Acan shrunken, opinions?

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don_chuwish

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Dec 27, 2011
Messages
256
Location
Southern Oregon
Hello,

This little Acan colony was doing very well. Always puffy & expanding well. The past couple of days it has shrunk down. Does this look bad enough to worry?

img_2200987_0_416f56cbbc090deaac1b1c2b25a3e863.jpg


40 gallon system: 36G bow with ~4G CPR AquaFuge w/ skimmer
Fluval 305
Ammo: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0 - 20
PO4: 0
Ca: 400
Mg: 1400
SG: 1.024
dKH: 10
pH: 7.77 (more on this later)

Nitrates have been as high as 20, but after a 10G water change yesterday and a thorough cleaning of the Fluval it's staying at 0 today.

Acan shrank up before the water change though.

Suspects I can list:
  • Change to 250W MH Pendant recently, though I've been very gradual with the acclimation. (Still only up to 5 hours/day with diffuser & about 10" off the water)
  • Recent trouble with pH swings. pH has never been comfortably above 8.0, but now with a closed up house it dips down to 7.6 at night. Once as low as 7.5. This is measured with a calibrated pH probe & Apex Lite.
  • Green Hydnophora added to tank about 6" below the Acan last Saturday.

The Acan is about 6" deep, so relatively high. But was fine with the extra light until a couple of days ago.
I have no way to improve air quality in the house, it's a rental so I'm not punching a hole in the wall for the skimmer air.
Dosing Alk (THRIVE) helps a bit of course, but lasts < 24hrs and I don't want to push dKH too high. So I'm a little stuck about what to do for pH.
How do Hydnophora hurt other corals? I've heard they are very aggressive, but I don't know how they do it!

Opinions, suggestions?

Acan used to look like this:

img_2200987_1_cac4c7ab22c31a6e3ee858409e0c69bc.jpg


Proximity to Hydnophora now:

img_2200987_2_b3b030947569e224516073319273a5d8.jpg


Another Acan lower in the tank looks fine:

img_2200987_3_9f5de526142e163f43c04a63cdd9c99d.jpg
 
Way to much light for it imo. My Lord's are about 20" down in the water under 6 t5s
 
Thanks much, I've moved it down to the bottom & we'll see how it goes. I'm curious though if this 'shrunken' look is a typical response to too much light?

- D
 
Doing much better now at the bottom corner of the tank. I've also had to back off on the MH time anyway due to a bit of a hair algae outbreak.
Thanks!

img_2209334_0_1db5612c2586a82e1aa325178cd2e43f.jpg
 
don_chuwish said:
Doing much better now at the bottom corner of the tank. I've also had to back off on the MH time anyway due to a bit of a hair algae outbreak.
Thanks!

That's great to hear :)
 
From my experience corals will look shrunken when have to much light and more puffy when they need more or just the right amount. I think of it as they way they get the exact light they need or want.
 
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