Loss of anemones

[themcnertney]

Over the last couple of years I have been losing anemones very slowly. I have RBTA that host two B&W ocellaris clownfish that I have owned for about 7-8 years or so. These reside in my 220 gallon tank. I have had as many as 9 RBTA, but am now down to just one. The biggest change came with lighting which I think maybe the culprit. I have had a handful of minor issues just as all tanks do, but lighting is what stands out.

Lights went from (3) 400W MH to (3) AI Hydra 52's+ HD. Once this lighting changed, after a few months, I started to have my RBTA disappear.

Below is a pic that is a bit old, but you can see 3 RBTA in the left corner. I only have one now.

 

[Zack K]

First off I would like to say, I'm in live with your tank. The GSP sheet looks amazing. Second, are you feeding them? I know they like to be fed. Also the lights may have played a huge role in the matter. Anemones like stable parameters, that includes lights, so when you changed the lights, so did your Anemones. Moving from MH to LED, did you see a change in temp? That may also what have caused the rapid decline of the nems. Sorry to hear about the loss.

 

[themcnertney]

First off I would like to say, I'm in live with your tank. The GSP sheet looks amazing. Second, are you feeding them? I know they like to be fed. Also the lights may have played a huge role in the matter. Anemones like stable parameters, that includes lights, so when you changed the lights, so did your Anemones. Moving from MH to LED, did you see a change in temp? That may also what have caused the rapid decline of the nems. Sorry to hear about the loss.

Thank you.
I have never fed my coral including the BTA's. I started with just one many years ago. Split to as many as nine. I actually made the switch a couple years ago. Temperature doesn't play a role IMO.

Seems like I am missing some spectrum of light that the MH had that the Hydras don't???

 

[Zack K]

Thank you.
I have never fed my coral including the BTA's. I started with just one many years ago. Split to as many as nine. I actually made the switch a couple years ago. Temperature doesn't play a role IMO.

Seems like I am missing some spectrum of light that the MH had that the Hydras don't???

Yes, Nems like to be fed krill,mysis,silversides, any meaty food really. As for the spectrum, no, the Hydra actually has more spectrums than your MH did. What intensity are you running them at? Too much light and not enough light can be troublesome. And when you initially made the change from MH to LED you didn't see a temp drop? I feel you would have untill you readjusted your heaters.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

And when you initially made the change from MH to LED you didn't see a temp drop?

Not necessarily, depending on the wattage of the heaters and the setup. It could be that the heater duty cycle went up, i.e., the heater ran more often, to compensate for the lack of heat input from the metal halides. In such an instance,the temperature would not shift, but the heaters would consume more power.

 

[themcnertney]

Yes there was a temp change when I changed the lights, but this was a very long time ago, wouldn't account for the latest losses.

 

[Tahoe61]

I lost my BTA when I switched to the AI Hydra 52.

 

[Zack K]

Yes there was a temp change when I changed the lights, but this was a very long time ago, wouldn't account for the latest losses.

It sounds like you switched lighting awhile ago and they are just now disappearing? If that is the case what are your "Big 3" readings, and are they stable?

 

[themcnertney]

It sounds like you switched lighting awhile ago and they are just now disappearing? If that is the case what are your "Big 3" readings, and are they stable?

Big three are in check and stable. Tank is doing great.
They aren't just now disappearing. They started to when the switch was made and has been a steady decline. This is my last ditch effort to try to save the remaining nem.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Big three are in check and stable. Tank is doing great.
They aren't just now disappearing. They started to when the switch was made and has been a steady decline. This is my last ditch effort to try to save the remaining nem.

You know, now that I think about it, I have experienced a similar situation, albeit with two separate tanks. In my old 90 gallon tank, I ran metal halides, and I started with one BTA but had 4-6 before long. They were GBTAs not RBTAs, but still bubble tips.

In my new tank, I run LEDs with minimal T5 supplementation. I can't seem to keep a BTA for anything. They just slowly wither away. On the other hand, I've had fair luck keeping long tentacle anemones under LEDs, so I wonder if this is something peculiar to BTAs. I'm sure there are others out there with LEDs that have no problems with BTAs, but I thought the coincidence was odd.

 

[themcnertney]

That's what I'm saying.
I think there is something missing from the Hydra spectrum. I did experiment with adding T5's for a bit and may go back to the LED/T5 combo.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

That's what I'm saying.
I think there is something missing from the Hydra spectrum. I did experiment with adding T5's for a bit and may go back to the LED/T5 combo.

The metal halides I ran on the 90 gallon tank were two 175W 10000K Ushio bulbs.

I currently run six Kessil A360WEs and two 80W T5s on my new tank.

What type of bulb were you using in the metal halides?

 

[themcnertney]

What type of bulb were you using in the metal halides?

I ran (3) 20k radium metal halide at 400w each.

 

[themcnertney]

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I ran (3) 20k radium metal halide at 400w each.

I guess you wouldn't happen to have PAR readings from the halide days to compare to, would you?

 

[themcnertney]

I guess you wouldn't happen to have PAR readings from the halide days to compare to, would you?

No unfortunately I don't.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

No unfortunately I don't.

Too bad. That would've been an interesting comparison. My gut feel is that you went from a lot of light to much less, but I admit I don't know much about how the Hydras compare to metal halides.

 

[themcnertney]

It certainly would've narrowed down the possibilities.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I must admit that I was surprised at how dark your tank looked in the picture above with 1200W of halide lighting!

 

[themcnertney]

I must admit that I was surprised at how dark your tank looked in the picture above with 1200W of halide lighting!

The picture I attached earlier is an old pic with my Hydras. I think the picture was taken when the lights were just ramping up. Poor comparison photo to that of the MH.