Opinion needed Acro Speciosa

[HurricaneSystem]

Hello SPS Pro's,

I have this Acro Speciosa under LED's and as you can tell, it lost it's color.

Speciosa is sea foam green with yellow polyps as you know.

Question is, how would you rate this? Just lost its color or? I now have it under 400W, 20k Metal Halides for a couple of days.

Here is a pic.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nf3jastjbb12sby/2013-10-20%2013.59.24.jpg

[DarkStalker]

Lost it's colors, also the green algaes looks like the kind of algae you get when going through cicling. My guess is the tank isn't stable enough, the coral looks very stressed

[HurricaneSystem]

Not going through a cycle of any kind. Thanks for the input, any experienced SPS keepers with input?

[ReefRockerLive]

How long did you have this acro in the tank?
Where is it currently placed?
How did you acclimate the acro to your light?

IMO, lots of questions need to be asked in order to be given a better answer.

FWIW, an acro like that will need lots of flow to prevent any build-up inside the colony.

[DarkStalker]

How long is This acro in your tank?

[HurricaneSystem]

It has been in my tank for about 4 weeks. I bought it from Liveaquaria that has all of them under 20k 400w halides.

This particular coral has been in my tank under a Mitras 6200 LED. I just took the Mitras off and went back to Metal Halides.

It is in the middle of my 60 gallon cube.

Flow is good, but it isn't directly on the acro. I could move my MP10 down and spray right on top of it really.

[DarkStalker]

Like I said the coral is really stressed, could be the leds that bleached it, but looks like it's not only lights the problem, have you ever saw any pe on it?

It's not a good idea to put direct flow on it, Needs good flow not direct flow

[HurricaneSystem]

No, never saw anything on it. I didn't have much luck out of LED's. Corals sustained under them, but never amounted to much. I am sure they will do better under the Halides.

[reefinder]

It's light shock and possibly other issues like water chemistry to placement. Most likely the transfere from halides to LEDs back to halidesis stressing it out a bit. I would leave it alone and give it stable water parameters, it will come around no need to worry.

[HurricaneSystem]

Thanks everyone for your help. My water parameters are pretty much perfect and I do water changes weekly, always have. I will keep you updated on it. I am running the halides about 10 hours a day right now. That might be a bit much and I might need to adjust that time a little.

I had to drive 2.5 hours away to get a MH bulb the other day. Both of the ones that have been shipped to me have come broken. BRS has been good about replacing, but they couldn't overnight me one Friday as they were moving their warehouse.

This bulb is a 20k, SPS Brand. It looks more like a 12k than a 20k for sure.

I did PAR readings from my Apogee 200 a minute ago. It is reading about 2700 3 inches from the fixture. About 500 right under the water surface. About 250 where the Speciosa is and 200-225 on the sand bed. The sand bed being 24 inches deep from the water surface and about 36 inches from the fixture itself.

So par is fine I think?

[sahin]

The PAR is just about right. Slightly lower will bring out the green a bit (I prefer the look). But it will be fine where it is. Just ensure that you have good flow. That is a very bushy coral and needs lots of flow to keep the inner parts healthy.

Not sure if its the photo effect, but the branch on the far left looks very pale...if it continues to get pale, I would be tempted to move it down slightly so the PAR is around 200.

I have the same PAR meter so I can sort of relate to light levels in terms of numbers rather than saying low/med/high etc.

[trueblackpercula]

I am going to say that it's getting laser lit by your LEDs try lowering you Sps or turn down the intensity for a few weeks and ramp it up slowly.
I learned this the hard

[HurricaneSystem]

Trueblackpercula,

It may have been before, but I just switched to halides a couple of days ago.

Yes that branch is pretty bleached, but I think it is from the LED's.

[trueblackpercula]

So you ditched the LEDs for halides? Let me know how you make out

[HurricaneSystem]

Yea I did. I have my pretty much brand new Mitras up for sale.

[trueblackpercula]

Yea I did. I have my pretty much brand new Mitras up for sale.

Wow that's one of the best out there why?

[HurricaneSystem]

See original picture ;)

[trueblackpercula]

I don't see any other pictures in this thread also the mitras is vey high powered fixture. That acro is more of degree water acro correct?

[AQD_ottawa]

Darkstalker is right, it is likely stress and my guess is from the amount of lights the unit has seen in the last month unless the tank is too virgin then we are on a huge guessing game, but there has been absolute no stability, the lamp was under mitras for about 4 days before it got switched again back to MH, before that I think radion and before that Ai. Best advise I can give ( I have kept SPS for more years than I remember) is you really need to give the poor thing a chance.

Give it time and stability, and by time I mean 6 months or more. I would also look at the things reefrocker pointed out Vinny knows his stuff.

It needs to acclimatize to this current light and I would do it slowly, the beauty of the LED was you could acclimatize it with lower light setting but now its being hammered with 400w all day, my concern is now it will bleach out.

it also needs a lot of flow. not blasted but strong swirls.

[ReefRockerLive]

I think the issue stems from impatience and expecting the corals to show change in an unrealistic time frame. Swapping the lights too often is enough stress on the acro, different intensities, different spectrum, different lighting.

Now that you have MH over the tank, stick to it for at least 6 months and don't go swapping out bulbs left and right, that won't do your corals any good.

[RKLion]

Speciosa I find to be a little more sensitive... move to a lower light area and monitor as it colours up you can move up

[HurricaneSystem]

Michael,

Stop stalking my threads man. No one is bashing the Mitras.

I have said it before, I think you have the best LED out. Now again, I don't think any LED has it right just yet.

My Speciosa has already shown come color improvement as if today, not a lot, but noticeable. I did change the location of the MP10 to give it a more direct flow.

And finally, I had the Mitras on the tank for much more than 4 days. It is a great LED.

[AQD_ottawa]

Nobody is stalking your thread, everyone is just giving you advise on your situation as an SPS keeper for many years myself my advise should be of some help.

Looking at the time frame from when you got the lamp, it looks like the Mitras was on the tank for about 4 days but thats irrelevant to your situation just does not help it, the coral is stressed, you say the water quality is fine then we have to look at recent events that may help you. Nobody has a crystal ball to SPS keeping we must go on events and then advise accordingly, if that advise does not sit well with you then I guess take it or leave it.

The only thing we can go on right now based on the facts at hand are stress sue to rapid light changing, an SPS needs gradual light acclimatization.