new Elegance Coral - condition and photoperiod?

[grahamsn]

I purchased this Elegance yesterday afternoon. I positioned it directly on the bottom, about 24" down. Lights are just slightly above the water line (4 X 54W - 1 Giesemann Aquablue Plus, 1 Giesemann Aqua Pink, 1 ATI Blue plus, 1 ATI actinic). Within 2 hours of placing it, the coral was opening well. At the time, only the ATI Blue Plus and Actinic bulbs were on.
The below image is after about 22 hours in the tank, and after 3.5 hours under all 4 bulbs. Can anyone give an opinion on the coral's appearance at this time? After doing some additional reading today about how light-sensitive some specimens can be, I'm wondering if I should consider shortening the photoperiod for all 4 bulbs. At present, I have the ATI Blue Plus and Actinic on for 07:00-19:00, and all four bulbs running 10:00-15:00.

 

[Stolireef]

Tagging along.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[usmc121581]

Cant tell you for sure the health of it, except the tentacles look stubby(short). What I mean about that is the pink tips I have seen have long tentacles. But that could be from the coral adjusting to light.

Photoperiod you dont want to mess with it, as the coral will need to readjust to the amount of light its getting which inturn can stress him out. My 6 year old elagance is sitting under 3-250w SE MH with roughly 2200gal/hr CL system. I have no actinics the times of the bulbs are as follows:

1-250w is on from 10:30am-7pm
other 2 are on from 12pm-6:30pm I am about to change that to 11am-6:30pm.

 

[Bolivian Ram]

It seems to be doing OK. But the tentacles are retracted. A happy elegance would have full long tentacles. It's still adjusting I think.

 

[Travis590]

Great looking elegance you have there. I agree with the previous posters- looks to be pretty healthy but keep an eye on the tentacle extension.

 

[grahamsn]

Thank-you for the suggestions everyone. After doing more reading, I've elected to reduce the photoperiod, and move the coral into the small alcove you see in the upper right of the picture. In this position, the coral still receives direct light from about 60% of the length of all 4 bulbs. I was careful to check the coral when it opened this morning, to ensure that the polyp/tentacles were not touching the rock. I've also adjusted the flow in this area, as the existing flow was visibly shifting the polyp. The photoperiod on the 4-bulb combination has been temporarily been reduced to 12:00-14:00. I will gradually bring this up over the coming weeks/months. One of the benefits to having no SPS in the tank at this time, is that I have more flexibility on the use of the lights.
USMC; thanks for your ideas on lighting. I'm sure your elegance looks fantastic under the MHs. However, my fear is that if I lucked into a deeper water specimen, even my comparatively low power T5HOs running at full tilt all day could cause issues. My reading has led me to believe that with the enormous variation in collection depths, the safest course of action is to assume that this coral came from deeper water, and to adjust the lighting accordingly. I've not yet witnessed any immediate puffing up occurring when the lights come on, as I've conveniently not been in the room at those times. However, this morning I checked the tank 20 minutes after the Blue plus and actinic bulbs came on, and the coral looked exactly like the earlier picture. Unfortunately, with my work schedule, I won't be able to view the coral at the time that the additional two bulbs (whites) come online until several days from now. Would it be prudent to kill those bulbs altogether until that time?

 

[NeilFox]

I think the Elegance looks good. The tentacles don't look bad depending on where he comes from. There are alot of them here in Vietnam growing on the reefs. I have observed a few and quite a few dont have terribly long tentacles. I thing geography has a bit to do with it. You can actually see alot snorkling off the shore in Nha Trang in about 10 to 15' of water. They get plenty of light. Maybe thats why the shorter tentacles? Where I saw them there is also a ripping current from time to time.

I've seen a few pics of USMC's Elegance (very nice coral). He seem's quite happy with alot of flow. I had one before for about 8 years. I eventually gave him to a freind when I had to break my tank down. He kept him under 400w MH! It was just fine. I am just getting back into the hobby after a few years. I don't recall any of the isuues that people seem to be having with them nowadays. Maybe collected from a different place? They need alot of strontium but other than that I don't recall them being terribly demanding or really all that fussy about placement. Perhaps the advances made in lighting have alot to do with it. Anything over 10K in a MH was pretty much unheard of.

Looks like he will be fine and you are taking good care of him.

 

[usmc121581]

^ thanks, I wish I was able to just go out into the ocean and do a little snorkeling. One thing I missed when I was stationed in Japan.

 

[loki69]

Nice coral

 

[Spirofucci]

Purdy specimen! Looks healthy to me. I have had one for well over a year and it has always stubby tentacles. It is one of my favorite corals.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Looks amazing!

 

[fbodykiller]

I hear the aussie elegance are the easier to keep. Any truth to to this?

 

[grcforce327]

Just doesn't look happy to me,but you did say you just got it,so it will need time to adjust. I started mine off to the side of the tank and slightly shaded.After a few weeks,I brought it out under direct light. You may be able to tell by the pic that it gets good flow.