Typical new tank + anemone = problems post

[esine189]

Hello everyone. I have a ~9 week old tank. Bought an anemone 3 weeks ago and put him in. As of 3 days ago it was out and opened looking beautiful. 3 days ago I noticed he wasn’t out. He has hit foot attached in a cave and has not come out for the light at all. He goes back and forth between the two states pictured below every few hours.

This change in behavior started in the middle of my time period between water changes. The only change I made was Turing on my BRS carbon/gfo reactor because my tank was starting to get som algae and my phosphates looked to be above 0.25. The test kit for phosphates was imagitarium. I’m not super confident in my ability to correctly match the color or the accuracy with that test.

I’m worried I either pulled all the nutrients out of the water or I possibly introduced bacteria that effected the anemone.

Here are the current parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Temp: 77
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0 (I’m guessing problematic)

Phosphate: can’t tell the difference between 0 and 0.25 as those are the two closest increments but somewhere inbetween

Alkalinity: 8.6 Hannah checked

 

[esine189]

Sorry if the pictures are hard to see the problem. It’s a very small angle to get line of sight and hard to focus.

I should add that the foot looks to be firmly attached as of now.

 

[Mastiffking]

Hello, welcome to reef2reef! Can you provide more details on your tank? I personally waited 8 months before adding an anemone, but you are past that point so let’s try to figure out how to fix it.

1st are you feeding it? I feed mine a mix of music shrimp and clam (reef frenzy) and mine is doing extremely well. Open disc is about 8” across.

2nd-if you are running go in your reactor i would turn it off. You can managed phosphate through water changes and feeding. Carbon in the reactor is ok and will help keep the water clear.

3rd - how intense are the lights on your tank? The lighting could be too strong for the anemone and it is trying to stay out of it.

4th - invest in a better testing setup. Recommend Sailfert or Hanna testing kits. Others can make additional recommendations but these are the 2 I have experience using.

5th what is your water flow like in the tank? Is the current to strong where it is attached? Is there no flow at all? The flow should be moderate enough to see the tentacles flowing back and forth.

I assume that you made your saltwater with RO/DI water or purchased it at the LFS. If not, there could be chemicals in the water causing it to retract. Please provide the additional info to the questions above so we can help out more.

Hope it’s doing better.

 

[littlefoxx]

Tank is way too young for a nem. Its recommended a year before the nem goes in

 

[esine189]

Tank is way too young for a nem. Its recommended a year before the nem goes in

Thanks for the insight

 

[OrionN]

How is he today? I hope he is better. The best you can do is make sure you tank water is up to par. You can move and turn the rock so he can get exposed to some light. BTA does not want a lot of light or a lot of current so get them to light but not really bright light. Don't remove the anemone, just move the rock and turn it.

 

[esine189]

Hello, welcome to reef2reef! Can you provide more details on your tank? I personally waited 8 months before adding an anemone, but you are past that point so let’s try to figure out how to fix it.

1st are you feeding it? I feed mine a mix of music shrimp and clam (reef frenzy) and mine is doing extremely well. Open disc is about 8” across.

2nd-if you are running go in your reactor i would turn it off. You can managed phosphate through water changes and feeding. Carbon in the reactor is ok and will help keep the water clear.

3rd - how intense are the lights on your tank? The lighting could be too strong for the anemone and it is trying to stay out of it.

4th - invest in a better testing setup. Recommend Sailfert or Hanna testing kits. Others can make additional recommendations but these are the 2 I have experience using.

5th what is your water flow like in the tank? Is the current to strong where it is attached? Is there no flow at all? The flow should be moderate enough to see the tentacles flowing back and forth.

I assume that you made your saltwater with RO/DI water or purchased it at the LFS. If not, there could be chemicals in the water causing it to retract. Please provide the additional info to the questions above so we can help out more.

Hope it’s doing better.

Hi thanks for the reply.

1. I was feeding it enriched brine shrimp. On one of the last feedings I had some of the brine shrimp mixed with reef foods, as I was target feeding some corals. Wasn’t sure if the reef roids upset it.

2 and 4: I got a Hanna phosphate checker and my phosphate was at 0.06. I decided to keep running the gfo. Do you think I should still stop?

3. I’m using a 2x80watt bulb t5 fixture.

5. I’m running a Red Sea 9000 reef run return pump and a mango wave maker.

The nem has not worsened and came out a few times but still has not returned to what it was.

Tank was setup with tap water and decorator but all water changes since has been done with Rodi water.

 

[esine189]

How is he today? I hope he is better. The best you can do is make sure you tank water is up to par. You can move and turn the rock so he can get exposed to some light. BTA does not want a lot of light or a lot of current so get them to light but not really bright light. Don't remove the anemone, just move the rock and turn it.

Thanks for the reply. He has come out once or twice on his own since his “decline”. The foot is still firmly attached. I can turn the rock but I was worried about putting too much stress on him if he didn’t want to be in the light. Here is a video from the first time he came out. (This was yesterday so about 2-2.5 weeks since he went in the cave).

 

[OrionN]

I cannot see the movie. Still picture is a lot better IMO in given the details, with much higher resolution. Either that or upload your video to a third party and link it (youtube)

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

The nem has not worsened and came out a few times but still has not returned to what it was.

I know there are the "new tank issues" at play, but fwiw, nems can be weird. I've had a large one move underneath a rock and shrink for weeks at a time for no reason, and then be back out large and in charge overnight. The good thing about nems is they can move around, so if the issue is light or flow, it will find a happy spot.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

And who knows, maybe when he re-emerges, he'll be twins

 

[esine189]

I cannot see the movie. Still picture is a lot better IMO in given the details, with much higher resolution. Either that or upload your video to a third party and link it (youtube)

Understood. This is how he looks currently. Difficult spot to get my phone to focus.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Understood. This is how he looks currently. Difficult spot to get my phone to focus.

He looks good to me.

 

[esine189]

I know there are the "new tank issues" at play, but fwiw, nems can be weird. I've had a large one move underneath a rock and shrink for weeks at a time for no reason, and then be back out large and in charge overnight. The good thing about nems is they can move around, so if the issue is light or flow, it will find a happy spot.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I would be more than happy if he re-emerges and starts taking over my tank

 

[crazyfishmom]

Turn the rock over. If he moves again then that gives you a clue that the lighting is too strong and that can guide where you place the rock to allow him to still get some light. In my experience nems mostly don’t like reef roids. My nems respond really well to mysis/brine and restor. He doesn’t look awful. But will definitely need some TLC and close attention given the age of the tank. If you can add a piece of well seasoned live rock that might help.

Here are some of mine:

I started with a green one and one RBTA… now there’s 12-13 (2 green and the rest rainbow). Put the first one in the tank about 4 weeks in. Mature tanks definitely help nems stay healthy but it can be done with a lot of care.

Good luck with yours!

 

[OrionN]

As long as his tentacles can reach the light, he should be fine (that is if he is not sick). Moving him will not help if that is the case. If he continue to deflates, consider take him out and treat him.

 

[esine189]

Turn the rock over. If he moves again then that gives you a clue that the lighting is too strong and that can guide where you place the rock to allow him to still get some light. In my experience nems mostly don’t like reef roids. My nems respond really well to mysis/brine and restor. He doesn’t look awful. But will definitely need some TLC and close attention given the age of the tank. If you can add a piece of well seasoned live rock that might help.

Here are some of mine:

I started with a green one and one RBTA… now there’s 12-13 (2 green and the rest rainbow). Put the first one in the tank about 4 weeks in. Mature tanks definitely help nems stay healthy but it can be done with a lot of care.

Good luck with yours!

Thanks for the advice. Beautiful nems too. I'll flip the rock over and report back in a few days.