Anenome Help It has shrunk

[averyboredandy]

Hi all i'm pretty new to reef keeping have only had the aquarium for a little over a year. Recently my Anenome has shrunk, it still takes food though. My two Percula clowns appear to live in the thank.

The temp was only at 72 however I have now raised this to 80

salt is at 23

There is good circulation of water.

The fish seem to be thriving. Mushrooms are growing, the leather is massive and the medusa is thriving.




Please help


As i'm asking for advice I have a second issue with lots of algae growing repeatidly on the side of the tank, i've tried snails however my hermits tend to love them for lunch. the light is on for 7 hours a day

I have attached the two pics and would be gratefull for any advice.

[fish.freak]

the anemone may be shrinking due to the poor water parameters that are making the algae go crazy.
test for nitrate and phosphate and let us know where they are...

[Doherty]

What are your nitrate/phosphate/ammonia levels?

[averyboredandy]

No2 is at 0
ammonia is at 0.25
No3 is at 0.25

Ph is about 8.4

any ideas?

[Doherty]

Do you have a phosphate test kit?

[fish.freak]

any ammonia in a year old tank is a sign of overfeeding, or some other issue?
There may have been some die off due to the temperature drop.
Best do a big waterchange, add some carbon, and run the skimmer wet for a while.
hope this helps. good luck.

[averyboredandy]

dont have a phos test kit, i guess I should go and get one. Was never advised to get one.

excuse my newbeness but what does running the skimmer wet mean?

[fish.freak]

No excuse needed, we all start somewhere. Well you know how to adjust the water level up and down, set it a bit higher and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesent overflow. The idea is to pull out more lighter colored skimmate, rather then less dark stuff. In theory it should pull out more waste, and is like small constant waterchanges. Remember as you skimm out water you should replace it with an equivilant volume iof salt water. If you just replace it with fresh you can rish lowering your salt level, but it shouldn't be too much.

[aquawolf]

Your skimmer should be adjustable so you can control what type of foam it creates. Skimming wet means that the collection cup is usually pushed down lower so that the wetter foam can more easily climb up the neck. You will lose more saltwater along with the skimmate this way. Skimming dry is usually done by raising the cup so that only the top of the foam column can be collected.

Do you happen to have a phosban reactor? If not it may be time to start looking into setting one up.

[Brocnizer]

I was always told that a phosphate kit is worthless at a hobbyist level. My new LFS told me you need to get some commercial grade one but they are $$$

If that is true, I have no clue.

[fish.freak]

algal growth is all the phos test needed, keep removing it until the algae growth is in check.
I would scrape all the algae off the glass off before your next water change and siphon out the most of the it. You can use a turkey baster or a powerhead to clean off the rocks too.
It may be time to change the bulbs too, and a lower spectrum can increase algal growth.

[averyboredandy]

I have always had the Skimmer set to at its full setting as it always created more foam that way, is this correct?

I have got the temp up to 80 is this okay for the anneome as the fish seem a lot more active at this temp.


In terms of the algae, on glass it was kept at bay by the snails however recently they appearto have been all eaten by the hermits.

I have had different algaes growing out the rocks, sorry i dont know any names

firstly i had long ribben like yellow algae that grew to the top of the tank, this took over so it was cut back. After this red thin branch like agae grew however this has since been covered by the new breed.

At the moment we have green feather like algae growing up out of the rock.? is this good bad?

In terms of overall tank health everything is great. Mushrooms are taking over and spreading well, i have a medusa and a leather that have grown impressively all over the tank.

the only things that have died in the tank are a box fish that didnt last a week, any shrimps i've ever brought as they are always eaten by the hermits, a star fish (any tips for these). And a coral beauty angel which was constantly attacked by the Percula clowns who are always breeding, anyway to slow this stop it?

sorry for all the newbie questions