New BTA problem - too much light?

[theop]

I got my first anemone 3 days ago at an LFS. It is a GBTA that is about 4-5" across when fully expanded. I also got a mated pair of tomato clowns (from a different tank) that started hosting that night.

My tank is a 37g Oceanic "cube" (24"x18"x21"). My light is an Outer orbit 150W HQI 10K metal halide with 2x65 PC actinics.

The problem is that the anemone shrinks down (looks like a complete uninflation) and opens it's mouth after the halide comes on and has been running for a couple of hours. It has done this 3 times now so I am pretty sure it is the lights and not something else.

If I turn the halides off (running just actinics) it will reinflate over the next 1-2 hours and then look fine. It is also fully expanded at night and in the morning before the lights come on. It has been moving around the rock some too and now is near the bottom of the tank whereas is first attached near the top.

Based on comparisons to pictures posted here, it does look pretty light green and came that way so I am guessing that it is "bleached" to some extent. I'm not sure what it was running under at the LFS but I think it was some VHO (not halides). I guess that I could call them.

Water parameters are s.g. 1.025, temp 79, pH 8.2, no NH4, NO2, or NO3. Alk 3.4 meq/L. Tank's been up for 2 months. I have 50# of LR, chaeto & carbon in the fuge, and the only corals are a couple of LPS.

- Should I not run my MH at all for a while? For how long?
- Should I try and block some of the light from the MH that reaches the anemone? I can do this with a piece paper laid over some egg crate?
- Should I be feeding or not right now since it's stressed?

Any other suggestions? Thanks!

Dave

 

[theop]

I'm going to just run the actinics and leave the halides off until I can get some advice on what to do.

 

[Squidly 1968]

I have had the same problem in the past. My first question is how large are the hosting clowns? I have found that the clowns will "beat up" the new anemone if they are too large or if the anemone is not completely acclimated to the tank. If the clowns are still flopping around on the BTA while its deflated, this can damage the BTA even further. My suggestion is to keep the clowns away until the BTA acclimates. Give it a chance rebound.

Of course, you also might have a sickly anemone.


Good luck, hope this helps!

Randy

 

[dantodd]

if you rec'd the anemone in a bleached condition it most likely was kept in poorly lit conditions previously. You may need to acclimate it to your brighter lights. Can you adjust the height of the Mh over the tank? If so I would raise it 18" or so above the tank and then run it for an hour or so twice a day. After a week move it down to 12" over the tank and keep the light periods about the same for a week. Then move it to its normal height for another week. Then start increasing the photoperiod.

This should help your anemone acclimate to the new, brighter lights.

If you have other anemones or corals that would be detrimentally effected by this acclimation process you can try shading the anemone or moving him under an overhang or cave.

 

[theop]

Thanks for the advice.

I found out that it was kept in a 75g with 150W x 2 HQI but no actinics. I know the tank looked pretty blue so I think it was 14K or 20K bulbs.

I did notice that it shrank today for an hour just under actinics. So it's possible that it has been doing it's normal shrink/expand cycle and the lights are not triggering it. Since it opens its mouth I assumed that it was stressed.

I'm going to start with 2 hrs of halides and shield it from the light a little and see how it goes.

The clowns are about 3" and 2" tomatos while the anemone is about 3-4". They leave it alone when it is deflated and I haven't noticed any trauma to any of the tips. They stay in it all night and the anemone is always fully expanded in the morning.