Magnifica 250w or 400w?

[Pacific Reefs]

Can you Magnifica owners chime in on if you are running a 250w or 400w metal halide and what bulb. I am curious if I should upgrade to a 400w unit.

 

[Rod Buehler]

Mine seems happy under a 250 10KK. It is perched up high in the water column directly under the bulb, with surge tanks that fire from both sides

 

[Pacific Reefs]

Thanks Rod. I forgot to add. Please post pictures too

 

[delphinus]

I have mine under a 250W DE 10k as well. The light is directly over the column of rock it sits on, which is an important detail. These are very light hungry anemones in that if they sense either a bright light in another location, or a path upwards from where they are, they will likely wander in that direction. So it's important that it "believes" (for lack of a better term) that it's in a spot where it will get the best surges, and the best light (both in terms of "how high is this spot compared to my surroundings" and "how bright is this spot compared to my surroundings").

Not the best pictures but I suck at tank shots so these are all I got online at the moment:

Tank is a 30x30x30 cube. I chose the dimensions because it's literally the smallest I feel I can get away with for this anemone. As you can see it can expand to nearly 24" and I want the buffer between the anemone and the tank walls as large as possible so that's potentially only 3" on all sides when he expands that large (luckily the nominal expansion is more like 22" or so). If any part of the anemone could brush up against a tank wall, then he can basically "sense a path upwards" and the risk would be that he could wander. This tank is now two years old and the anemone has not wandered whereas in previous tanks I had him in, he would eventually wander due to the fact that anything less than 30" for him was just too small and he'd eventually brush up against the wall.

I should mention that I've had this guy now for over 6 years.

 

[Pacific Reefs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10624305#post10624305 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by delphinus

I should mention that I've had this guy now for over 6 years.

Wow that is awesome. Due to its size, does yours still ball up like this picture? And if it does is it usually during feedings?

 

[Rod Buehler]

I dont have any pics of mine, but its very similar to Tony's. Mine is a little closer to the surface, on the highest possible rock. the only water movement in th etank is from 2 seperate surge tanks. The surges are pretty high above the tank, so I get a lot of flow and also periods of rest. between strong surges


I have only had mine for about 2 years (not nearly as long as my giganteas)

 

[delphinus]

I don't think anyone can lay claim to having gigantea's anywhere near as long as Rod Although I'm pretty tickled at having had one now for 3 years and one for 2 years, so I'm trying.

Pacific Reefs, mine does occasionally seem to ball up still. It seems to be quite infrequent (or at least, I only notice it infrequently). I have noticed it if I feed it really heavily, it might do so that night. At the moment, I haven't seen it ball up for several months. Whether this is due to me just not being around the tanks as much or whether it's due to it just not doing it, I can't really say.

I tend to shoot a few pieces of mysis into it every day. I used to feed it as a huge portion of mysis about once per week so maybe the fact that I feed it less heavily but more often has an effect .. to be honest I never really thought about it much..

 

[Mirror Pond]

Mine is under a 250w XM 10k bulb but it is being driven by a HQI ballast. I have had it for almost 7 months.

 

[GSMguy]

im in love
all i want in life is a mag and a gigantea in seperate cubes. i should sell all my stupid sps.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I kept a mag under a 250w Iwasaki.
I'm confident that this lighting was adequate. Feedings are just as important as lighting. It looks like you want some mag pix, Pacific Reefs. I can oblige.

for those unaware, this species of anemone grows very very large and requires a very large aquarium.

 

[Pacific Reefs]

Thanks to all of the Mag owners for your input and pictures. Has anyone used a 14K or 20K bulb with them?

 

[delphinus]

I'm using an Ushio 14k right now I think. Although, I guess its due for replacement, as it's about a year old and has more of a 10k colour to it now.

I haven't tried 20k. My experience with 20k's are that they tend to be less bright than their 10k counterparts so for my single light lit tank I stay in the 10k-14k range.

 

[55semireef]

Delphinus, in a way your green Gigantea looks very similar to your your yellow H. Magnifica.

 

[Pacific Reefs]

I was looking at the 250w radium bulb 20K...but I think I will do 10K with actinics or at least a 14k.

 

[apayne]

Here is my Mag. I have had him for a little over 2 weeks, and he is under250w 20k XM HQI bulb. If that does not cut it i will change it to a 14 or 10k bulb. Or I was thinking about adding a 70w 10k MH spot light aimed directly at the nem. We will see.

Aaron

 

[GSMguy]

try the spotlight with a 6500k bulb like invincable has that would be sweet

 

[Pacific Reefs]

Apayne that is a nice color Mag. Let me know if he moves...seems pretty happy.

 

[apayne]

GSMguy,
what type of spot does invincable have? I would be interested to know as that may be a direction I will go.

Pacific Reefs,

So far he has not moved, but there is nothing higher than he is in the tank.

Thanks,
Aaron

 

[bureau13]

Mine is under Phoenix 14K right now, but he's crawled up the back glass to the water's edge, very near one of my return lines.

jds