my anenome doesn’t like its light and I don’t know what to do?

[Kristophf]

Please go invest in proper nitrate and phosphate test kits, sailfert are excellent and only $10-15 each. If you want to keep advanced critters such as anemones you must test and you should wait at least 6 months (and really a year if your new at this) before adding them. These animals live for decades in the wild so we owe it to them to provide them with the best chance of survival while in our care...

As for the anemone you posted, slow acclimation to the new light is key especially if it is bleached. The hiding from the light is a normal response and it will slowly work its way out into the light over a few weeks if it is healthy. Unfortunately that nem does not look even remotely healthy and will likely die even if it was placed in a thriving mature system. To try and bring it back though you want to a) do not turn up the lights more then a hair turn each week and b) try feeding it a very small piece of frozen food (like the size of a pencil eraser at most) the to see if it will take it. If it takes the food you stand a solid chance at saving it by feeding it eraser sized offerings 2-3 times a week.

Also, can we please stop telling people to go buy a $200 piece of equipment when they don’t even have basic test kits. It does our hobby a disservice...

And for someone with no experience and idea on light intensity a par mater will help alot with keeping animals particularly nems who require a very specific amount of light, rather than guessing and failing

 

[homer1475]

God, how on earth did we ever keep these super fragile creatures alive before they invented a par meter?

Without basic test kits(ALK, Cal, Mag), a par meter is useless. You can have great light parameters and very low alk, and things will still die. A par meter is a luxury item and certainly not needed just like a lot of equipment in this hobby.

 

[Orcus Varuna]

And for someone with no experience and idea on light intensity a par mater will help alot with keeping animals particularly nems who require a very specific amount of light, rather than guessing and failing

So exactly how much light does an anemone require? 347 PAR, 192, 412, 94? Keeping anemones is what I have specialized in since starting in this hobby over a decade ago and guess what?!?! I went about 9 of those years without ever using a PAR meter [emoji33]. Stable parameters and understanding the basics of water chemistry via testing is the key to keeping difficult animals such as anemones alive. Any modern light source is sufficient for keeping them and will be the least important factor ime...

 

[kapnkush608]

Without reef keeping fundamentals your nem is pretty much doomed I highly recommend that you try and learn as much as possible about keeping a reef tank asap if you want it to have a chance. Anemones can be just as challenging if not more so than keeping sps. Look at it as if your tank is a toddler and you are expecting it to babysit a newborn. Moment of complete honesty, it's not the nem it's you my guy.

 

[Kristophf]

Congrats on your 9 years of experienced estimations your both lucky and have a good eye for it. Not everyone is that intuitively inclined. Of course water chemistry is the fundamental of reef keeping and that should be a given. But if you want to seriously save this nem and have the money now wouldnt be a bad time to invest in one. Just saying it helped me see what kind of par i was shooting out and helps me when acclimating corals and nems. I didnt really know what par i was giving out until i saw the readings

 

[Instigate]

A cheap LUX meter can give you a rough idea of the amount of light you're feeding it: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-lux-meter-how-do-i-use.368945/#post-4549549
But I agree the test kits should be the first move. @Alexusto1 Hows the nem? Did you get some test kits?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Bump up salinity one point to 1.02, moderate water flow and mainly- looks like a white fluorescent tube and all dim white lighting.. You need to add blue and run blue at 75% and white at 20%. And do feed OCCASIONALLY