Your Opinion on Acans!

[Danley]

After browsing the net for a bit, and procrastinating from doing my dreadful homework, I wanted everyones advice on acans I am doing an acan only nano tank in the future, and I would like to know everyones tips/advice on Acans. Their is so much controversy out their.
1) Low/Medium/High Flow?
2) Low/Medium/High Light?
3) White or Blue Light?
4) Best type of lighting? PC/T5/T12 (ancient)/MH/LED's for most intense colorationg
5) Your favorite type, upload a photo of your favorite acans.
6) What do you feed your acans, and how often?

I LOVE ACANS!:bounce3:

 

[RokleM]

1) Medium
2) Lower for aussie, medium/high for indo
3) Combo
4) Depends on the tank
5) I like a little bit of aussie and indo, lord and echinata. No specific one I love the best other than maybe some of the orange morphs.
6) When they were fresh frags, once or twice a week mysis. After that, zero direct feeding.

 

[Danley]

Well here's the thing, I am getting a 25 gallon nano tank with a 20 gallon sump in the future, I plan on using 18 inch LED's by marineland, do you think that will be optimum for coloration. How long should I have blue lights, and how long for white lights? 5 hours each maybe? I hear acans really color up with blue lighting. I also picked up my first 4 acan frags at MACNA from frag-a-holics. I forgot to ask for the names, and is their a special way to tell if it is indo or aussie? Please keep posting pics people, Id also like to know placement of your acans and type of lighting you use next to each picture, I'm really trying to get to know acans. I plan on doing some research on where they come from tonight, because I would like to do a specific habitat in my nano reef. Also, would it be really beneficial to feed my acans, every day, because thats what I'm doing currently. Im allowing a 2 day digest period after 3 constistant days of feeding, so its 3 days on 2 days off. Will this help coloration and growth a lot. I alternate between oyster eggs mixed with phytoplankton, and mysis with brine shrimp intermixed, and cherry coral LPS pellets. Does anyone else use pellets, and are they woarth the money? I know it's a ton of questions if you can maybe answer a few thats awesome, if you cant answer any with a legit answer dont sweat it, please keep posting pictures of your acans, maybe we could swap some frags in the future =D

 

[drainbamage101]

After browsing the net for a bit, and procrastinating from doing my dreadful homework, I wanted everyones advice on acans I am doing an acan only nano tank in the future, and I would like to know everyones tips/advice on Acans. Their is so much controversy out their.
1) Low/Medium/High Flow?
2) Low/Medium/High Light?
3) White or Blue Light?
4) Best type of lighting? PC/T5/T12 (ancient)/MH/LED's for most intense colorationg
5) Your favorite type, upload a photo of your favorite acans.
6) What do you feed your acans, and how often?

I LOVE ACANS!:bounce3:

1.) they can endure quite a variety, but best polyp extension/plumpness under low/moderate. Ensure little direct flow, but moderate amounts of general flow.
2.) what the other poster said, though I've found almost all enjoy a range of lighting. I get my best growth with high lighting, but best colors with a moderate to low lighting.
3.) Same as with any tank, a mixture. Depending what colors you're looking to pull, a mixture.
4.) I use T5's everywhere, so I'm partial to them. A friend ran a really nice LPS tank for awhile under just 1 t5 bulb. You also said you wanted to do LEDs, just be careful, as LPS's can burn under the intensity of a single LED beam. Not to say don't do LED's, just do research on how to best setup a LED system that will be of benefit to your LPS's.
5.) Don't have a favorite, but I'll post a few of my acans that I like.
6.) as often as possible if I'm looking for them to grow. Be they frags or full colonies, more food is better for growth.

pics

 

[Danley]

Those are some beautiful acans! Thank-you for posting some pictures, keep them coming! You said most LPS can actually burn under a single LED, I have an 18 inch Marineland LED fixture (here is the link http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...idProduct=AS32990&IdCategory=FILTFILDFX&tab=1) and I plan on using this tank, (http://www.bizrate.com/fish-supplies/oid1946126185.html) and leaving around 10 inches below the light before my rockwork, I planned on doing acans all the way to the top of my rockwork, would that be okay, or should I not stack my rock so high. It would be stacked 8 inches high, leaving a 10 inch gap as i said, is this too high, too low, or just right for acans? I wanted to do all acans with one tiny clam at the very top, what are your thoughts? Keep the pictures coming please, the highlighter acans interest me most!:bounce1:

 

[allsps40]

I love acans, cant believe I waited over 3 years to get one. I have a Aussie Lord Acan and a Orange Acan. I have them in my sps mixed reef. The tank was set up with keeping sps in mid so there is a lot of flow and light. I have a 250 watt DE Phoenix light and about 52 times turn over per hour in a 40 gallon tank. I had around 65 times turn over until a K2 died on me. I spot feed both every few days with a mixed home made reef/fish food. Both my acans love the conditions. The Aussie Lord grew from 1 head to 9 in about 6-8 months. I say high flow but not direct and mid to high light. Sorry pics suck.

 

[drainbamage101]

Those are some beautiful acans! Thank-you for posting some pictures, keep them coming! You said most LPS can actually burn under a single LED, I have an 18 inch Marineland LED fixture (here is the link http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...idProduct=AS32990&IdCategory=FILTFILDFX&tab=1) and I plan on using this tank, (http://www.bizrate.com/fish-supplies/oid1946126185.html) and leaving around 10 inches below the light before my rockwork, I planned on doing acans all the way to the top of my rockwork, would that be okay, or should I not stack my rock so high. It would be stacked 8 inches high, leaving a 10 inch gap as i said, is this too high, too low, or just right for acans? I wanted to do all acans with one tiny clam at the very top, what are your thoughts? Keep the pictures coming please, the highlighter acans interest me most!:bounce1:

I'm no expert on LED's, and I gladly am staying that way as my roomate is an expert, and the amount of info he's read through boggles my mind.
The few things i've picked up, is that to refer to LED's as one style of lighting is very innacurate, given the amount of variables that come into play. with T5's, you basically have-reflectors, wattage, and HO or not.
With LEDs, you have -Lens refractivity (don't know if that's the right term, but basically how focused the output is), LED amperage, wattage, and frequency.
I know it's just more info, but yea, it's complicated. With that said, I'm basically going to admit I don't have the answers for you on the setup. I'd rather not tell you it will or won't work as I'm not qualified to do so.
I will get some more pics of Acans going on though

Oh, and as an aside-I use a suntek teklight t5 on my 20" tall tank. I've moved almost all my acans in that tank either into the shade, or onto the sandbed, or both, to allow them to color up more. On the bottom of that same tank is a Crocea clam I've had for over a yerar who's grown pretty nice with that amount of light.

 

[Nebthet]

1) Medium flow. (MP10 would be great for this on the size of tank you are getting)
2) Low to Medium lighting. (I have a 6x39w t5 on my 36lx18dx21h tank, which gives medium light on the sand bed, where I keep my crocea clams too and my acans are very happy. The expand during the day and retract a little at night.

I see you will be using 1 watt leds so I think you will be okay with your lighting, you may just need to acclimate them to the light when you add them by using some screen filters in the area you are putting them in for a good week.

3) I would say 17000k to 20000k color spectrum (more on the blue size) to allow their colors to pop. If the fixture you are getting allows for the addition of red/violet lighting which would simulate a light like a fiji purple, that would let some of the red acan colors to pop more.

4) T5 or LED lighting would be the most cost effective for your dollar and would keep the tank cooler.

5) My fav acans are the lords.. of all the colors because you can actually put them side by side without worrying about them killing each other.. therefore you can stuff more in your tank. The acan enchinata are notorious for stinging and killing all other corals it comes into contact with, even other acans.

6) I feed my acans at the most once every two weeks directly. I have fed them mysis, or Ocean Nutritions small pellets. I feed the whole tank Coral Accel and Reef Roids once a week.

These are three of my acan lords.. I have three more coming in the mail this week of a different color variant.

Pics show when I first received them in July, and as of last week.

 

[Danley]

Those green and pruple acans are beautiful! Is their a way to distinguish acan lords, because I got 4 acans at a frag swapand i forgot to ask the gentleman the names. Also, if anyone is keeping Acans under LED's please tell me how far down you have them and what not, thank-you.

Keep the pictures coming please!

 

[RokleM]

Lords are typically "puffy" and inflate quite a bit more than echinata. Echinata still inflate a bit, but they remain pretty tight against the skeleton.

Lords:

Echinata:

 

[drainbamage101]

Eric's pics also show another way I've distinguished them (and it can be awfully important, echinata's can carry a very powerful sting)-the Lords have a much more distuingishable polyp, with the full ovalish shape very distinct from the adjacent polyp. Echinatas tend to be a bit more fused together, though it does vary between specimens quite a bit.

 

[Danley]

That's wonderful! I'll post pictures in a bit of my frags, I think I have 2 lords and 2 ech.'s but, I'm not positive. I would like to know so I know if I can place them tightly in my nano tank. From everyones posts it looks like they don't like much lighting, on my LED's, I have a moonlight feature that turns 3 very bright blue LED's on. Would this be a good amount of lighting to sustain and keep them happy. Maybe 7 hours of blue light and only 3 of white?

 

[Danley]

Keep posting pictures, I'm absolutely loving this!

 

[Danley]

Feeding Acan's pellet food.

Feeding Acan's pellet food.

One more bit of food for thought,
I like to have a varying diet for my acans, as it allows for a broad range of dietary needs. I feed mysis, Brine shrimp, oyster eggs mixed with phytoplankton, and I also am trying Fauna Marin Ultra LPS grow and Color. (http://shop.faunamarin.de/product_info.php?language=en&info=p296_Ultra-LPS-Grow---Color-250ml.html) Does anyone have any experience with this product, and is it a good product to use? Does anyone use a pellet where you can see a difference in coral coloration and growth?

-Keep those pictures coming, I love seeing your acans!

 

[Danley]

Keep those photos and answers coming, I really appreciate it! I'm learning so much, and I would love to continue learning!

 

[Danley]

bump..

 

[karp12]

 

[Danley]

Those are some beautiful lords! What kind of lighting are you using?

 

[kingfisher62]

I just bought a small frag to see how they do in my tanks so I am going to tag along here!

 

[cbatkinson]

These are great pics...I can't seem to get mine to puff up..unless its at night when i feed. What am I missing? I keep mine under two 250W MH's.