Let's see your Acropora carduus that jkreefer handed out

[Steve Ruddy]

I would like to compare notes and see color differences of the Acropora carduus that jkreefer passed out last year. It was the one he got from Eddie and here is a picture of the coral as seen when collected, scroll down the page to the corals

http://eddie-coral-adventures.blogs...est-friend.html

I have not had great success with deep water corals as most of my tanks are brightly illuminated. I have been getting better lately and I really like this coral for it's smooth shape and white branches. It is currently under 150w 20+K Ushio and not getting much PAR. You can't tell from the photo but some of the tips are getting a little green pigment. I'm not sure if this specimen will develop the purple tips like the photo on Eddies site. I'm going to frag it and put it under fluorescent tubes to see what happens. I have a green deep water Acropora sp. that is getting purple tips under actinic and actinic/white fluorescent lights so maybe this one will as well.

Anyone interested in coral coloration may want to follow this series of articles.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/1/aafeature1

 

[Reef Bass]

Nice pic but I never would have guessed it was carduus.

First linky no worky. I suspect the '...' in the url is causing issues.

I'll take a pic of my carduus and post it tomorrow. Let's just say it looks very different from yours.

 

[Steve Ruddy]

First linky no worky. I suspect the '...' in the url is causing issues.

admin won't let me fix the link so try this one

scroll down to see photo

or here it is

 

[Reef Bass]

That link worked better. Yes, mine looks more like that. I'll try to get a picture today.

 

[Reef Bass]

Is that the same Eddie who used to run Tropical Paradise in San Leandro five or so years ago?

 

[coralfarmer]

Yep

 

[Reef Bass]

Cool. Thanks. I wondered what he has been up to, besides growing facial hair. He was helpful to me in my early transitioning to reef days.

 

[Reef Bass]

Here's mine:

 

[Steve Ruddy]

Mine is starting to develop the green tips like yours but you have to look down on it to notice the color. Blue light tends to promote green pigments but I don't have it under any supplemental actinic bulbs like you. I'm hoping to get it to develop purple as seen in the collectors photo. I looked at your full tank photo to see were it is positioned. It looks like it is about a foot from your VorTech pump no? I think that's why it's forming such a tight colony. Nice growth. Mine was in suspended animation for awhile but it's getting happy now.

 

[Reef Bass]

Very astute examining my fts for where it is at. I confess when I positioned it I was thinking more "there's a spot where sps could go" than "deep water coral shouldn't be so close to light and flow".

Yes, it is close to my vortech. The current dynamics there are such that it is more bathed in water being drawn into the vortech than blasted with vortech output. Either way, no doubt the good flow contributes to its density.

Maybe one meeting you could give a brief summary of the impact of light frequencies on coral pigments? Understanding that would be a good way to help facilitate / control the way corals color up / maintain color.