70 gallon setup

[Walt71100]

Hello,

I have a 70 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump, with the following:

30 Lbs live rock
30 Lbs live sand

165W LED lights running between 8-9 hours per day at 90%

solid return pump (DC-6000 set to med-low speed)
good performing protein skimmer, working correctly
1 power head, for cross currents, and additional surface ripple

temperature: 79.5
pH: 8.1
salinity: 1.025
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 5


I've have a relatively new green carpet anemone, that has has started curling inward, as soon as the lights go out. Has anyone seen this before?

[CafeReef]

First off, welcome!

But I hate to do this, tank from what it looks to me at least is WAY to new to have a nem, nitrates at 5 are enough to cause a nem to be unhappy. They need a tank to be very stable for a minimum of 6 months before they will generally accept their new homes.

How old is the tank? What kind of lights? 165w doesnt really mean much if the spectrum and PAR are not enough.

[Walt71100]

Hello, its nice to join in here.

Yes, I believe the tank is probably too new for him. The setup itself is only about a week old, however I had the rock go through a cycle over the last 8 weeks, and it has been stable. It went through an ammonia spike, then a nitrite spike, then some nitrate increase. I had a clown fish, a few hermit crabs, and some bio-additive run through this cycle on Real Reef rock. After going through this, I did a 100% water change, then moved everything into the 70 gal tank and added the 30lbs of live sand. I've been monitoring the parameters and everything has been very stable.

So, the clown was looking very lonely in the large tank and I decided to go to my local reef store and pick up the nem. Unfortunately, his may not have been a great choice, but I'm still not sure it was bad. Again, things have been stable. The nem eat a 6mm cube of raw sushi grade tuna yesterday and seemed happy as a clam.

The lighting is a "EverGrow" 55x3w, and the user manual is amazingly void of any company information or other fine print you may expect for a product like it. The spectrum output shown on one of the pages looks very much like recommended lighting I've seen on this site, and elsewhere.

The depth of the tank is 20", and the peek wavelength is about 450nm, with a range from about 400 to 700. The intensity can be adjusted over the day by timers, but I've been basically running it about 90% for 8 hours, then 1% a few hours in the evening, followed by total darkness for the remaining 8 hours of the day.

Walt

[Walt71100]

Hello,

I just wanted to follow up to my prior post regarding the rapid transformation of my new green carpet anemone right after the lights go out. He's been in the tank now for about a week, and seems to be doing very well. He found his way to the base of the rocks and sand, and parked there.

He spreads out fully while the lights are on, and then right after they turn out, he shrinks up substantially, and pretty quickly. Sometimes it will shrink up to be about 1/2 the size of the original picture I posted. A while after the lights are out, an hour or two anyway, it opens up a bit more, but not fully.

Attached is another photo taken today. Again, it seems to be doing well. Neither clown fish has taken to it yet, but I've heard that can take a long time, and sometimes never occurs. Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has a carpet anemone that act this way, if it is expected, or a slower transition on lights out would be better.

Regards,
Walt