How do I get my anemone to stop looking like crap?

[hypnoj]

All I want, is a beautiful bright and bubbly BTA. I have a red one and a green one in my tank. Both have been in the tank a year, and both are growing fine. The green one looks just "ok", the red one looks like crap. When I bought it, it was the greatest looking anemone ever. Keep in mind, they're healthy, the whole tank is healthy and growing, their color just sucks. I fight to keep my parameters steady (just like everyone else). At or around Ca 400, Mg 1300, Alk 8, pH stays pretty steady at 8.3, no Nitrites of course and my nitrates are typically undetectable. I don't measure PO4, I just watch my algae. This is on a 29 g biocube, skimmerless, turf scrubber, 2 gallon water change per week. Salinity is 1.025. Temp: 80* . I feed the tank daily with flake, LRS frozen food once a week.
My LED's are the aurora puck which has 4 channels and 6 or so colors (RB, blue, violet, white, red, green, orange). I've heard that running just straight RB is the way to make corals look their best. Any credence to this? Straight RB makes my fish look horrible. Any anemone pro's have advice for me? Any advice would be appreciated. Any questions, go for it.

 

[kwsjimmy]

Add a skimmer and do you run carbon? What do you use for your filtration in the bio cube? Led lights a subjective subject , the natural light is no where near royal blue it's a full spectrum. different corals like a different part of the spectrum for healthy growth, the fish and anemones are similar. I found my anemones like anything between 7k, 10k, 14k, 18k, and 20k. All rb is not too natural but we like he look for corals since it makes thinks glow.

What's your light profile set to? my tank seams to do well with replicating natural light during the day for growth with no one home and in the evenings I use a custom mix to make the tank looms nice lots of uv , royal blue, a little white.

 

[hotelbravo]

can we get pictures of this crappy looking BTA

 

[hypnoj]

Add a skimmer and do you run carbon? What do you use for your filtration in the bio cube? Led lights a subjective subject , the natural light is no where near royal blue it's a full spectrum. different corals like a different part of the spectrum for healthy growth, the fish and anemones are similar. I found my anemones like anything between 7k, 10k, 14k, 18k, and 20k. All rb is not too natural but we like he look for corals since it makes thinks glow.

What's your light profile set to? my tank seams to do well with replicating natural light during the day for growth with no one home and in the evenings I use a custom mix to make the tank looms nice lots of uv , royal blue, a little white.

What are your reasons for adding a skimmer? Do you think my water needs to be cleaner? I run carbon every once in a while, only when it looks like my water is discolored. I don't currently run my LED's heavy blue, I actually run them at a fairly 15k'ish look. I have always been told that white LED's are fairly useless in the reef world, but I still run mine at about 25% all day long, other colors run at around 75%.

 

[hypnoj]

pics

 

[kwsjimmy]

Anemones need good water quality. A skimmer removes excess bio material out of the water. carbon helps to Polish water remove chemicals. Do you run floss , if so how often do you change it?

My nano anemone tank has a skimmer, lots of carbon, purigen, and a fuge, and lots of floss that I change regularly. It also has a Gig, 2 bta''s, and a h maLu.

left side floss is with no skimmer, right side is with a skimmer, that's 2 days.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Are you sure your nem isn't getting stung by it's neighbors?

 

[kwsjimmy]

Yup none of them physically touch each other. I also work in the industry I service 11000g marine tank and a 4000g shark tank. Both of which I need a wetsuit to clean. water quality and ORP have a direct corolation

 

[hypnoj]

Anemones need good water quality. A skimmer removes excess bio material out of the water. carbon helps to Polish water remove chemicals. Do you run floss , if so how often do you change it?

My nano anemone tank has a skimmer, lots of carbon, purigen, and a fuge, and lots of floss that I change regularly. It also has a Gig, 2 bta''s, and a h maLu.

left side floss is with no skimmer, right side is with a skimmer, that's 2 days.

How long had that tank been set up before you took that picture? That rock in the middle is right white and I see no coralline algae anywhere on the tank including the back. Also, what lights are you running? Are those the lights that you run white during the day and blue at night? What controller are you using to do that? Also, are you saying that I need to run an ULNS? My phosphates and nitrates are already very low. If I had a skimmer and filter floss, and ran carbon daily I would definitely enter the realm of ULNS I'm assuming.

 

[hypnoj]

also, what speed and mode do you keep your mp10 running at?

 

[hypnoj]

full tank pics

 

[ClownNut]

they looks ok to me.

 

[kwsjimmy]

Tuxedo urchin eats alot. The center rock is new, trying to get the bta to attach else where. It's a radio xr30pro with a mp10 both on a apex. The return pumps a maxi jet 1200 so the mp10 runs between 10-15%. This tanks 6 months old, but everything came out of a larger established tank

 

[snoopie702]

They look fine to me. If you want the tips to bubble up, there is not much you can do. Some bubble up and some do not. I have a RBTA and it has split once. The new one doesn't bubble at all and the old one does. I guess it just matters on the anemone. But I have read that they simple do not all bubble up, even if it is a bubble tip anemone.

 

[kwsjimmy]

Yea gonna agree with everyone else they look pretty normal

 

[hypnoj]

I know they look normal, I just mean it's not at all what it looked like when I bought it. This thing was flame red with striations, bubbled yes, and beautiful. All of my other corals look exactly like they did when I got them, just bigger. My anemone's are bigger too, just bigger and ugly. I was just wondering if anyone has cracked the code.

 

[taylor t]

just bigger and ugly.

We all get that way with age. :lol:

Joking aside, looks healthy to me too.

 

[kwsjimmy]

>I was reading somewhere the corolation between anemones tenticles to how they bubble up and its relation to light. Do you have 1 auroa puck or 2, what are you using for spectrum control and intensity, what eco tech lenses are you using if any?

 

[m0nkie]

I bought an inferno bta and it turned brown under my kessils. I lowered the intensity and it is slowly gaining some color back. I plan to switch to t5 soon to match the store lighting. See if that can color up the bta more

 

[kwsjimmy]

Anemones are like no there corals most time you need to a climate to your lighting, in that regards led,s that are full spectrum and are controllable take a bit of tweaking for new corals and nems