Anemone

[Afish4u]

I think my anemone has something wrong with it. It has closed up and is very small right now. It has been acting weird for the past few weeks. I know it ate yesturday but I'm concerened. all of my tank parameters are now fine also . I did have nitrates a little high for a little bit. But the tank has recovered. I have had this guy for 7 months + any ideas?

[Afish4u]

ok correction my my Nitrate level is at about 20. .... yes I know do a water change. Its only a 24 gal tank. And I'm in the process of doing that.

[schneijt]

Ummm... We're gonna need a lot more information to help here. Lighting, anemone type, pictures would help, were the changes in water chemistry sudden? What other equipment are you running to maintain water quality etc...

Anemones are touch to keep in smaller systems, but it can be done. Let us know some more info and we'll see if we can help you out.

-Joe

[Afish4u]

well I'm playing the waitting game right now. Its a RBTA, can't really get to it with a camera at this point, no changes in water chem, PC's for light (aquapod) just have lr and carbon. tank has been very good for me so far. water change every 2 weeks.

[schneijt]

Well, if all the water parameters are "stable" (a somewhat relative term in smaller size tank) then the best thing to do is to give it time and see what happens. Hopefully when you said it was "acting up for the past few weeks" you didn't mean shriveled up for that long. All anemones will do MUCH better under MH than PC, but PC should be enough light to keep it going and surviving. Just give it some time and do your best to keep the tank stable and healthy. Also I'd feed a bit less unless it's fully inflated and looking healthy. Just keep an eye on it and we'll go from there.

-Joe

[pogodzib]

The only times that I have had problems with my BTA's under PC lighting is when water topoffs weren't done every day. Doing topoff's every other day caused the tank's parameters to drift too much. All anemones need stable parameters.

Do you feed your RBTA anything? What, how much and how often?

Your nitrate should ideally always read zero. I have never had any detectable nitrates in my tanks, even when my 45 gallon only had 20 Lbs LR, a Seaclone skimmer and 7 fish. If you have detectable nitrates, you may be overfeeding or could be having issues with your LR or sand bed. How often and much do you feed? What do you feed? How many fish do you have? How much LR rock do you have? How deep and old is your sand bed? Is it sand or crushed coral?

[Afish4u]

ok well good new is the anemone is looking better. Brian.. I have 3 fish, a shrimp and an urchin. My clam seems to be fine also. I have sand for my bed its 3-4" my corals are all growing good right now (monti is going like mad) The only problem coral is my ric's for some reason they are shrinking. The only think I have done different lately is add chateo in the tank and the has lights on it only during the day. I have not been able to figure out why the rics are getting smaller. I should note it is two out of the 4 rics thats are doing this(the ones from last summers coral conference at fosters.) I feed my fish once a day flakes, and I have 25-30 lbs of live rock

[Angel~Eyes]

rics shrinking could be a flow issue? not sure what you have in there for flow, but I know many in the TC are adding MJ900 to their nanos. Aslo, some are replacing the main pump with a MJ1200 for flow. I had to pull the Zoos out of our Aquapod until I can up the flow in there for the same reason.
My fish and softies love the tank....but zoanthids were shriveling up and disappearing.

Good Luck.

~Dawn

[jeffish]

looking forward to seeing some pics Afish4you.

[Afish4u]

I'm running mj12000 with 2 nozzles, with good flow. I have had one ric close to the top and in direct flow and thats not helping.