gigantea anemone question.

[MrManz1691]

ok so im stressing really bad. i got a beautiful purple gigantea carpet 4 days ago. acclimated it for about 3 hours before introducing it to my display. i set it in the front in the sand but right infront of the rocks. in about 20 min my mated pair of false percs took to it and were in love. well it looked great until today. i fed it krill yesterday. however i am not sure if it ate any. the clowns wouldnt leave it alone. so i think most if not all of the krill it let fall out/off of itself. today i got home from work and it shrunk. it was probally 15-18 in across, well today it was 6-8. the mouth has been opening a little and then closing. a few times i saw small parts of what i would assume would be the insides, however its mouth is tight and closed now.

i am really stressed. the lights are out and its really small now. prob 5in across. the clowns are still in it. it is still extremly sticky. it is also moving vrry slowly towards a cave in the rocks behind it. what do you guys think? do they sometimes shrink up? i waited about 6mo for this guy and i would be sick if he dies.

here are my params.
100 gal with 40 gal refigum
175 watt 20000k halide
phos 0
nitrates 20-30ppm they are dropping. been fighting them for two weeks. they were really high till aout three weeks ago. he arrived in 80+ppm
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
temp 74-76 deg
salinity 1.021
cal 440-460 ppm

please tell me he is prob pooping and im just worrying for no reason. ill post before and after pics tommorow. home computer died. im typing this on my blackjack.

[Rod Buehler]

Sorry for the very brief recomendations that I am about to give..

Salinity is way to low.. Get it up to natural sea water of 1.026

Temp is too cold for giganteas IME.. 80 ish (if not more)

Your lighting is too weak for giganteas.. Even if you switched kelvin to a 10KK (recommended) a 175 is not enough unless that tank is only 12" tall

You water flow is likely not blasting strong enough

Good Luck

[GSMguy]

Those nitrates are very high as well.

[MrManz1691]

well good news. he is big again. abot 12-15 across. but thank you for the info. i am upgrading lighting literally tommorow. i got 4 250 watt 14k coralifes with 4 54watt actinics and a new hood.

i will up the salinity and the temp slowly over this week. i will also recheck the flow. any recomendations? i have two large rios on either side of the tank. sorry not sure which model.

the nitrates are high because like a idiot, when i went from my 20 gal sump with bio balls that had a large sponge in it to my 40 gal refigum, i picked up the sponge with the return pump on and alot of crap got in the tank. did a large water change. lost nothing but the nitraes skyrocketed. i have been getting them down over the last three weeks. i did a 20 gal water change yesterday and added two bags of chemipure. the nitrates should be nothing by the end of this working week.

thank you for the info with the temp and the salinity. i can never get the search engine here to work. is there any sites with good info on these guys. im trying really hard to make this work for him. he is so beautiful, and i have never seen my clowns so happy.

-andrew

[J.R.L.]

i noticed my GBTA would do the same thing if the temp got to low...raise the temp to about 80

[phender]

Giganteas tend to like a surging flow rather than a blasting flow. If you can bounce the rios of the glass, that would be better than a direct flow.

You are not out of the woods yet just because it is reinflated. One of the signs of a gigantea doing poorly is a cycle of shinking and inflating that gradually becomes more shrinking than inflating and leads to the animal's death. Keep the flow high and get those lights installed asap.

[55semireef]

First thing you can do is switch your 20,000 K bulb to a 10,000 K because you would be getting better PAR. Increase your salinity and lower your nitrates. It would be better if you got more surging flow as well.

[GSMguy]

try a controllable pump get some surging flow.

Tunze, or vortech wd-40

[MrManz1691]

ok the salinity is now at 1.023.
Temp is rising at about 76-77 deg.
and the nitrates are at 10-15ppm.

I know he is getting flow but it is a constant flow. He is moving in the current. The pumps are hitting in from the glass. they are bouncing off the glass.

He has however shrunk up again. But the lights are just coming on.

[MrManz1691]

on a side not i found it really intresting that the salinity tester i have has 1.019-1.025 as the good range for the tank. As in those numbers are red and everything else is black. But then it could just be me reading it wrong.

[Lance M.]

1.021 is fine for a FOWLR but with reef tanks- corals and anemones you want the sg 1.025-1.026. Are you using a hydrometer to test or a refractometer? I seriously recommend using a refractometer if your not already.

[MrManz1691]

im sorry but i dont know what a refractometer is. does it just measure salinity?

on a side note,
nitrates 0-5ppm
nitrites 0ppm
ammonia 0ppm
salinity 1.025
temp 78-79 deg

he is looking better. going to try feeding tonight, after i install the lights and hood. i know i need to acclimate them to the light increase over the next week or so.

thanks again and merry christmas,
-andrew

[fatdaddy]

Most anemones will go through contractions (for lack of a better word). They will probably do this more in the beginning then the end. Try not to worry to much.

Has it eaten?

Btw, you'll definitely warm up your tank with the MH lighting. :-) You'll need fans or chillers as your next issue.

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11449305#post11449305 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phender
Giganteas tend to like a surging flow rather than a blasting flow. If you can bounce the rios of the glass, that would be better than a direct flow.

You are not out of the woods yet just because it is reinflated. One of the signs of a gigantea doing poorly is a cycle of shinking and inflating that gradually becomes more shrinking than inflating and leads to the animal's death. Keep the flow high and get those lights installed asap.
ditto.
And don't worry about increasing temps- gigantea will do much better with a minimum temp of 80F IME.
I can't stress this enough: proper (and stable!) water flow, lighting and temperature are the most important parameters to concern yourself with right now. Good luck.

[Lance M.]

Yes a refractometer measures salinity. I got mine for $45. It is very precise. I use to use a hydrometer and it would be dead on (when comparing it's reading to a refractometer) for one tank and then be off my .004 on another tank. So it would read 1.026 but the salinity would actually be 1.022. Hydrometers are pretty much useless imo for reef tanks.