My Blue Gigantea Anemone Under LEDs

[jonnybravo22]

Hello Everyone!

I have been looking forward to this thread for a long time. I spend most of my time reading the threads in this forum and for years have been fascinated by the threads with gigantea anemones. Today I am finally able to share some pictures of my very own Stichodactyla Gigantea!

The anemone has been in my tank for 1 month and seems to be getting happier each day. I have been fairly superstitious and did not want to post any pictures of the nem in my tank until I was more confident that it survived the acclimation period. I read lots of threads about "the jinx" of posting pictures too soon!

I was also very curious about lighting, as my tank is lit with high power LEDs and I don't believe anyone has posted a gigantea under LEDs in this forum before. I wasnt sure how it would respond but I am now of the opinion that these anemones can do very well under LED lighting. I would love to have some conversation about this guy, I'm very happy to have it. Here are some pictures.

This is in the store, a week before I picked it up. Pictures from my phone It is a little bleached and was slightly moreso when I picked it up (many clear tentacles though still with blue tips).





These are pictures from tonight. I didn't take any pictures when I first put it in the tank, so these are the first shots of the nem in my tank, but it has been 1 month. Like I said, I was pretty superstitious. Perhaps you can still tell, however, that it has gained a lot of brown zooxanthellae in its tentacles since first introduced, and it continues to develop more each day.











Foot


Clowns still want to host the return pump outlet, but i'm hoping they change their minds. I took the nozzle off to encourage them.



Gigantea!!!!!!!!!

[garygb]

Good job. Glad to see it is coloring up for you and appears healthy.

[clowns101]

Nice!His color has really improved hasnt it!

[jonnybravo22]

Originally Posted by garygb

Good job. Glad to see it is coloring up for you and appears healthy.

Thanks Garygb!

Originally Posted by clowns101

Nice!His color has really improved hasnt it!

Thanks! It certainly seems to be a healthier shade now! I didn't realize how much it had changed but looking at these pictures it is a stark contrast. (my lights are also better than the PC lights they had it under at the LFS though!)

keeping fingers crossed hoping it continues to do well.

[Trademark]

can u share with us on the info on your leds

[jbud2418]

Very nice did you buy it online or from a LFS.

[jonnybravo22]

Originally Posted by Trademark

can u share with us on the info on your leds

yes! I'm using the new version of the AquaIllumination LED lights.

I have 2 72W modules. they are only 2 or 3 inches above the water level. each is 16x White CREE XPG + 8x Blue CREE XPE.

[jonnybravo22]

Originally Posted by jbud2418

Very nice did you buy it online or from a LFS.

It was a rare move for me but I got it from a LFS. I normally do not buy livestock there but this surprisingly looked ok enough to buy and i knew my chances of success would be much improved if i could avoid the stress of shipping.

[nanoman31]

nice anenome! good luck! i'm still a novice tryin to keep
my bta alive after 3 weeks. mine looks good too

[jonnybravo22]

not sure what the PAR readings are for my setup, but i have had the max whites going up to 60% in the day for a few hours (approximating the height of the midday sun) couple with max 70% blues. This all with my modules about 2 inches off the water line (tank is only 16 inches deep). I have the blues at a higher percentage for a longer period of the day, but in terms of intensity levels both channels kind of form a bell curve shape throughout the day, hitting the highest intensity at midday. i'll look into getting a screenshot of the profilux lighting overview screen that shows this graphically.

i just raised the LED modules to about 5 inches off the water level (mostly for ease of maintenance) and increased to max 70% white and 75% blue. Still not sure if i should try increasing the intensity more. seems to be responding well to the current setup so don't want to make any big changes too quickly.

[jonnybravo22]

just a quick update. it's still doing well in under the LEDs. i'll post a pic soon.

it has really picked up a lot of zooxanthellae development which is awesome. i'll show the light setup in the next photos as well, but i'm actually quite surprised (and relieved) that i've noticed such solid improvement under LEDs. granted it was coming from a tank with compact flouresents, but i was a little worried for whatever reason that LEDs "wouldn't work for a gigantea", but they clearly do.

makes me happy.

the gigantea is very responsive to the light. it shrinks up as the lights dim down at night and inflates during the day. (though i fed it at night once and noticed it inflated after eating even at night). i normally feed every 2-3 days, small chunks of rods food as i'm feeding my fish.

[jonnybravo22]

The anemone is finally hosting my clowns! Well at least 1 of them

Over the weekend I came up with two strategies to try to help convince the clowns to enter the anemone. Remember they had been "hosted" by the powerhead / return line in the top left corner of the tank.

1) I directed all my powerheads at the corner they hung out in to make it 'less comfortable' there. they then decided to move to the other corner. i have some flow directed at that corner, but less directly than the first.

2) I have begun to introduce food right near the anemone. when they are hungry and see my bringing food they come right away and since i'm introducing it near the anemone now, a) they spend some time near it when they first start eating before the food blows everywhere in the tank and they no longer need to be in that spot to eat and b) they go to that spot to check for food more often.

well after a few days of this combination, out of nowhere my little guy (male clown) just hopped into the anemone! it was amazing. he was in the nem for a while the first night, then i fed the tank and he ended up moving after he ate. that night he slept in the corner (not the original corner though). the following day he spent all day in the anemone and he hasnt left since, he sleeps there now as well he's pretty much there 24/7 like it's the best thing ever! (does he remember that I first introduced the anemone a month and a half ago?)

the female is holding her ground in the second corner. i'm considering changing the flow back to normal and just letting her (hopefully) get the idea from the male clown.

for those having trouble getting clowns to host, you may want to try one of the above strategies. i would think they are pretty safe as the clowns are still choosing when they want to go into the anemone and build up whatever tolerances they need at their own pace, but you sort of give them some incentive as opposed to forcing them.

(BTW I tried attaching a picture of clowns hosting on the side of the tank --- did nothing! )

[BonsaiNut]

Sounds great! Look forward to the photos!!

According to the numbers, some LED systems SHOULD be bright enough for giganteas. But I'd rather see first hand success than rely on LED fixture specs.

[juniorjose]

thats a nice nem!!!!!! im considering getting a nem also in the future. how long did u wait till u added it?

[5h3rW1N]

nice tank and nice carpet

[jonnybravo22]

Originally Posted by BonsaiNut

Sounds great! Look forward to the photos!!

According to the numbers, some LED systems SHOULD be bright enough for giganteas. But I'd rather see first hand success than rely on LED fixture specs.

absolutely. i think you're right to look for real examples over calculations or specs. I'm glad this thread is providing a real example. As far as i know I'm the first to house a gigantea under the latest high quality LEDs as the sole light source. perhaps this will encourage others to try it!

Originally Posted by juniorjose

thats a nice nem!!!!!! im considering getting a nem also in the future. how long did u wait till u added it?

thanks! my tank was up for about 8 months before introducing the nem, however it that was setup mostly transferring from my last tank which was up for two years (kept the livestock and liverock during transfer)

i would suggest doing lots of research. these are not easy to keep and particularly difficult to acclimate so do your homework first and have the proper equipment / arrangements for them.

Originally Posted by 5h3rW1N

nice tank and nice carpet

thanks!

[jonnybravo22]

Here you can see that the zooxanthellae (brown coloration in the tentacles) is returning. In this picture the top of the nem has regained a lot of color. This was from the beginning of March.







This next picture is from today. lights are still mostly dim, blue light ("sun" hasn't come out yet) so nem is still a bit contracted in sleep mode. I'll try to get a fresh pic of it fully expanded when the lights are on. Even more of the zooxanthellae has come in. and now my male clown is being hosted!





(with flash off)

[jupiter]

I'm following this thread and hopefully you will keep it updated for the next couple of years. I'd love to see how well the anemone lives under LEDs. I think LED lighting will improve greatly in the coming years, probably making your current lighting obsolete, so hopefully you will upgrade your lighting along with the improvements. Then again, 10 years ago I never thought VHO would lose popularity but I did think MH would.

[jonnybravo22]

Originally Posted by jupiter

I'm following this thread and hopefully you will keep it updated for the next couple of years. I'd love to see how well the anemone lives under LEDs. I think LED lighting will improve greatly in the coming years, probably making your current lighting obsolete, so hopefully you will upgrade your lighting along with the improvements. Then again, 10 years ago I never thought VHO would lose popularity but I did think MH would.

Glad you're tagging along.

I may stay current with whatever new LEDs come out but I would reconsider your premise that new technology will make existing LEDs obsolete.

That concept holds with computer systems because they have to be fully integrated and new software wont be compatible with old systems, or will require more memory or processing speed than old systems can provide etc. Here we're just talking about lights. There's nothing it necessarily has to integrate with so provided that it meets a threshold that it provides enough light today for the tank, anything that comes out in the future is just potentially a more efficient, more powerful, or more feature laden light. It doesn't make anything obsolete b/c the old version still turns on, still provides light for your system. For instance I have the old version of the AI LEDs as well That's still a good light (that I should find a use for since I only have 1 tank set up at the moment).

Now i do have my AIs hooked up to my Profilux controller, but they work together (and it's not necessary that I use both together --though i would always try to do that).

anyways -- people have gotten very used to saying "the technology is improving" -- and it is! but that doesnt mean that the right system cant do the job already.

The cool thing about LEDs is that they are so easy to control digitally... which makes for lots of possibilities. Many of those I already take advantage of with the Profilux controller, but who knows maybe someone will come out with something in the future that is a feature i just have to have! Outside of that, I think the only thing I would get a new light for is a different color spectrum with more purple. AI chose 470 nm for their blue. I would like it if i could get something closer to 420 nm.

If i continue to see good results though, I would not be in any rush to change my lights if new ones come out. the only thing i'm wondering now that the nem seems to do well w/ LEDs is is there a way to get my Pearlberry to color up -- which may be more related to the tank owner's inexperience with SPS, considering it's my first, but who knows!

[jonnybravo22]

in other words: 400W MH didn't make 250W MH obsolete b/c 250W is capable of providing adequate light to a system.

[jonnybravo22]

the male clown has been doing some great posing now that he's doing so from the comfort of the anemone. thought i'd post. you can also see the nem's color.

[Rossini]

Stunning!

Good luck with it.

[jupiter]

Originally Posted by jonnybravo22

Glad you're tagging along.

I may stay current with whatever new LEDs come out but I would reconsider your premise that new technology will make existing LEDs obsolete.

That concept holds with computer systems because they have to be fully integrated and new software wont be compatible with old systems, or will require more memory or processing speed than old systems can provide etc. Here we're just talking about lights. There's nothing it necessarily has to integrate with so provided that it meets a threshold that it provides enough light today for the tank, anything that comes out in the future is just potentially a more efficient, more powerful, or more feature laden light. It doesn't make anything obsolete b/c the old version still turns on, still provides light for your system. For instance I have the old version of the AI LEDs as well That's still a good light (that I should find a use for since I only have 1 tank set up at the moment).

Now i do have my AIs hooked up to my Profilux controller, but they work together (and it's not necessary that I use both together --though i would always try to do that).

anyways -- people have gotten very used to saying "the technology is improving" -- and it is! but that doesnt mean that the right system cant do the job already.

The cool thing about LEDs is that they are so easy to control digitally... which makes for lots of possibilities. Many of those I already take advantage of with the Profilux controller, but who knows maybe someone will come out with something in the future that is a feature i just have to have! Outside of that, I think the only thing I would get a new light for is a different color spectrum with more purple. AI chose 470 nm for their blue. I would like it if i could get something closer to 420 nm.

If i continue to see good results though, I would not be in any rush to change my lights if new ones come out. the only thing i'm wondering now that the nem seems to do well w/ LEDs is is there a way to get my Pearlberry to color up -- which may be more related to the tank owner's inexperience with SPS, considering it's my first, but who knows!

I actually meant technology with LEDs will improve. I wouldn't be tagging along if you switched to new technology

[jupiter]

Originally Posted by jupiter

I actually meant technology with LEDs will improve. I wouldn't be tagging along if you switched to new technology

I didn't fully read what you wrote before I posted.

I was actually referring to the associated fixtures, reflectors, etc., not the LED light. But ...
I don't know what the future holds for LED lighting. A few decades ago some thought computers couldn't get faster without getting larger. Perhaps smaller LEDs with brighter lights are next. I don't know. As of now, I'm not confident LEDs penetrate deep enough for a strongly photophilic anemone but I'm not closed to the idea that they are. I am following along to see how things turn out. There is already some question as to whether LED is really that much more efficient than T5s.
And technology upgrade doesn't just apply to the LED light itself - which again, is not what I was actually referring to when I posted. The fixture might improve. We may find that 100 LEDs in a fixture just aren't enough, that we need to move up to 1000 for proper lighting, or that there are "special reflectors" to make light better. This would drive up the inefficiency. I'm ignorant in that I don't know the future and can only base what I know on what exists today. But I'm still following to see how things progress. Of course, with anemones something unrelated could kill it in a matter of days completely unrelated to the lighting.

The anemone still looks good. We may find they don't need as much light as we originally thought, or that LED light provides the "right light" vs fluorescent or MH. It may take another decade. I'm relatively new to the hobby (since 1991, I think) but things have changed a lot since then. Even things we thought were a given have completely changed.
Just keep us updated

[Rosengrant826]

thats amazing i love the color. I also love your male clown.

keep us posted with more pictures please.

:-)