lighting for my new elegance

[dadonoflaw]

right now i have my elegance under 3x 150 watt mh's and 4x 96 watt pc's in a standard 180 on top of a 4-6" sand bed. is that enough light for this animal? if its not what can i do? i will be upgrading my lights to 2 400 watt mh's and 3x 160 watt vho's. will i need to shade him then or will he still be ok under that on the sand bed?

 

[elegance coral]

The key is to keep a close eye on him for the first few days. If he begins to discharge his algae move him to a more shaded area. At first sign of him fading move him up just alittle or to a more brightly lit area of the tank. They can bleach very quickly. No one knows if this light is good for him or not, because we don't know how strong the light was where he was collected. for his long term health I believe it is best to slowly, very slowly, get them under the brightest light you have. This takes several months if not a year or more. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[dadonoflaw]

but if he needs more light should i move him up in the tank? i heard the flesh would be scraped on the rocks

 

[elegance coral]

This is one of my corals that are recovering from "the sickness". All of them are on the rocks. The danger to placing them on the rocks is the soft tissue around the top edge of the skeleton. If you can find a hole in the rocks you can stick the skeleton in and this delicate edge doesn't touch the rocks you will be fine. There is a risk factor but if your coral starts to bleach, leaving it where it is will be a death sentence.
There has been several threads on this topic lately in the lps forum. Reading through some of them may be helpfull. If I could be of any more help just let me know. Good luck.