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View Full Version : Pocillapora lighting


ReefWreak
07/16/2007, 08:01 AM
Yes, it's another one of those "lighting for my coral" threads.

Anyway, I've got a Pocillapora Damicornis that was brown/green when given to me 8 months ago. It was mostly brown like everything else in the guy's tank that I got it from, because he had a big alk swing. Most of the corals that I got from him cheap cause they were browned out are now beautiful and colorful in my tank.

Anyway, I've got mine directly under a 250w 14k halide in a spider reflector, about half way up the rockwork in my 120g tank (so approx 12" or less from the light). It has progressively gotten whiter and whiter on it's top and side polyps, however the polyps underneath are still brown/green, and the skeleton everywhere is starting to have a pink hue. I'm wondering if it's just constantly white because it doesn't need much zooxanthelle because it's under such bright of light.

The reason I think it's white from light is that it's spawned many times and I've got pocillapora colonies popping up all over my tank, on my powerheads, and in my sump, growing from my 6500k cheato light. A lot of the small colonies growing in the shade are brown bodied, green polyped, and pink tipped.

So does that mean that the main colony is in too bright of light? I mean as far as lighting goes, I'm running a pretty inefficient setup (spider reflector, 14k bulb).

So, any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

GreyHawk1968
07/16/2007, 01:48 PM
Scary, you have a VERY similar setup to mine. I have a Poc also . It is just under a 10K MH light and it has remained brown with slightly pink tips. Hope someone answers this question so I can find out if I'm keeping it in the wrong spot.

ReefWreak
07/16/2007, 01:58 PM
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that mine is just baking in the light, even though I'm running 14k now, when I used to be running 10k XM. I liked the 10k more.

It is funny how similar our tanks are. Has your pocillapora put out any baby colonies though? I've got them all over my damn tank.

mbunaman
07/16/2007, 02:01 PM
Pocs in nature are usually found in shallow waters and they can tolerate most lighting from high to low but from my experience they like brighter light. Pocs prefer high flow. So it may be a flow issue not a lighting issue.

ReefWreak
07/16/2007, 02:04 PM
I've got my seios blowing over the tops of it blowing the polyps around almost constantly, not too strong, not too weak, but enough to get a good amount of flow around. My first thought was not enough flow, however how much could it tolerate? I don't want to aim it right at the colony....