Anemone Anomaly

[Tentagirl]

Hi, I have lots of questions! We have a 125 gallon reef tank with an Oceanic sump. We've got live rock and live sand, a maroon clownfish, a bubble tip anemone, a blue damsel, horseshoe crabs, a starfish and 3 snails. Our tank has been pretty stable, we cycled it for about 5 weeks before putting anything in. This week we've added a long tentacle anemone, and I'm concerned about how it is adjusting. We did acclimate it, and when it first went in the tank, it seemed fine and moved around. We have fed it krill once since we got it, and it ate that just fine. Yesterday, I saw it had gotten close to the water intakes and some tentacles were sucked in. I had to free it using a big net. I placed it on the sand out of the reach of the intake, but it doesn't seem to be the same. I was very careful while moving it, at least In thought I was! It hasn't tried to attach or even move very much since that happened.

Also, we suddenly have green alge growing on the walls of the tank, this hasn't happened in the time we've had the tank.

[biowheel]

Welcome to TRT

Sorry to hear about the intake issue . BTA's are always getting sucked in to intakes. It is VERY important that they are shielded or eliminated for that reason . Your tank is a bit youung to be housing a BTA. (5 weeks )?
The BTA should bouce back if he wasn't injured to bad . What kind of lighting is on the tank ?
The algae you are seeing is the normal cycle process of a reef tank .Keep up on water changes(weekly) and watch how much you feed the fish .Keep asking questions . We are all here to help . After you post 20 times you will be able to post pictures so keep posting . We'd love to see the tank .

[Doug1]

Hopefully your anem can bounce back from the power head fiasco

[Tentagirl]

We cycled the tank for 5 weeks before putting anything at all in it besides the live rock and sand. Then we added the clown fish and other inverts. That was in the summertime, and we just now added the other anenome. The lights are Coralife and have all 3 lighting types on them.

I just now checked the anemone again and it looks to me like the foot is shriveling up. Is there such a thing as anemone first aid?

We do water changes weekly, about 10% of the volume of the tank. Is that enough?

Also does anyone have directions for the nutrafin phosphate test? We bought the test kit, but the instruction booklet had been left out, so I don't know how many drops of each solution to add and all that.

Thanks for your quick reply!

[jenglish]

Mostly for nems you can only keep conditions perfect and hope they bounce back. In the right conditions they are very reselient because they are such simple critters. Signs of algae may be showing a little nutrient build up in your tank.

How much do you feed your tank? what kind filtration do you use? what are your lights as far as wattage and color?

oh, and welcome to TRT!

[Doug1]

No luck doing a quick search but here is Hagens Website

http://hagen-cen.custhelp.com/cgi-bi...i=&p_topview=1

[Seamore]

Welcome to TRT, your getting sound advice, most will tell you to hold off on adding Nems until the tank has matured six months or more. It is also critical to understand that it is simply a question of time before the nem will find and powerhead or intake. Powerheads are nem processors and should be avoided. Need more info on the filtration, and feeding, depending on the quality of the live rock (how long it had cured, porosity, origin...) you may still have some cycling yet to go before the tank stabilizes. Slow down on the stocking untill your sure the tank is stable. Good luck.

[Tentagirl]

Hi, thank you all for the replies and help!!

Here is the equipment we have:
125 all-glass aquarium
Oceanic reef ready sump model 2
Marineland protein skimmer model 300
122 GPH pump
2-Coralife aqualight 53404 36 x 7.5 x 3 with actinic 03 blue, 10,000K daylight, and lunar blue LED lights
2-Megaflow twinflow aquarium overflows

The live rock and sand came from someone else's tank, and had been in there for at least a year. I think they said the sand came from the Bahamas.

You are probably right about the fish food, I think have been feeding too much. We have ocean nutrition formula One Marine pellets, and they told us to feed 10 pellets per fish but they've been getting more than that. Hopefully, being more careful with the food will help with that.

I checked the hagen website, thanks. No instructions on the test, but I emailed their customer service dept.

I think I forgot to say we also have 2 cleaner shrimp, but nothing new will be added until I figure out what's going on.

Can I do anything for the anemone or should I just leave it alone?

Thanks again so much for all of the information!

[jenglish]

Is this the light you have?
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewit...ontent=ES53410

While there is a lot of watts put out by this fixture, these lights do not penetrate well so a nem in the sand may not get enough light. LTAs like to have their foot in the sand so it is going to want to be at the bottom in the sand.

THere is little to be done for a injured nem other than give it the clean water and bright light it needs. They often will not eat if they are not feeling well. If it is sticky enough to eat feed it small pieces of shelled or boneless meaty foods. If it does not have to spit out shell or bone it is easier for it to digest. You may find that with light penetration you have to put it in a tray of sand and elevate it but let's let some others drop by that are more familiar with the light penetration of power compact lights at that depth as I am more of a nano guy

[Tentagirl]

We have 2 of the 36 inch ones end to end. I can't post a link yet, but at the marine depot website if you search for ES23404, that's it.

I asked the guy at the local shop about somehow elevating the anemone, he thought that might be a good idea. I'll wait to hear from some others as you suggest. Might be fun to build an anemone condo.

Thank you!!!

[ktellerman]

Lighting is key with these little dancers. They require more than the Coralife bulbs can produce...

[Loverotties]

You need to cover your intakes so it's not like a blender.Also you need more light for it(that's why he keeps moving(trying to find enough light) ).

[Tentagirl]

Do I need to add more lights, or can I elevate the anenome? If I need to add, what should I use?

Thanks!

[Loverotties]

I'm not sure what you mean by saying you have all three types of light?

[Tentagirl]

The three types of light in the units we have are actinic 03 blue, 10,000K daylight, and lunar blue LED lights. The actinic and daylight are on timers, the blue LED lunar lights are always on.