Loss of anemones

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Ahhhh, that explains it.

 

[Christopher Davis]

IMO I had the same experience with a much cheaper LED set up on my 75, I went with 2x current pro 48 inch strips and my coral suffered and started to die off including my rose bubbles! I made the switch back to t5HO and everything came back! I did keep one strip on the tank though so I'm using both forms of lighting. LED can be hit or miss, I am currently running a kessil tuna blue 160 on my 25 gallon and it's blowing me away! Made me believe in LED again. But I think you might want to supplement with another form of lighting. Going from MH to LED is a lot different and definitely start feeding it!
Before with led only and after with combo T5HO

 

[themcnertney]

Its hard for me to buy into feeding anemones (or any coral). I never had fed any before. I had my BTA split so many times with never feeding.

 

[pickupman66]

so, just a quick outside observation, I think you have the Hydras running too low. is that a 52% MAX overall intensity? if so, you may want to look at ramping it up and checking it all out with a Par meter.

I say this because I recently changed from a large Panel LED array that was 280 watts to a single Radion Gen 3. (yes I know it is not the same as the Hydra 52+HD) WHen I did and put the par meter on it, I was runing WAY too low for the bottom of my tank at the 75% max ranges. I have now adjusted it up to where I am at 100% brightness on all the blue and UV channels, 45% on the whites and 25% red and yellow. 100 % overall brightness and now, I am hitting the Par #s I want. I vhae two RBTA in my tank. One is down on the bottom against the side. it is a small one and is showing the bubbles in the tentacles. I then have a larger one that is high up in the 250 par ranges and it is fully extended. No bubbles, but it looks impressive.

get you a Par meter and see what you are getting. Ill bet you are low as that looks like a pretty deep tank.

 

[Christopher Davis]

Just look at corals they are designed to eat you can defiantly get away with not feeding them true, from personal experience my current BTA shrunk down to half its size. I was not feeding... as I also don't like to feed that much, but it honestly really did help my nem to snap out of it and now it's back to opening up 9+ inches across.

 

[Christopher Davis]

so, just a quick outside observation, I think you have the Hydras running too low. is that a 52% MAX overall intensity? if so, you may want to look at ramping it up and checking it all out with a Par meter.

I say this because I recently changed from a large Panel LED array that was 280 watts to a single Radion Gen 3. (yes I know it is not the same as the Hydra 52+HD) WHen I did and put the par meter on it, I was runing WAY too low for the bottom of my tank at the 75% max ranges. I have now adjusted it up to where I am at 100% brightness on all the blue and UV channels, 45% on the whites and 25% red and yellow. 100 % overall brightness and now, I am hitting the Par #s I want. I vhae two RBTA in my tank. One is down on the bottom against the side. it is a small one and is showing the bubbles in the tentacles. I then have a larger one that is high up in the 250 par ranges and it is fully extended. No bubbles, but it looks impressive.

get you a Par meter and see what you are getting. Ill bet you are low as that looks like a pretty deep tank.

We have twins!

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

IMO I had the same experience with a much cheaper LED set up on my 75, I went with 2x current pro 48 inch strips and my coral suffered and started to die off including my rose bubbles! I made the switch back to t5HO and everything came back! I did keep one strip on the tank though so I'm using both forms of lighting. LED can be hit or miss, I am currently running a kessil tuna blue 160 on my 25 gallon and it's blowing me away! Made me believe in LED again. But I think you might want to supplement with another form of lighting. Going from MH to LED is a lot different and definitely start feeding it!
Before with led only and after with combo T5HO

Is that an LTA next to the BTA in your pic?

 

[haanstang]

I would like to add this one point. And melevsreef has a video that talks about this a little as well.
There are male and female anemones each release there goods into the water column if all your parameters are good and stable and the moon cycle plays a huge rolls as well. Having a lunar light simulation that mimics the moon phases is a big help.
When an anemone splits it is not reproducing. It is either stressed or doesn't like something. it is not necessarily a good thing. ( it's not bad but not good)
So when you pointed out that you never feed it/them and they split isn't really a good thing.
Don't get me wrong anemones split all the time but that doesn't mean that they are happy or healthy. Fish corals and anemones won't try to reproduce unless they are extremely healthy.
I would feed it.
This is just my theory and I am not an expert on anemones. I have a gbta but no expert.
Maybe they split to begin with because if didn't have nutrition on light alone to support itself so it split to have a better chance at living and then kept splitting for the same reasons. Then when the light changed it was too much for them. With the light being different or not what they needed on top of not getting meaty foods.
Again just a theory.

 

[Christopher Davis]

Is that an LTA next to the BTA in your pic?

Nope all bubble tips!

 

[themcnertney]

I agree that split may not be a good thing (or a bad thing), we just don't know. Now the splits occurred when I was running my MH, which is when I had the most number of BTA's. The loss of BTA's as stated was when the switch to Hydras happened.

Here is a pic of the BTA's shortly after the switch. After this things started to decline in the size, color and number of BTA's.

Here's some more background...
MH from January 2014 to January 2016
Hydra's from January 2016 to present

As some may recall, I had a drastic loss of sps coral when switching from MH to Hydra's. I lost my beloved monti in my profile pic.

 

[lisawolk]

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.

I agree with Zach. I can say that nems love to be fed. In my 25 gallon my Wyoming white feeds hers all the time but in my 55 they don't feed those nems that I can see and they're much smaller. I do know that once they're feed they get pretty big just like anything. Perhaps your water wasn't nutrient based enough to sustain their diet.

 

[lisawolk]

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.

I would start feeding him. What have you got to lose? If it's the last one - start feeding it - I can almost promise you it will get bigger in no time at all.

 

[themcnertney]

I would start feeding him. What have you got to lose? If it's the last one - start feeding it - I can almost promise you it will get bigger in no time at all.

Fair enough. I feed frozen once weekly, when doing so I will target the BTA. Like you said, I have nothing to lose.

BTW. When feeding frozen, my clowns will actually grab food from the column and bring it to the BTA. It doesn't always happen, but I have seen it in the past. I suppose that's some of why I never really target fed them.

 

[Zack K]

After doing more research on your MH were putting 1200watts of power between the 3. That is creating enough photosynthesis for the anemones not to be fed. Now the LED's although have a better color spectrum, and are brighter, only put out 405watts combined. The transition of the lighting overtime you starved your anemones. LEDs are awesome, don't get me wrong, but it is beneficial to feed them with LEDs. Hope this helped[emoji1360]

 

[themcnertney]

I still think lighting is the main issue here.
If any locals to Akron Ohio have a PAR meter, I would love to borrow it to see what numbers I am running.

 

[Zack K]

To clarify the hydras put out 135watts when at max capacity. You said you had them at 70% so their even less wattage going to the tank.

 

[lisawolk]

I would like to add this one point. And melevsreef has a video that talks about this a little as well.
There are male and female anemones each release there goods into the water column if all your parameters are good and stable and the moon cycle plays a huge rolls as well. Having a lunar light simulation that mimics the moon phases is a big help.
When an anemone splits it is not reproducing. It is either stressed or doesn't like something. it is not necessarily a good thing. ( it's not bad but not good)
So when you pointed out that you never feed it/them and they split isn't really a good thing.
Don't get me wrong anemones split all the time but that doesn't mean that they are happy or healthy. Fish corals and anemones won't try to reproduce unless they are extremely healthy.
I would feed it.
This is just my theory and I am not an expert on anemones. I have a gbta but no expert.
Maybe they split to begin with because if didn't have nutrition on light alone to support itself so it split to have a better chance at living and then kept splitting for the same reasons. Then when the light changed it was too much for them. With the light being different or not what they needed on top of not getting meaty foods.
Again just a theory.

I was always told (don't know if it's true) that nems split for self preservation. I know my nems in my 25 split more often then the bigger tank which has an ATO whereas my 25 doesn't and the top offs are manual and typically much more water is being added just because I forget to do it daily. So I can imagine that throws off the salinity quite a bit.

 

[lisawolk]

Fair enough. I feed frozen once weekly, when doing so I will target the BTA. Like you said, I have nothing to lose.

BTW. When feeding frozen, my clowns will actually grab food from the column and bring it to the BTA. It doesn't always happen, but I have seen it in the past. I suppose that's some of why I never really target fed them.

Lol, that does help that they feed it. Mine in my 55 are selfish and keep it to themselves. Piggies. [emoji200]

 

[themcnertney]

Wasn't really surprised, but I fed mysis and krill last night to my lone BTA. It accepted. Shortly after, it shriveled up to almost nothing. Ill have to report back little later to give you an update of its status when I return home from work.

 

[Zack K]

Wasn't really surprised, but I fed mysis and krill last night to my lone BTA. It accepted. Shortly after, it shriveled up to almost nothing. Ill have to report back little later to give you an update of its status when I return home from work.

That's normal. It will digest it and should look better today