chuckdallas
Tank Tinkerer
I bought this really nice piece of orangish red Pavona about a week or two ago.
I started it at the bottom of my 120 gallon tank so it could acclimate. I have 22 inches from the top of the water to the sandbed in my 120 gallon DT. I have 1 month old 3 X ATI Aquablue Specials, 2 X Geismann Actinic Pluses and 1 X ATI Blue Plus bulbs HO T5 bulbs sitting 2 inches over the water. After 2-3 days of sitting at/near the sand, I moved it up to about 12 inches below the water. Thinking it was a nice SPS and needing tons of light, I moved it up to the top shelf, where the brown/blue acropora sits and the Maxima Clam. I have a Milwaukee Luxmeter, which tells me I'm getting 1200-1300 PAR right below the fixtures and I'm getting 1100 PAR at the base of the clam. The coral arrived VERY bumby. After 2-3 days of using all 6 bulbs for 6 hours and 1 to 2 hours of all blue on each side of the 6 hour period, my wife said the upper most column was not bumpy and washed out. We have some Meteor Shower Chalice and when I put the frag in the middle of the tank, it went smooth. Since moving it up near the clam, it has responded well, and is growing nicely. It's very bumpy and raised up now. Using this logic, I thought maybe I had used too much light too fast, so I moved it back down to the middle of the tank. According to a 3 year old thread here, 50% of the folks here say it needs as much light as the acropora and the other 50% says it needs to be in a dark spot like a cave. I can't find the right spot, and now I'm starting to get the white spots, as you see in the picture.
Where do I need to put this? If I move it up about 4-8 inches below the T5 fixture, how do I tell that it's too much light? Woudl that be because it loses color or goes flat?
I'm pretty sure the white spots are where it's starting to die, as I've been told by my fellow scuba divers and that it won't grow back there, but if that is true, is it because it needs MORE light or less?
I did another Google search and some other website like RC came up. The guy said he spot fed DT and got to see the polyps for about 5 minutes each night. Since I'm not a member of that website, I couldn't ask him what DT was. To me, it stands for Display Tank.
Please help.
I started it at the bottom of my 120 gallon tank so it could acclimate. I have 22 inches from the top of the water to the sandbed in my 120 gallon DT. I have 1 month old 3 X ATI Aquablue Specials, 2 X Geismann Actinic Pluses and 1 X ATI Blue Plus bulbs HO T5 bulbs sitting 2 inches over the water. After 2-3 days of sitting at/near the sand, I moved it up to about 12 inches below the water. Thinking it was a nice SPS and needing tons of light, I moved it up to the top shelf, where the brown/blue acropora sits and the Maxima Clam. I have a Milwaukee Luxmeter, which tells me I'm getting 1200-1300 PAR right below the fixtures and I'm getting 1100 PAR at the base of the clam. The coral arrived VERY bumby. After 2-3 days of using all 6 bulbs for 6 hours and 1 to 2 hours of all blue on each side of the 6 hour period, my wife said the upper most column was not bumpy and washed out. We have some Meteor Shower Chalice and when I put the frag in the middle of the tank, it went smooth. Since moving it up near the clam, it has responded well, and is growing nicely. It's very bumpy and raised up now. Using this logic, I thought maybe I had used too much light too fast, so I moved it back down to the middle of the tank. According to a 3 year old thread here, 50% of the folks here say it needs as much light as the acropora and the other 50% says it needs to be in a dark spot like a cave. I can't find the right spot, and now I'm starting to get the white spots, as you see in the picture.
Where do I need to put this? If I move it up about 4-8 inches below the T5 fixture, how do I tell that it's too much light? Woudl that be because it loses color or goes flat?
I'm pretty sure the white spots are where it's starting to die, as I've been told by my fellow scuba divers and that it won't grow back there, but if that is true, is it because it needs MORE light or less?
I did another Google search and some other website like RC came up. The guy said he spot fed DT and got to see the polyps for about 5 minutes each night. Since I'm not a member of that website, I couldn't ask him what DT was. To me, it stands for Display Tank.
Please help.
