Acans Question

[Renato]

My Acans were looking nice but now they are not puffy anymore.

Where is te best place to put them?
Sand or Rock?

 

[nickyblase]

I have mine in both places. Are they deflated because they're getting too much flow?

 

[JackTheReefer]

With metal halides I would keep them on the sand bed, another thing to check is your alk, I've found acans like higer alk, check to see if you're at least in the 8dkh-10dkh range.

 

[Renato]

What the flow should be?
My DKH are 8
Calcium 400

 

[JackTheReefer]

They can take a moderate flow, no need to be blasted, try to bring your alk up a little higher to see if that helps, if not try to put them in a area of the tank that has some shading from the light.

 

[afboundguy]

My acans love it on the sandbed. I put the LE's/ultra's/rainbows in a little bit of shading to help them keep their coloring. I've heard that intense lighting can change their colors and I've had an acan do that...

 

[wrassefan]

I find that 14k is not alot of light...put the acan up higher if you find the flow thing is not the problem...feed them regularly too

 

[Shabutii]

hey guys.. i have an acan frag with 3 polyps on it.. it looked content when i picked it up and now im scared that it looks funny.. its still got its colors but im just a little nervous.. im in the process of switching tanks right now from a 55 to a 40B and i was just wondering what lighting is the minimal requirement for it to be happy?

 

[afboundguy]

I've heard from B that acans can survive under the normal crappy lights that come with an AGA tank, granted they won't look that good... PC's would be fine but I have mine under T5's and they look great... MH's would work too but you'd have to make sure they didn't get too much light...

 

[stevel48]

200 PAR and they should keep their colors. here is what a guy who keeps the most beautiful acan i have ever seen wrote to me. (see my new who loves ACANs post)

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I would have to say my par currently is about 200....and thats running on 22k T5's for months now (save on electric bill=)...) but i also put a pice of egg crate over the area they are in....but thats easy to do because they are all in a shallow frag tank.

I think that an intense blue actually brings out better colors too...not just better looking under blue, but better all around.

I would stick then as low as you can.

these things are in 30-90 feet in the wild. So they are really only getting blue light at that depth.

 

[afboundguy]

I have my acans in 185 PAR (via clubs light meter) and I've heard that they like more blue in the light which is prob why I'm such a huge fan of the ATI blue + bulbs; plenty of PAR and acan friendly!!!

 

[Shabutii]

cool.. maybe it was because they were just waking up then that they looked a little funny.. ive got PC's and they are up high so i guess i should just move them down then.. maybe they are getting too much light?

 

[HMac]

I would have to agree with checking the flow. I have had mine deflate for no apparent reason and then I moved the flow away and they puffed back out. I think it also helped to feed them.