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Any bubble tip nem gurus around???

MichaelB

MichaelB

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Wondering if any memebers would consider themselves selves pretty advanced when it comes to keeping anemone tanks.

I don't have any issues. Just looking for some detailed advice on my nem tank. Lighting etc. My nems have gotten smaller and more compacted since I removed the stock biocube32 lights and switched to kessil 360x.

Only looking to better dial the tank in for them as opposed to addressing any observed issue. Overall tank looks good beyond smaller compacted size of the nems.


They are all mostly in a tight grouping in center under the kessil. I've even kicked around the idea of adding a second kessils but this is only a biocube32 so one kessil should be more than adquate. I also have 2 black box type xr30 knocks offs that I thought about trying one for more spead.


There are some smaller ones that are new baby splits scattered around the tank.

I've purposely feed a little extra frozen food to the tank to encourage some splits so I can start sharing some of the nems.

My two largest nems one 12 inch across is now 5 inches, my Colorado once 10 inches is like 3 inches. They all seem healthy just not as big.

I've kept nems for 3-4 years now so I wouldn't call myself a noob with them but no where near a expert. So just looking for someone with solid experience with them who would be open to chatting about them.
 
How long ago did you start mixing anemones?
Are you running carbon?
What was previous PAR?
What’s PAR now?
Did you ramp the Kessil lights to acclimate the nems to a stronger light?

Nems can easily bleach if given too much light.

Maybe try going back to the BC32 hood leds to see if the nems like it better.
 
SupraSaltyReefer said:
How long ago did you start mixing anemones?
Are you running carbon?
What was previous PAR?
What’s PAR now?
Did you ramp the Kessil lights to acclimate the nems to a stronger light?

Nems can easily bleach if given too much light.

Maybe try going back to the BC32 hood leds to see if the nems like it better.
Click to expand...


I have 6 types of nems: Standard Rbta. Snowflake rbta, nexus burst, Colorado, a Shu Tin nem from thomas tank break down and black widow nem. They have been together for several months. Some even longer thab that. Last added was the one from Thomas. They seem to get along for the most part.

None are the green bubble tips.

I don't recall precise par from before. Yet it was the same lights from my biocube32 mix reef I shut down. Par at top maxed out at 240. It also included 5 12inch actinic 21 led bars.

Right now par is about the same. With m the exception kessils has better color spectrum than the biocube32 and modify light bars. Key difference is previous lights had more spread where as kessils seems to be more of a spot like type of light. It covers the tank maybe just a little more concentrated in the center. Under the lights verse even spread.

I don't think they are at risk of bleaching they have been under the kessil for several weeks no difference in colors observed only size. Most are at very top of tank like 1 inch under the water, same as they were before. The 2 bigger ones have moved higher up into the tank while before their foot was further down towards the bottom and they were stretched out reaching towards the top. They are higher so they no longer have to strech.

I haven't considered putting the old lights back on. The bars weren't attached very good and would often fall in the water. So I would need to figure out a better way to secure them. If I can do that i could give it a try.
 
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Just guessing as I’ve kept different types over the years in large aquariums. Some nems just stay small. If they were large at one time and I added a nem of another species and that nem didn’t like it. It would get smaller. There’s no way that I know of to tell if it’s chemical warfare. You could try carbon but I’m not a fan of carbon.
I don’t think it’s lighting because I’ve kept them under cheap china lights all the up to premium lights. They all grew.
 
Don't use those old lights, they were corroding pretty bad. Try turning up the intensity of the light and if you're using the tighter spread attachment, remove that.

I've seen btas grow under terrible lighting. Whether they're more inflated under weak lighting, I'm not sure but it could be possible.
 
Darkxerox said:
Don't use those old lights, they were corroding pretty bad. Try turning up the intensity of the light and if you're using the tighter spread attachment, remove that.

I've seen btas grow under terrible lighting. Whether they're more inflated under weak lighting, I'm not sure but it could be possible.
Click to expand...
No reflector on this light
 
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17573509385727563356476835726771.jpg

Full shot

Screenshot_20250908_100340_Chrome.jpg

Went from this
1757350957784408448716072182408.jpg

To this current looks healthy just much smaller lol.
1757351082671162074692880795871.jpg

Light placement
17573511601942316671685177219394.jpg

Current settings on spectral controller

I Have always ran carbon and Rowaphos on this tank.
 
derek_SR said:
They look great, what problem are you having?
Click to expand...
Just puzzled how it went form 12 inches to like 5.

The Chicago nem pretty much did the same thing both were huge now much smaller.

I don't think they are at risk or anything just has me scratching my head as to why. So not really calling it a issue more or less wondering if I'm missing something or need to slightly tweak something so they get bigger again.
 
You're probably losing 10% or so of the light to the new mesh lid also (assuming you didn't taking your light readings under the lid. Post a picture of your color settings too.
 
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Your new light is probably stronger than the previous light so the nems have moved to higher ground to soak up more light and don't need to expand as big.

You've got chemical warfare going on. Huge difference in appearance. You can tell by the colors being dark and the tentacles shrunken on that anemone. Chemical warfare doesn't happen over night, it can take an anemone months to a year to slowly dwindle away. Depends on tank size, water volume, water changes, carbon, etc....

IMO, you shouldn't risk highend anemones with common anemones. Keep a CSB dedicated tank. Move the Shu Tin nem to a different tank since it has a great lineage. Move or sell off the rest of the common anemones. Black Widows are notorious for not playing nice with other nems. @Bruce Spiegelman can attest to that. He used to farm WB nems like crazy.
 
Darkxerox said:
You're probably losing 10% or so of the light to the new mesh lid also (assuming you didn't taking your light readings under the lid. Post a picture of your color settings too.
Click to expand...
20250908_120856.jpg


I Didn't consider the lid it's acrylic or polycarbonate not screen. Could be stopping light.

20250908_122106.jpg

That's the peak part readings running than for about 4 hours.

I may need to consider a different lid for this tank. I expect screen wouldn't block as much light. I have wrasse in the tank that like splashing water on people so I expect they would definitely jump out. Otherwise I would loose the lid all together.

17573595621846650572816746317753.jpg

Alternatively I might cut out the center of this lid and replace it with screen and just keep the solid outter part of this lid as a sort of frame.
 
SupraSaltyReefer said:
View attachment 72919View attachment 72920

Your new light is probably stronger than the previous light so the nems have moved to higher ground to soak up more light and don't need to expand as big.

You've got chemical warfare going on. Huge difference in appearance. You can tell by the colors being dark and the tentacles shrunken on that anemone. Chemical warfare doesn't happen over night, it can take an anemone months to a year to slowly dwindle away. Depends on tank size, water volume, water changes, carbon, etc....

IMO, you shouldn't risk highend anemones with common anemones. Keep a CSB dedicated tank. Move the Shu Tin nem to a different tank since it has a great lineage. Move or sell off the rest of the common anemones. Black Widows are notorious for not playing nice with other nems. @Bruce Spiegelman can attest to that. He used to farm WB nems like crazy.
Click to expand...
I change 5 gallons a week and always run carbon. Didn't know about chemical warfare I kinda thought just it was don't mix the red with the green ones.

The black widow nem that I have has always stayed at the bottom of the tank seems to like lower light and never gets close to any of the others.
17573603616244987761824863373651.jpg



80 precent of the nems are on a single rock so ugh a real headache to try to remove specific ones. I'll have to make a project out of trying to split them up by type when have time.
 
MichaelB said:
View attachment 72921

I Didn't consider the lid it's acrylic or polycarbonate not screen. Could be stopping light.

View attachment 72922
That's the peak part readings running than for about 4 hours.

I may need to consider a different lid for this tank. I expect screen wouldn't block as much light. I have wrasse in the tank that like splashing water on people so I expect they would definitely jump out. Otherwise I would loose the lid all together.

View attachment 72923
Alternatively I might cut out the center of this lid and replace it with screen and just keep the solid outter part of this lid as a sort of frame.
Click to expand...
Don't cut the lid, but you can increase the violet quite a bit. I run mine closer to 90% (of course do this gradually not overnight). Can adjust red and green to your overall color tastes after.
 
Darkxerox said:
Don't cut the lid, but you can increase the violet quite a bit. I run mine closer to 90% (of course do this gradually not overnight). Can adjust red and green to your overall color tastes after.
Click to expand...
Got it. I've been doing the same as you recommended on sps tank. Just got this spectral controller a week ago so only just now adjusted the colors. Before I was using the buttons on top.
 
+1 to caution against the mixing of BTAs…Coming from someone who thought the risk was way overstated (And to an extent, it is/was).

I’ve had long-term success with DPV x CSB. BW x CSB eventually didn’t work out, though I don’t recall the specifics - Guessing the BW didn’t make it or got ditched because I still have my og csb :) Could it have been a million other things? Sure. But with low water volume already, it’s unneeded risk on a CSB — I’d ditch all of the others and just keep the CSB tbh. Maybe CSB x Shu Tins BTA since it’s been propagated for so many years, but all about risk tolerance.

Also — More nems means more chances of one finding a pump or something else.
 
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