BTA slowly dying but everything is perfect

[Frost_Hydra]

So I've had this bubble tip anemone for a bit over a month now, and visually, its health seems to be declining. Its tips are beginning to bleach and its normal green color is changing to a light brown. Now if you can't tell by the first picture (when the anemone still looked happy), I evidently didn't place it on a rock. But instead chose to elevate to a position where it would receive a consistent 120 PAR from my LEDs for 12 hours daily. The glass is slightly angled and is catching flow from a powerhead a foot to the left of it. Despite its decline health its made little effort to ever move out of the cup, sometimes climbing on the inner walls, but never leaving. I feed it some squid meat the size of a dime about once every two weeks.

I originally decided to throw it in the cup as my past anemones would travel too low in the tank where they wouldn't be receiving enough light to survive (bottom of the tanks receives roughly 20-30 PAR).

I just checked my water parameters and the results are listed below, and advice or input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hkgar]

Lighting. They need lots of light. Your PAR is not enough.

From a source: "The Bubble Tip Anemone requires moderate water flow and moderate to high lighting (PAR 220-350). T5's, Metal Halides, or LED's can all maintain Bubble Tip Anemones when the proper PAR levels are provided. We recommend a 14-20K color spectrum for best coloration."

 

[Frost_Hydra]

I wasn't aware they required that much light, I always assumed they would thrive like my soft corals with that amount of PAR, but I guess I was wrong. It never really looked like it was stretching either to try and get more light. But I'll definitely raise it another foot and see if there's any improvement, thanks!

 

[cvrle1]

What kind of lights do you have? Going by the 2 PAR values you provided I would guess some sort of LED fixture that uses 0.5W LEDs. If that is the case, those lights arent good for much more than really shallow tanks and low, low light corals.

 

[Frost_Hydra]

I'm using these lights: https://www.amazon.com/Current-USA-Marine-Aquarium-60-Inch/dp/B00GFTSV24

I heard some people having success with BTAs using these lights (tons of people talking about RBTA in the comments) so I figured I'd try it out

 

[cvrle1]

I'm using these lights: https://www.amazon.com/Current-USA-Marine-Aquarium-60-Inch/dp/B00GFTSV24

I heard some people having success with BTAs using these lights (tons of people talking about RBTA in the comments) so I figured I'd try it out

Yup, 0.5W fixture. I have no idea how Current USA does it, but they sure sell a lot of these lights for ridiculously high prices. I guess their marketing department is doing something right haha. Few issues with comments, from my very quick look. They dont say how long they used lights for, just have pics, no mention if they use 1 or multiple units, majority are using their eye to see how bright lights look, which is always deceiving (PAR meter tells the real story)

Finally, you should always take reviews on Amazon with massive boulder of salt. A lot of paid for reviews and such.

Not really sure what to tell you how to proceed I am afraid. You have 1 unit, which isnt enough, so only 4 options that I can see:

1) Place all the corals as close to the lights as possible
2) Replace with 3W LED units. Even a cheap black box 3W LED fixture will be better than this one
3) Add more units, which for me would be waste of money
4) Buy low light corals only

 

[NYCBOB]

bta need lots of light. nowadays with google, why wouldnt you search its requirement before buying it? your bta looks bleach and pale. feeding it will stress it even more.

 

[Frost_Hydra]

Sorry, I just read so many people having success with it, I did plenty of research prior and found a plethora of conflicting numbers. Currently, I moved the anemone about 5 inches underneath the lights for hopes that it can recover.

You mentioned that they were overpriced for what they were, are there any other lights around the same price range that you would appraise?

 

[cvrle1]

Sorry, I just read so many people having success with it, I did plenty of research prior and found a plethora of conflicting numbers. Currently, I moved the anemone about 5 inches underneath the lights for hopes that it can recover.

You mentioned that they were overpriced for what they were, are there any other lights around the same price range that you would appraise?

Truth be told, it all depends on what features you want in a light. Some folks need to have dusk/dawn/moon light, WiFi connectivity, Apex controlability, 6+ channels of control and so on. While all these features may be nice to have, or a must for some folks, they dont grow corals any better or worse.

Look into LED units that use 3W LEDs and go from there. Cheap no nonsense ones with no features will go for $100 (Mars Aqua, Viparspectra/Bloomspect), most expensive ones with all bells and whistles will go over $1K. In the middle of the road you have Reefbreeders Photon V2/V2+ as an example, which is amazing light, and not that expensive.

All of these will grow any coral you want without issues at all.