ID please: acro aculeus? Nana? Ideas?

[Sk8r]

This is my fastest-growing acro. It started out a third this size 6 mos. ago, and is sort of a blue, but while it grows like crazy, it doesn't color as nicely as, say, the valida, which is glow-in-the-dark purple. I'm quite fond of this one, for its enthusiasm if not its color.

Note: that's not an aiptasia: that's a peppermint shrimp feeding program. And ignore the bubble algae and the glass spots: sigh: I'm on a deadline.

ID?

Ideas on placement?

It's in a 52 bow with one 250 mh 10000k Ushio with 2 actinics.

 

[Sk8r]

Can anyone even say definitively it isn't nana?

 

[BLKTANG]

My guess would b, A.Nana.

 

[Sk8r]

Thanks, Expedition. I wish I could make up my mind. I know that nana has a rep for growing like Johnson Grass, and this certainly does that! It was sold to me as aculeus---not that I blame the seller, when 50+ people can view it and not have a sure ID...the old acro what-is-it!

 

[NuclearReefs]

Nana usually has purple tips on it..
How old are your halides?
Looks kinda like Nana

 

[Sk8r]

My halide is 6 mos old. It's a 250 10000k Ushio with 2 actinics for backup, and I've never been quite happy with its output. My red-striped gobies are brown and my frogspawn thrives 8 inches from the light, my bali slimer at the same level is deep grass-green with yellow tips, but my coral frags want to be about 20" down or they brown. It's a frustratingly upside-down tank, and while I have a valida [20 inches down] that's screaming purple top to bottom, other corals aren't as bright as I'd like. I know that aculeus has a 'gray' variety in the wild, so I've never been sure, but I'm leaning increasingly to think this is nana. The tips are brown, but the growth ends are kind of baby blue.

 

[NuclearReefs]

what kinda ballast are you using to drive your bulbs? Id switch to a XM 10k Myself.. I always thought ushios were a little yellow for a 10K

 

[Sk8r]

Thanks for the advice. I don't know my ballast, unfortunately, and I'd have to unbuild the cabinet to get a look, but I can ask my lfs. I've heard that about the Ushio's, and think I may change when I change bulbs. The yellow cast is pretty sickening if I flip the actinics off...looks like the whole tank is jaundiced, and that can't be the best there is.