New Gigantea-MH On or Off

[this is me]

I just got this purple gig. on Thursday night. It's the smallest I've seen for sale anywhere. Though it's a little bleached, I decided to take the chance and brought it home.

My light set up is 4x24W T5 with 250w DE MH. And for flow, I have a 6055 running pulse mode in full power.

Since it is a little bleached, I haven't turned on my 250w DE until 2 hours ago when I took these pictures. It is pretty healthy and it's going great. I haven't seen it deflated yet and the mouth stay tight. It hasn't moved and it's in a location where there's tons of random flow. I fed a tiny piece of shrimp last night and it grabbed the food instantly and ate it.

My question is should I keep the MH going or shut it off? Can the 4x24w T5 do the job? I rather just run the T5s without having to turn on the MH.

What's it looks like. A little bleached??

Close up of tentacles.

My clowns love it. They literally went into the anemone a minute after the anemone is being introduce. I chased them to their corner of the tank where they host in hairy mushroom that same night and shut the lights off so that the anemone have some time to adjust. I found them all over the anemone the following morning. Now, they kind of go back and forth between their hosts.

Location of the anemone. Please note that the tank looks new but it is not. The tank has been set up for over a year now and it was transfer from a tank that was set up 6 years ago. I just like to keep my tank clean.
Anything you see here that I should change?

 

[richpoolboy]

yup, you should put that clam in my tank...lol

 

[5Starreef]

It looks good. You can use window screen protector to acclimate it.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I would use 3 layers of window screening (( can use egg create to support it )) b/t the lights and the tanks. Then remove a layer each 5-7 days. During that time I would leave your lights on whatever is your normal schedule.

I have done this numerous times with Haddonis, and it has worked great. The existing corals/inverts/clams in the tank weren't effected at all.

 

[this is me]

Would the T5s be enough to keep gigantea? Although I like the MH, I rather not use it because it heats up the tank and spike up my PH. The tank is a lot more stable with just the T5s. Temperature and PH has a much smaller swing with the T5s than with the MH.

Lighting configuration in this pictures with only T5s ON.
-------24W ATI Aquablue------ON
-------24W ATI Blur Plus-------ON
--250W 14k DE MH-- OFF
-------24W ATI Aquablue------ON
-------24W ATI Aquablue------ON

 

[OrionN]

That tank is immaculate but do not look new for sure. The glass is clean but if you want your tank to pass as a new tank you got to do a better job in cleaning the overflow box and PH

That is a nice S. gigantea. I would leave the light on full. It will do OK if it have not deflated since Thursday. It still have Zooxanthellae and should recover quickly. When I got mine, it is also a little bleached but recover within 1 week. It will be a beautiful anemone and will growth out his spot very quickly. Good luck with him. I think you should plan a new home for him ASAP. I wanted to feed mine to make sure he regain his strength after shipping. Initially every other days then decrease frequency. He grew from 8 inches to 16 inches in 4 months with the last month no direct feeding. Just what ever fish food he capture.

I think Gigantea required highest light of all the host anemones.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I agree with Minh. Give it all the light you got ASAP. No need to mess with shading.

 

[taylor t]

If it were mine, I would shade it. I've done both, blast with light, and shade. I think Todd's screen idea works best. Good luck.

 

[this is me]

Thanks Minh. I was hoping to hear from you since you have some gorgeous varieties of nems yourself.

That tank is immaculate but do not look new for sure. The glass is clean but if you want your tank to pass as a new tank you got to do a better job in cleaning the overflow box and PH

That is a nice S. gigantea. I would leave the light on full. It will do OK if it have not deflated since Thursday. It still have Zooxanthellae and should recover quickly. When I got mine, it is also a little bleached but recover within 1 week. It will be a beautiful anemone and will growth out his spot very quickly. Good luck with him. I think you should plan a new home for him ASAP. I wanted to feed mine to make sure he regain his strength after shipping. Initially every other days then decrease frequency. He grew from 8 inches to 16 inches in 4 months with the last month no direct feeding. Just what ever fish food he capture.

I think Gigantea required highest light of all the host anemones.

 

[this is me]

I programed my controller so that the MH is on for 2hours today. I had a photoshoot all day and did not see how it react to the intense light. However, when I came home it looked quite happy with just the T5s. After all the lights went out, I fed a piece of thumbnail size shrimp and it ate it. Since I had my camera out, here are some pics w/flash.
I think the color is getting better. (??)

 

[mobert]

Beautiful pictures!

 

[garygb]

Nice pic! I think that gigantea is lucky to have wound up in your tank. Perhaps a few hours of MH in the middle of the photoperiod (in combination with the T-5s). T-5s can certainly provide sufficient light for high-light demanding corals and anemones and would likely give the anemone all the light it needs, but since you have the MH, and knowing gigantea is a very shallow water anemone, why not give it all you've got. I'm glad you're target feeding it regularly. Since it is bleached, it will benefit from the additional nutrition and the ammonia produced by the anemone's digestion will provide food for zooxanthellae which, in turn, will colonize the anemone's tissue more quickly. Good luck. Keep us posted with pics.

 

[stevey87]

Hi, I love your clam. What kind of clam is it and how big was it when you bought it and how big is it now? I would love to have a clam like that.

 

[this is me]

Hi Steve,
The clam is a squamossa. I say it's about 10" and it hasn't grown much in length since I bought it.
It is an excellent ALK and CA reducer. :lol: If you get a clam this big, make sure you'll be able to keep up with the ALK and CA with a reactor.

Hi, I love your clam. What kind of clam is it and how big was it when you bought it and how big is it now? I would love to have a clam like that.

 

[OrionN]

You will see your A. percula color up in no time at all. Nice anemone.
About light, Gigantea are right at the surface and often exposed at low tide. It is almost impossible to reproduce that kind of light in our tank. It is virtually impossible to over-light a Gigantea IMO. I guess we can put a 1000 W MH 1 foot off the water surface and have the anemone right at or near the surface then maybe we give it too much light.

 

[Rod Buehler]

You will see your A. percula color up in no time at all. Nice anemone.
About light, Gigantea are right at the surface and often exposed at low tide. It is almost impossible to reproduce that kind of light in our tank. It is virtually impossible to over-light a Gigantea IMO. I guess we can put a 1000 W MH 1 foot off the water surface and have the anemone right at or near the surface then maybe we give it too much light.

I agree. Light er up When I had a tank burst one day, my gigantea was exposed/dry for a few hours minimum directly under a 400.

 

[this is me]

Thanks Rod and Minh once again! I will light it up.
Now, if the gigantea is used to being exposed to low tide under direct sunlight, I assume it is okay with the temp swing and the PH as well right? Like I said before, my swing is much greater with the MH being on but it's not out of wack, I don't think.
Temp of 80-82.
PH of 7.95-8.3

btw Rod, those are the clowns from you!! Almost 1.5years now.

 

[OrionN]

Rod,
I got babies from your babies. They are first rate Onyx. I only keep 5 and they are all as black as they can be and not quite 1 inch yet.

 

[this is me]

Increased the MH period to a whopping 2.5hrs today! Will be doing 3hrs tomorrow. The rest of the tank seem to be doing fine with the intense light.
Gig. is still doing well. No feeding today.

 

[tufacody]

While you have received advice from the pros, my experience with my gig is not to blast it with light too fast. When mine receives too much its tentacle length is noticably shorter, and will downright pout. I acclimate with screen for a week even when switching bulbs. I agree that these nems are ultimately capable of the most intense light, but not a bleached nem like this. While I have no clue if anemones have melanin-like qualities, I do wonder if bleached nems have the same UV protection ability as healthy nems. If it is accepting feeding, I don't see the point in blasting it so quickly. Just my 2 cents.