Anemones and coral question HELP PLEASE

[mkpeterpan]

I have a question for you all! I have a 12g nano with hqi. I have had the tank about a month and a 1/2. I have I put a new anemone and a clown fish in the tank at the same time about one week ago. I just got two pices of coral today and got a bottle of Calcium and alkalinity. Once I put in the alkalinity and calcium in ( I did not put them in at the same time about 10 minutes between) My anemone looks like it is not happy is this normal ?? Thank you all for your help Jason

 

[GSMguy]

[welcome]

it is normal for an anemone to deflate and inflate a few times when it is aclimating.

are you testing for calcium and alkalinity? if not how will you know if you need it?

how old is you tank.

what kind of anemone? do you know?

 

[Purple Penguins]

1st a month and a half is not a long enough time to have a tank running for an anemone, 2nd 12 gallons is way to small for an anemone

 

[sarai826]

How's the anemone doing? Is it still deflated (unhappy) looking, or has it recovered, and how long has it been/was it deflated?

 

[mkpeterpan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9796824#post9796824 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GSMguy
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

it is normal for an anemone to deflate and inflate a few times when it is aclimating.

are you testing for calcium and alkalinity? if not how will you know if you need it?

how old is you tank.

what kind of anemone? do you know?

The anemone was doing really good very brite colors and alot of movement. Once I put in the alkalinity 2.5 ml to start my tank off with coral a few minutes later the anemone was looking unhappy and deflated and slumped over. There is also a clown fish in the tank and the fish looks fine and still eating I am taking the water to a fish store to test the water offten. also my tank is 1 1/2 months old Thank you again for all your help jason

 

[mkpeterpan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9797061#post9797061 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sarai826
How's the anemone doing? Is it still deflated (unhappy) looking, or has it recovered, and how long has it been/was it deflated?

It just happend afew hours ago. It is still moving and its tentacles are filled with water

Also if my clown fish is not playing with the anemone at all is that normal?

 

[GSMguy]

tank is too young for an anemone take it back. sorry.

 

[mkpeterpan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9797272#post9797272 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GSMguy
tank is too young for an anemone take it back. sorry.

Ok the anemone was doing fine untill I put in Alkalinity and calcium I want to know if this is normal If the tank was to young It would have shown up sooner not 5 minutes after i add alkalinity !!

 

[GSMguy]

the problem is maintianing stabil water parameters with a young tank the anemone will have a very hard time aclimating.

it sucks to have to give the bad news.

do you even know what kind of anemone it is?

 

[sarai826]

Without knowing your tank's chemistry, it's hard to say. As several have already noted, your tank is very young to have an anemone in it... one of benefits of age being the stability which is SO vital to anemone health. Also, remember that you have a 12 gallon tank... which is a relatively small (and thus less stable/more easily influenced) volume of water.

That said: What are your parameters? Let me encourage you to purchase a *good* test kit, as soon as possible. I know it's hard to hear, but you do have a couple of strikes against you on this one... a good test kit, with frequent testings (keep a log. Start now. Seriously.) are going to be vital to keeping your anemone healthy at this point. You're also going to want to do frequent, but very small, water changes.

Try not to get upset when people give advice you disagree with, and tell us about your tank. Do you have pictures? What were your parameters when you added the anemone v. now?

 

[mkpeterpan]

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[mkpeterpan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9797509#post9797509 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sarai826
Without knowing your tank's chemistry, it's hard to say. As several have already noted, your tank is very young to have an anemone in it... one of benefits of age being the stability which is SO vital to anemone health. Also, remember that you have a 12 gallon tank... which is a relatively small (and thus less stable/more easily influenced) volume of water.

That said: What are your parameters? Let me encourage you to purchase a *good* test kit, as soon as possible. I know it's hard to hear, but you do have a couple of strikes against you on this one... a good test kit, with frequent testings (keep a log. Start now. Seriously.) are going to be vital to keeping your anemone healthy at this point. You're also going to want to do frequent, but very small, water changes.

Try not to get upset when people give advice you disagree with, and tell us about your tank. Do you have pictures? What were your parameters when you added the anemone v. now?

I understand everybodys point of view and I also know that my tank is not set up for along time BUT I have my water tested about twice a week by a fish store I dont know the prameters (I need to start to know) But once I added Alkalinity and calcium I started having a problem with the anemone my water temp is at 78.1 I am trying to learn from this and I am going to start testing my water on my own tomorrow i will post my findings thank you all again jason

 

[Slakker]

Why would you add chemicals that you can't test for yourself?

 

[D-Rod]

He made a mistake...no matter how much you bit@h at him it's not going to change what happened...Lets help him get through this.

Your anemone just could be taking a poop, if that's the case it will be fine in a few hours.
If it starts to fall apart and smell really bad take it out.
A water change might help.

An anemone pooping looks like it's turning itself inside out.

 

[iamkellogg]

Like D-Rod said if it starts to fall apart or smell take it out because if it dies in your tank it will be really bad.

It is good that you came here for help. I am new too. There are alot of people here that will give you great advice. The best advice I have been given is research before adding anything to your tank and what works for me might not work for you.

I hope things work out for you.

Kelly

 

[marc price]

i agree with what's been said .

it's important to remember that in a tank of that size any changes will have an immediate effect (little to no margin for error), take your time .

you have a dsb and the two acro frags are not putting much a demand on the system's calcium/alk uptake . additives only create changes for the anemone to contend with .

it will help lot's if you can attach another sump, fudge or tank to increase the overall volume of water . that anemone if healthy will get large and put a heavy load on the system (not to mention out growing it). i currently have a 3.5"- 4" sebae growing in a 100g for a month and a half (was @2" when i got it), and am noticing environmental changes taking place from feeding it every 2nd or 3rd day . am pretty sure it will balance itself out given time but would be horrified if that were in 12 gallons .

one other thing i like to add is that your anemone looks a little bleached . maybe others will want to chime in on that . would help if it is fed every few days . you'll want to monitor the nutrient and phosphate levels of your h2o (sounds like you're doing that now). don't remember where but i read that an anemone will present more of a bio load to the tank than all the fish in it . never measured it but have always had less to no undesirable algae growth without anemones in the tank .

honestly, if it were me i'd return it .

well slightly ot and perhaps it's just me but i've been keeping salts for twenty seven years and these days have a diff. time with buying wild caught fish . despite how limiting the alternative currently can be .

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

From what I remember reading in a few books. The smaller the tank the quicker the tank ages. I would still get my own test kit..Do you have a good protein skimmer ?
There was a time when my LFS said that we didn't need our own test kit yet, and he would test every thing for us. We didn't like that idea, so we bought our own.. just incase the LFS wasn't available when we wanted the water tested.
I think you would be alright with the anemone for a little while. I don't think it will outgrow your tank in a couple of months.
In the mean time, I would try setting up a bigger tank for it. Like maybe a 30 gallon, but wait for it to be at least 3 to 4 months old, or when ever you get a perfect reading on your parameters for at least a couple of months. Then place the anemone in the bigger tank. your parameter's should read this

ammonia 0 <- this should always read zero any trace of ammonia is bad and you'll have to do frequent water changes to get it back to zero.
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
calcium 350 - 400..eh some people prefer higher
ph 8.2- 8.4
salinity should be 1.025 or 1.026

 

[GSMguy]

Thanks for the pic looks like a M. dorensis aka Long tentacled anemone.

it looks to be somewhat ok but a lil bleached

out of all the anemones you could possible put in a nano tank the LTA would be one of the worst choices LTA when healthy will take over the entire tank and sting and kill anything within its reach. also the Dorensis will get WAY WAY WAY too big.

i stil dont know why your adding the ca and alk if you dont know what your levels of ca and alk are?

 

[mkpeterpan]

i am going to go now to the store and get a test kit and report my findings
also does anybody have a picture of what the anemone should look like ??

 

[mkpeterpan]

My findings

ph 7.9

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0ppm