LTA does not like MH anymore

[jacob_poly]

Hi,
I have an LTA since 2 months in my tank and its under like 6W/G of light. All of a sudden its starting to show discomfort to the light. Its flared wide open when just my PC's are on. About 30 minutes into MH and it shrivels up. Its getting me worried. From tomorrow I am decreasting the MH from 7 hours to 4 hours. What can be the reason for thos sudden aversion to light? Any ideas?
Jake.

 

[viper_930]

Just a guess, but maybe the spectrum shifting?

 

[thomas712]

Well alot of us say you need alot of light for an anemone and in many cases not much is said when an anemone shy's away from the light.
Basically it needs time to get used to the halides. I would start wtih only 2 hours if you can and even raise the hight of the halides if you can to about 16-18 inches from the surface of the water column. The aneomne is getting to much light to fast.
Its like if I were to go and visit Beth down there in Florida, I'm from Michigan and I can tell you I'm about as white as bleached flour. In the full florida sun I would be looking for a tree to hide under until maybe a month has gone by until I and my white bread skin got used to the sun down there.
Its the same for the anemone right now.
So start with an hour or 2 of halides and slowly increase it over the next few weeks until you hit the desired photo period.
Thomas

 

[jacob_poly]

Thanks for the advice Thomas. That would make total sense if I had just bought the anemone less than a week ago. But its been like 9 weeks and it was basking in the sun till about a week ago when it started to hate the light. Thats what confuses me. How come he was good with the light for all this while and is starting to throw a fit only now? It did great with 7 hours of MH for 8 weeks or so. Why the problems just in the last week? Shifting spectrum could make sense since my MH is getting close to 6 months old (still not old enough - was only planning a replacement in February). My BTA's are way closer to the light and not showing a similar reaction nor are they shying away. I do have the MH about 6 inches from teh surface but thats how I have had it all these days....so its confusing about the recent behavior. Cant think of anything else that has changed....

 

[thomas712]

Yeah my BTA's don't show any problems with my 2-250 MH when they are one either.
I can only assume that Your LTA finally had enough light from the MH and now he needs to seek some shade. Spectrum problem? I really don't thing that would be it, I would think the opposite, as the light gets older and degrades the anemone should be reaching for more light not hiding from it.
Are you lights on timers at all?
Do the MH come on at the same time all the time?

 

[jacob_poly]

Hi Thomas, Yes my lights are on timers...actually have 4 of them...one for the actinics, one for the PC white, another for the MH and the last for the moon lights. They are staggered so that the W/g build up gradually...and then they go out in the opposite order. Infact the animals are so used to the pattern that they know when to start coming out and when to start expecting hte lights to start going out.....

 

[thomas712]

I would try somthing, next time delay the MH lights and see if the anemone stays out and open, for say an hour, then kick on the MH and see if it goes into its unwanted routine.

 

[jacob_poly]

Hi Thomas,
I did that a couple of days ago and the anemone was open until the MH came on and the shrunk. I think I had delayed it by an hour. However, some things did change over the weekend. The weekend is usually when I go about my usual tank maintainence activities. I do a 3 .5G water change every week. Also something else I had noticed 2-3 weeks ago was that the temperture had gradually decreased from 78-80 range (> 3 weeks ago) to 75-77 range (3 weeks ago). This was mainly because of the onset of winter. So, yesterday I upped the heating a little bit to get it back to the 78-80 range. Not sure if any of this was contributory but the anemone is acting normal again. I do the water changes weekly and thats the way its always been. Could the fall in temperature have caused it to do what it was doing? And do you think it was the increase of temperature back to the range it is used to be which caused a recovery? Would like to have your insight into this.
THanks,
Jake.

 

[thomas712]

Are you saying that with an increase in temp the anemone no longer responds to the MH by shying away?

 

[jacob_poly]

Hmmmm.....false hopes....today teh anenome did the same MH freak thing....but took him several hours today before he started acting up. He did good for a few hours of MH...towards the end it began to look tired and then started to droop and shrink. Now I am speculating if the water change was what rejuvenated it after all. I did test for NH3, No2 and NO3 and all was 0. Nitrate was closer to 5 ppm. PH was 8.4 and Ca 400 ppm. All great water params. So I am going to do a small water change again tomorrow. I need to know though....is the regular 3.5G/90G....almost 4% a week a good enough water change? Does that need to be higher? Let me know.
Jake.

 

[thomas712]

I like to do a 30 gallon water change every couple of weeks. If you are into doing it on a weekly basis the I'd suggest doing 15 gallons.
My total system is larger though with the 90 gallon main, 55 gallon filtration tank (refugium) and the sump.
Much of / how much you change will also depend on your bio load/coral load and your usage of calcium and alkalinity + your nitrate/phosphate levels.
I would do a good 30 gallon water change and I think your anemone will thank you. The go to the 15 gallon per week. When you do the 30 gallon change remember to use a powerhead to blow your live rock off to get any detritus and other debris out from the pours and cracks of the rock. It helps. Sometimes using a turkey baster for that will also do the job.
Thomas

 

[jacob_poly]

I will keep yur advice in mind. I dont think I will be able to afford a 15 G water change just because of the added cost that will incur - salt + RO water. But I will atleast try and double to 6 G/week and hopefully that will be helpful for the anemones. I would like to see the effect of the extra water change amount - if it helps then it would mean that hte water was getting polluted at a level that was not necessarily detectable with my test kits. But I will try and keep this post updated with what I observe.
Jake.

 

[jacob_poly]

Just an update, This morning I increased the water change from 4% a week to 8% a week. I think the anemone is looking better. But I need to wait to see until the end of the MH light period to see how it handles longer times. Currently my MH lighting is back at 7 hours a day. I will try and update this thread by the end of today.
Thomas - whats your general impression about this anemones well-being? Atleast from what you can tell from the picture. I have had it for 2.5 months now.

 

[thomas712]

Generally a bit stunted right now. He looks well but like somthing is bothering him abit. He is a bit light colored than I think he should be, pale looking. Was he this color when you got him?
My guess would be you might have a bit too many dissolved orgaincs going through the tank right now. Got skimmer?
I notice a bit of algae, having any problem with bad algae's.
Maintaining water paramiters?
Has he moved in the last two weeks?
Still accepting food once per week?
Does the sandbed look healthy? or does it have some algae growing on it?
foot of anemone well seated in the sandbed?
Don;t get me wrong he looks ok for now, I'm the one looking for something wrong.

 

[jacob_poly]

Hi Thomas,
Thanks for the reply. Actually its got darker since the time I first got him. I am posting a picture of it a couple of days after I first introduced him in the tank. Also the tentacles are a lot more expanded and thicker than when I first purchased it.
I concur with your suspicion that the dissolved organics might have increased. I noticed that my skimmer is sucking out more scum off late. And I am having some dark red/brown slime algae problems. I am trying to counter it by
1) Reducing the feeding to once a day
2) Doubling the water change quantity
3) Doing more frequent carbon changes
4) I am also restarting the use of Rowaphos - I have had remarkable success in the past with it
The only source of pollutant could be excess food but I have cut that to half. Hopefully, my skimmer is extracting any fish waste/organic matter. I am emptying the collection cup every 4-5 days since it fills up pretty fast.
The anemone itself has not moved in the last couple of weeks. I did float around before that a couple of times and I think it might have been related to the same problem. It used to feed every 3 days before. For one week though it has not eaten and so I am working top notch to get it as comfortable as possible through my regular maintenance activities before I try to feed it again. It did not shy from the light after yestedays water change through out the light period (which was how it used to be until the recent problem). This morning too it was huge. I will do my best to stay on top of the water quailty. The usual tests for NH3, NO2, NO3, pH, Ca etc were all great. I guess I really had no way to test that all the dissolved organics were being removed. Hopefully, I am tackling the problem itself and not just trying to fight the effects of it. The anemone used to sometimes dig its foot in the sand but does not always do that. He digs himself back out a lot of times. Its mouth though is great and hasn't been gaping at all.
Thanks for all the help. I will attempt to post regular updates here about how things keep going.
Jake.

 

[jacob_poly]

Hi,
Just an update, I started with doing a 7.5 gallon water changes and it seemed to help a bit. But a few days later before the next water change was due(weekly), it would start to look shrivelled up again. So I bumped that up to a 10 gallon water change. Which made me wonder if the water quality was suspect - I checked the skimmer I was using and it does seem to leach out scum. But I decided to do an early upgrade anyways to an AquaC Urchin Pro. That was yesterday. Also threw in a phosphate sponge and the algae seems to be receding little by little. Anemone is doing ok and I will keep watching him and posting info here. I will just have to delay my light bulb change a month, to offset the money I spent on the new skimmer.
Jake

 

[jacob_poly]

Looks like the increased water changes are helping. The LTA has not shrunk or cringed at the light. Also the AquaC is doing a great job. Right now its on overskim and so brings up a lot of water in the collection cup as well. But at this point its ok - with time I will raise the collection chamber so that it brings up a drier foam. I also surrounded the base of the anemone with small LR and he seems to like this a lot. He doesn't have to be affected by the current. He has leaned a little to get his foot on one of the rocks as an anchor. So all in all its seems to be doing good. Also I have successfully fed him 2 times this week which makes me a little less worried.
Jake.

 

[jacob_poly]

Heres a picture I meant to attach

 

[thomas712]

Is it my imagination or does he look a bit darker :yes: Id say your doing something right?

 

[jacob_poly]

well its been expensive trying to save the anemone but I hope in the end it will be totally worth it......Also its been looking great and I think its because of several reasons...improved water parameters being the main one. Moral of the story - Never overassume the quality of your water.