csloo]

Re: elegance coral - low light or high light

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8977324#post8977324 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redFishblue
Is an elegance a high light or low light coral?
It seems like one person swears that high light will kill it while someone else says
they need that high lighting.
If anyone has been able to keep them long term, what lighting have you kept them under?

I being keep it more than 2 years.

Before my lighting upgrade to twin 150 watt MH, i'm been using with 3sets PL 24watts lighting.

From there, i can see the differences on the elegance itself expanding on the lighting issues. But the most important is the water conditions. Once the elegance is stable, no matter how many lights you have, it'll still open happily.

 

[goulashriot]

i just watched a very nice one dissolve in my local lfs (literally), considered buying it when i first saw it and now im very glad i didnt drop the 90 into it that they wanted for it.

very much hit or miss. i have heard several theories as to why this is, anything from global warming to over-harvesting and so on.

 

[redFishblue]

Re: Re: elegance coral - low light or high light

Re: Re: elegance coral - low light or high light

Thanks everyone, pretty interesting info, especially about expanding more with brighter lighting.
I didn't realize the pulling away from the skeleton was an easy clue to check the health of
the elegance. The only thing that I had read before was to make sure the tentacles are not shriveled up and the mouth is not bleaching.

Does anyone have a pic of the mouth of a healthy elegance?
There's an elegance I have been watching at the LFS for the past few weeks and it looks healthy except the mouth seems not very tight, although not exactly gaping. But I don't kow what a healthy mouth looks like to compare.

 

[elegance coral]

Healthy mouths should be closed. They should look like small bumps in a row down the center of the oral disk with small slits at the top.
As for lighting you should start out as far away from the light as you can get them. Slowly move them closer. If you see brown stuff being expelled from the mouths back them away from the light for several more weeks then try moving them closer again. I kept one for about 10 years about 12 inches from a 250W 5500K MH. It took some time to get him adjusted to this light though.