favia lighting

[classklown90]

I recently boughta favia coral and the lfs guy told me to keep it on the sand bed because they dont like high lighting(i have the biocube 14 stock lighting) I noticed that one side of it is colorless, almost clear and looks sqishy while the other side looks normal. should i give it more light?

 

[classklown90]

heres a picture

 

[nottooslow]

was it like that when you got it? i would move it higher in your tank since you have the biocube with stock lighting. keep a close eye on it though, and if it looks any worse i would put it on the bottom in shade.

 

[classklown90]

okay and yea it was likethat when i got it

 

[Krypt]

Almost looks like half of it is bleached out.

 

[mr_X]

that's not a favia. it's a platygyra. i would keep it low in the tank. you can also feed it meaty foods at night, when it's tentacles are out.

 

[classklown90]

thanks for the ID. so the sandbed is my best bet? itll get enough light there even with the biocubes lighting? also i tried to feed it brine shrimp but found no such tentacles :/. how does this coral spread? will it simply spread to the edges of the slate its on? or will it spread onto the sand?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

It'll spread like this...

About 3 years between photos. It will spread from the outside and lay down skeleton and encrust whatever it's on. Not sure what it will do with sand. If you have the opportunity to move it up a bit, I would. Mine is about 2/3 the way down in my tank, under about 200W of compact fluorescent.

As far as feeding goes, tentacles are not a constant thing but when they come out it will normally be when the lights are out. I've found that Two Little Fishies brand ZooPlan works really well. I used to feed it weekly, but have cut it back to once every 2 or 3 weeks now. It's more of a "treat" versus a "needs to have it."

 

[classklown90]

finally a picture that looks like mine ! thanks alot kurt, thats the advice i needed. ill be placing it on my rock right now

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

No problem. Funny how life works... that original picture from 3+ years ago was from a question *I* posted here asking basically "How is this thing going to spread..."

 

[classklown90]

haha well glad you got an answer

 

[classklown90]

Any ideas on how to get that bleached look from going away? its not getting worse but its not better either :/

 

[mr_X]

it will take some time. that was most likely from too much light. feeding helps, but time and proper parameters and lighting are the solution.

 

[classklown90]

great thanks