help with BTA placement & light cycle under t5s

rhibear · Mar 6, 2012

I just upgraded from a 40 breeder with MH, running for 8 months, to a 125g with T5s. The MH on the 40g was horrible, I'm now using a 6x 80w retro with LET reflectors and ATI bulbs 3x blue, 2x special, 1x purple approx 4" from water. (480w)

I have 1 large RBTA that was in the 40B and 2 new smaller ones. I have corals also but the anemones are my pride and joy. All 3 are/were gorgeous deep colors when I bought them, so I know they have the ability, however, my original RBTA from liveaquaria faded in the old tank and I'm afraid of the same thing happening to the new ones.

I'm trying to figure out the optimal location and light cycle for them in the new tank.
Any advice from folks who are successfully keeping bright colored anemones would be gratefully received. I have seen the best anemone pics ever on this forum so I think this must be the place to ask.

(fwiw, when i contacted liveaquaria about my anemone fading they told me that the 250w MH was too much light and that was why my anemone faded, but my lux meter says that these new t5s are brighter than my old nasty MH!)

temp 76-77F
nitrate 0.0
phosphate 0.0
pH 8

revhtree · Mar 8, 2012

What kind of par readings are you getting for the new lights versus the old?

shred5 · Mar 8, 2012

Put the bta at the bottom, he is going to move to where he feels comfortable anyway. when I switched from halides to t-5 I actually shortened my light cycle.

rhibear · Mar 8, 2012

Unfortunately I don't have access to a real PAR meter, just a cheap LUX meter. Color temperature on both tanks appears similar, the meter shows 50,000-25,000 center to ends on the T5 and it was ~30,000-8,000 from the halide at water surface. Obviously a 125g is much deeper than a 40g breeder though.
For the transition I let 4 of the bulbs take the place of the MH in my light cycle, but reduced the period from 10 to 8 hours as the T5s seem much brighter to my eyes and the lux meter.

Regarding letting it move itself to where it is happy, this anemone has really never been much of a mover; once it has its foot wedged under the edge of a rock it just stays put no matter what. If I move the rock it's on it simply moves back down to the sand. So really I need to know if I should sit in the center or end of the tank.

Incidentally, the stress of the move triggered it to split yesterday, and oddly it looks much happier now.

ColaAddict · Mar 8, 2012

they will go wherever they want, doesn't matter where you place them.

Otter_rs · Mar 8, 2012

The idea of too much light is laughable. I have a RBT directly under a 10,000k 1000watt halide and 240watts of VHO actinics. It is 14 inches and has split five times. Not to say this is your problem, but RBT's need exallent water quality. Here is a pic of mine.