Everyones opinions on deflating mags
- Thread starter reppo13
- Start date
1fishkeeper
Premium Member
When I first got mine it done that for about the first week. Now I see it do it maybe once every couple of weeks. But I have had it for over a year now. And it's very healthy and growing like crazy. So how often does it do it? How long have you had it? Did it just get shipped to you? Or was it in the store and if so how long did they have it? That might help us understand whats going on with it.
OrionN
Moved on
A magnifica that deflates frequently is a dead anemone. Consider isolate him and treat him with antibiotic. Other than that, he will be gone in a week or so.
M Woodhill
New member
psusocr
Active member
I would say work on gettng perfect and stable water conditions so you dont have to worry about antbiotics and deflation.. Dont prepare for the wrose try to prepare to give it a perfect home so it never happens.
elegance coral
They call me EC
That's not necessarily true. They can pull through the deflate/inflate cycle problem. I've done it. IMHO/E, having a large water volume and/or massive water changes seems to help. I believe they crash in an attempt to rid themselves of some offensive substance. Maybe zooxanthellae, infectious microbes, or just nasty water left over from shipping bags??????
The anemone in this thread survived the cycling problem. It later passed away in a power outage, but it made it through the initial inflate/deflate cycle. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1368942&highlight=magnifica
reppo13
New member
Interesting... So I've been reading that if a mag consistently deflates at a certain time you should adjust your lights to turn off about then. What does this accomplish? Is it do to the fact that the nem needs to adjust?
elegance coral
They call me EC
The zooxanthellae inside the anemone produces oxidants during photosynthesis. If the light is to bright, or on for to long, the oxidants can rise to damaging levels. If you see an old red car in a junk yard, the paint will look faded and dull. If you run your finger across the car, the paint will come off on your finger. This is because the paint is falling apart, or oxidizing. The same thing can happen to the cellular tissue inside an anemone when the oxidants clime to high. Reducing the PAR and/or photo period will reduce the amount of photosynthesis, and the production of oxidants. When I see a new anemone crashing at the same time, late in the day, I set the lights to go off thirty minutes to an hour prior to the normal crash time. Then slowly adjust the lighting schedule accordingly.
This certainly seems to be the case. As was mentioned in my other post, I am dealing with this and the following has been the result of my changes.
After the first couple of days, the Nem would deflate each day at around 4PM and stay that way until around 10pm/midnight at which point it would go back to normal until 4PM the next day. Same process each day.
After having recieved the above advice, I started by reducing the photoperiod some, and then decided to lower the light level in general. Using the AI lights, I decreased intensity on each channel about 12%. The next day, he still deflated some at 4PM, but was back open nicely by 8PM this time. As such, I backed off on the photoperiod again some on the front and back end with the white and blue LED's. I will see what the result is tomorrow.
I assume I will quickly get to a point where he is open consistently. Once there, I will let him settle in, and then slowly ramp up intensity/photoperiod.
I will keep all posted.
reppo13
New member
I don't have dimmable lights but I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome on this. I plan to keep my actinics on a normal schedule, is this a bad idea? For those of you with mags what do they do at night, do they ball up or stay fully inflated. I would think that if they don't ball up is that signaling that they are looking for light.
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psusocr
Active member
Someone please correct me if im wrong but we dont actually know the reason they "ball up" . There are many theories ive read about, but i havent read any thoery on them needed more light if they ball up, if anything i would assume they would walk around until they find it. My nem stays open all day,all night..they only time i ever see it even cose to balling up is when i feed it, but still then its pretty much opened up. Ive read Some peoples mags ball up alot. I just think its an individual basis.
dbraun 15,
I keep my mag under LEDS and i dont have a controller to ramp up/down, So what i did was placed my mag on a rock closer to the bottom of my tank. My theory was if he needed more light he could walk his way up the rocks to get it, however hes been there ever since, hasnt moved and is doing great. You can see in this picture his positioning.My LEDs have a pretty strong PAR so i didnt want to put him way up high in fear of shock or burning the heck out of him.
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elegance coral
They call me EC
We don't know why they ball up. It doesn't seem to be a health or stressful environmental issue though. It's just something they do. Most of them will ball up when the lights start going out at night. They only stay balled up for a few minutes. What's strange, is that my mag has "learned" what time the lights go out, and will start to ball up, just before they do. I have no idea how an animal with no brain is capable of doing this?????
It's nothing to worry about. In fact I believe it is normal behavior for a healthy mag. Here's my red on doing it.
and my old blue one.
psusocr
Active member
My whole tank is lit by LED's, I have two six foot VHO super actinic tubes but they are more for color than any additional par
