Anemone Questions

its either upping its slime coat to protect itself, or i would say melting. when it poops its a nice brown stream. you do know that you need to feed that little bugger alot as well thoigh right? honesty, and you can take this advice or not. dont buy anything more till your water is ready. your lucky that you dont have a case of ick on your fish. with the lower salinity, it makes them very susseptable to catching it. good luck and dont go to fast. will cost you alot more in the long run.

-andrew
 
I would suggest you add a protein skimmer and activated carbon, along with doing regular water changes. The temperature you mentioned is fine, how is the ph, nitrates, alk, water circulation (~how many times per hour does the tank volume turnover)?
 
Also, you mention you have a flowerpot in your tank. If those same employees that you say have lots of good information recommended that coral, I wouldn't listen to anything they say. Flowerpots are definitely not beginner animals.
 
As has already been said, your specific gravity is way too low. You also haven't posted your test values for nitrates or ammonia.

You have a Goniopora in this tank? With the amount of food required to feed the Goniopora, not to mention the fish and Anemones, I think your filtration is a problem. You should post your test values. I can't see how this tank is doesn't have high nitrates unless you aren't feeding the goniopora.
 
Though you're not asking for info. on flowerpots, I found this on RC and thought it might be helpful. These corals are such a long shot, all the info. you can get on them can only increase the odds. If you didn't do your research, you (an your tank) would benefit from thoroughly reading up on an animal prior to adding it to your aquarium.

http://www.goniopora.org/
 
Dont feel like we are attacing you thouhg, I had the same thing happen to me when i started. My LFS sold me a really nice flowerpot(goniopora) when i started my tank. It died over the next 6 months of adding it. They told me it would feed off the light, and i belived them. Needless to say, i dont go there anymore.

All the info you will ever need for you tank you can find here. Everything has been discussed or is being discussed here. I wokr at a Fish Store now and I tell everyone that has questions for me that they should also be reading this site. This place is the best.

-ANdrew
 
Alright I have all my readings on my tank.
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate <5ppm
Phosphates <.25ppm
PH ~8.4
Hardness(KH) 11
Salinty- 1.02
Calcium- approx 260-300

Im turning over 800 gallons of water an hour
 
Tank parameters look good for the most part. I know you are slowly increasing the specific gravity, which is a good thing. Once it is up to 1.026ish, check your Ca, maybe it will be in the desired range then. A protein skimmer might help with those phosphates in the long run, but polyfilter would probably help for now. I'm glad you are doing what you can to get things up to par in your tank.
 
A hang-on-the-back protein skimmer like an Aqua C Remora would be great. Some people prefer the Octopus HOB, or the Bermuca Rouge, any of those would be helpful to your tank--if you can. If not, water changes on a weekly basis with carbon (or chemipure) and polyfilter or another phosphate absorber would be good. Also, the type of salt mix is important for good alk and Ca levels. ReefCrystals is a very good all around salt and Instant Ocean is fine too. You get find those, probably cheapest, online at Drs.Foster and Smith (anyone else know of a cheaper place?).
 
I will do my research on the protein skimmer. I am a college student so money doesnt come easy. I do water changes about every other week. I use carbon in the filters i use. I use instant ocean as the salt mix.
 
As your specific gravity gets higher, so too will your Ca. There are two part solutions, like ESV or C-Balance that can be used to adjust your Ca, but get your sg up to 1.026 first.
 
I am looking at these protien skimmer on the internet. I am not sure i have room on the back of my tank to hang one of these. I have two Emperor 400 filteration systems and a powerhead and a heater hanging off the back of the tank right now. These protein skimmers are not small in size by any means. What is exactly the benefit of having a protien skimmer in my tank vs not having one? Also seeing as my water numbers are not too far off, is there a chance that something else could be the problem? I was told maybe metal in my tank? which i am very unsure how this would have happened, or too much eletric current? If there was metal how would i even begin to look for it?
 
polyfilter the magic sponge...sucks up everything from metal to ammonia to...cheese i think. its pretty cheap as far as tank additions go.

a protein skimmer (which doesnt really skim proteins per se) will cause all these organic compounds, which have a hydrophobic and hydrophilic end to be removed--by pushing water across the stream of bubbles, the organics will 'attach' their hydrophobic ends to the bubble, then be collected at the top of the tank. the skimmer pulls out tons of unwanted compounds that would otherwise be polluting your tank.

voltage leaks are possible but not common, i would look at that last as any type of cause...having said that, a ground element is always good (but i dont have one yet...)
 
Polyfilter turns blue if there is copper and some other color for lead--you can research it online. You can also find out how much space is required for protein skimmers behind the tank. I have a Remora C and it is 3.25 inches wide. Protein skimmers remove waste that ultimately becomes nitrate. Also oxygenates the water better than almost anything.
 
With a poly filter do i just replace that filter with the current filter i am using?

Today I noticed that one of my anemones is basically floating. Maybe its dead? Also the other two look like they are spitting up, lets say. They have small balls of matter located in the center. Neither one of them really look like they are attached very good either.

I have not had much luck with this tank so far. Everything that i have had in it at one point or another has somehow died. I have followed all the directions that i have been given very closely leaving not much room for error. I am not sure on where i need to go from here, or give up maybe?
 
Mandy - is there any way you can post some pictures - some full tank shots - and some shots of your anemones?

What size tank are you working with?
 
What would peoples thoughts be about removing one of the emperor 400 systems to make room for a skimmer? If she has live rock which I'm assuming she does - this might make sense?

What do you think?
 
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