Bought a tank on CL, not sure if anemone is healthy

[michaelkittrell]

I bought a tank on CL and not sure if the anemone is doing well or not.

I moved it on Sunday and it looked good. I feed the tank 2 shrimp and the anemone grabbed one. I'll try and post a picture tomorrow, but its light pinkish and I think it looks like an LTA. It has a foot that goes down through the substrate and attaches to the glass. Not sure how good of a job I did removing the foot from the bottom of the bucket when I moved him... don't think I hurt him, but it didn't take me more than 2 minutes to detach him =(

The tentacles seem stiffer to me today than they did yesterday... but this is my first experience with an anemone so I don't actually really remember if the tentacles looked stiff yesterday. The clowns go through them constnatly and its not like they don't move, actually they don't relaly look stiff, just aren't waving around (which I'm not sure htey ever did).

Also the tips look lighter than the rest of the anemone, might be losing their color... starting to bleach? Tips are also very culy and I don't remember that from yesterday either, but I think I've seen a few pictures in the forum that make the curlyness look relatively normal.

NO3 was reading 5.0 to 25 and no2 was reading around .5 probably between .5 and 1.0. Amonia is 0, temperature is 80-82 degrees. Not sure what the salinity is, but I'm keeping it the same as the previous owner which is 1.019 on his meter (but salinity reportedly much higher on a refractometer). PH is reading at 8.6ish.

Any advice? I'll try and post a picture tomorrow. Also going to try and keep the lights on for at least 8 hours to give it some light for photosynthesis.

Tank was well established and I moved all the water sand rock and fish at once. Fish seem to be doing great. Not sure about the anemone because i didn't pay enough attention to him yesterday.

I've only been doing this for 4 months, I wasn't planning on having an anemone, so I haven't done my research =( any advice would be appreciated.

also, the clowns are furiously cleaning all around the anemone. I noticed this behavior after the wrasse knocked arock down on a few of its tentafcles. I removed the rock, but the clowns were not too happy about me being there and have been going nuts for like 2 hours

 

[greech]

A pic would certainly help but the light coloration and lighter tips could be a sign of bleaching. How does the mouth look (open or tightly closed)? Your NO3 and NO2 is likely due to wastes being disturbed when you moved the tank so stay on top of water quality as best you can. Speaking of, you should slowly raise your SG to 1.025-1.026. 1.019 is too low for a nem.

The nems foot being planted is a good sign and if it took the food you gave it that's good as well. Just don't feed too often and when you do try feeding smaller pieces of food which the nem can digest easily.

I assume the light you have on it is the the light that came with the tank so the nem should be used to it. What kind of light is on the tank? What size is the tank and its dimensions if you know them?

Edit: I am fairly new to nems myself so many of my questions stem from research alone on my part. I'm sure some more experineced folks will chime in.

 

[bues0022]

So you moved the entire contents of the tank just a few days ago, right? Congrats on entering the hobby! Anytime you move a tank by taking the contents out, transfer, and re-setup, you will go through a cycle. Especially when moving sand (how deep is it?) By moving the rock and sand, you are stirring up a lot of detritus, and exposing the rock/sand to air and it will see a little die off. What you are probably encountering right now is your small (or large) cycle from moving said tank. I agree, pictures would be nice, but after I've moved tanks I've wanted to make sure I'm skimming really good, and perform frequent water changes to keep ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites down for the animals that are in there.

Now, the standard list of questions
how big of a tank?
how much LR, LS?
water parameters (with numbers)
lights? Include type, wattage, color temp, age, fans yes or no
other tank inhabitants?

Pics?

 

[michaelkittrell]

Drat forgot the memory card this morning. Won't be able to upload until this evening.

The NO3 and NO2 seem to have come down from where I was reading them the day before... but might be an extra drop of water in the tubes diluting the results.

The light is the same that came with the tank... I'm not sure what it is, but it is a MH and it is bright. One of the tank ballasts is out so only half the tank is lit. Unfortunately, I placed the anemone on the sand just past center on the other side. But I rearranged some rocks to make sure it gets more light. Theres a bluish light and the bright light.

So I guess thats a yea for a water change. I'll do a 10% and suck up some of the brown muddy looking stuff while I'm at it.

My environment is documented here... I have quite a few questions that I was hoping to get some advice on.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1924682

basically its in a 100 gallon with a 30 gallon sump, with 2 adult clowns, 1 baby clown, a 5-6" emperor angel and a 6" or so 6line wrasse established for at least a couple years. Tons of xenia and a couple rocks covered with that purple eraser sized polyps that fan out green filaments in the light. I'd say about 100-125 pounds of live rock. 3" or so of sand on the bottom.

Last night, PH was on the upper end of 8.6, no3/no2 was 5-25 and .5 to 1.0 (no3/no2 might be reversed), amonia was reading 0. The day before I think the no3 and no2 was reading higher, but I'm not a pro with the test kits so probably some variance in my results. 2500 gph pump, tank cleared within 1 hour after I moved everything so I think the filtration is pretty good. The bacteria should all be alive since it was an established tank. My 125 gallon took a day to clear probably due to poor sump design and only a 1100 gph pump on that one.\

For all intense and purposes, I'm a total newbie but I've been reading RC off and on for 2 or 3 years. I skipped the anemone forums because... I heeded the warnings to wait till your experienced before you take it on, unfortunately the guy that I bought the tank from had a bunch of equipment I wanted so out of the pan and into the fryer I go.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Keep a written log of your tank parameters as you test. In time you may be able to cut back, but every few days or once a week, test your parameters and write them down. In many cases, the trend of parameters is more important than the current reading.

Jeff

 

[michaelkittrell]

Greech, the salinity is reading 1.018 to 1.019 on one of those cheap specific graivty meters... The previous owner stated that the guy he bought it from used his expensive refractometer and it came out at like 1.028. This is all herse, and the refractometer sample happened over 1 year ago. All I know is that I sampled the water before I moved it so I could maintain it at the same level. The fish are used to 1.019 on this tester.


Thanks for the advice Jeff. I started taking pictures of my results last night so I can index them and compare them if i have to. This whole I think its lighter than yesterday is silly (I'm an amateur photographer so I can keep my white balances better than most). I'm going to order some more test kits and a refractometer. I was looking at digital probes 2 nights ago, but man they seem expensive.

Any advice on good but cheap digital probes, test kits and refractometers?

 

[michaelkittrell]

Theres also one of those UV sterilizers on the return.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Also take a sample of the water to your LFS or another local reefer and have them double check your readings.

Jeff

 

[michaelkittrell]

The pictures. Pic #1 and 2 are from 2 days ago. Pic #3 and 4 are from today. You can see how one of my lights is out, but hopefully the anemone is getting enough light.

The lights are 400 w MH. Theres also a 96 w bluish light.

The anemone does look dramatically different at times. I do see a richer brown color at times; I believe that means its not completely bleached! None of these pictures show it but last night the tentacles in the front were spread out enough that I could actually see the body clearly. First time I had seen that, no idea what that means. It still seems to have some of that good brown color especially back towards the body.

The clownfish lately have been cleaning the snot out of it... they've dug a pit around the anemone and have been picking up crap and moving it away. They keep trying to move that big rock in the background. This all started happening after the emperor angel knocked a rock down onto some of the tentacles, I moved it and they started going apey. I had to move another rock last night, but it was just close not on the anemone. The clowns are very boisterous, can't believe the anemone puts up with it.

I fed the tank last night, the clownfish brought the anemone food and it appeared to have a grip on a small piece of shrimp. I try not to get too close because they clowns are very confrontational when I approach the glass and dive into the anemone and head butt it while blowing sand all around. Not sure what they are doing.

 

[garygb]

It's an LTA. It appears to have dug in, so that's a good sign.

 

[greech]

Agree, looks like LTA and it doesn't look too bad to me but I'm still new to anemones myself. It seems at least planted like garygb mentioned and the tentacles are not bright white or transluscent. It may just be a nem without much pigment coloration. If its eating that is a good sign too but don't target feed it too often until you're sure it has settled in.

Definitely need to verify that SG reading at the very least. Compare a current reading with your hydrometer to a calibrated refractometer. Hopefully your LFS will have one. You can get them online for about $50 (maybe less). Good luck.

 

[OrionN]

That is a Macrodactyla doreensis. You can read the anemone FAQ thread on top of this forum regarding information about this species

 

[michaelkittrell]

Thank you for the species idenetification, although now I'm freaked out because its on the "more difficult" list. Good to know that the corkscrews on the tentacle ends is "normal".

I went ahead and did a water change last night, amonia was starting to creep up although it looks like Nitrates and Nitrites were trending downwards. I guess the tank is cycling =(. The anemone looked good before and after the water change. I didn't want to chance the cycle escalating out of control so I did a 15 gallon water change. Amonia went from 0, jumped the next color and went straight to the 3rd (light green) over 24 hour period.


I'm wondering... The rocks had a lot of xenia when I moved it and I obviously didn't get it all put back the same way... or even with all the xenia facing up when I put it back... I may be on the verge of seeing a massive die off of xenia that has been squished, mashed in between rocks or simply in an area of low flow/light. Think I should head that off at the pass and pull some of the rocks and scrape it off? or should I plan on daily water changes until the tank stops cycling? Should I start low level vodka dosing to facilitate stabilization?

I fed shrimp again last night after the water change and the anemone grappled one... so its still at least reasonably happy.

Unfortunately, after taking the hood off, my one good MH light stopped working =(. I do have 3 others from a different brand, should I take the hood apart and switch out the units? It'll probably be several days before I get around to figuring out whats broken and how to replace it (I tried my spare bulb, but that didn't seem to work).

 

[Conrad25]

I would work on getting that light going again a.s.a.p. as the anemone is leaning more on the left side and that seems to be the light that went out from the picture. It may end up moving again on you due to the light being out.. Also the xenia being flipped and possible die off will cause some spikes. I would just watch it and if you see results rising, do a water change. I don't think that pulling the rock out and scraping it is going to have any more effect as its been in the tank and most of its probably dead or floating around already. If it was one thing like a fish, that would be easy to pull out. Sounds like you have too much to do so. The anemone does look like its in good shape though and not spiraling down.

 

[michaelkittrell]

Thanks for the comments. I've been spending a lot of time looking at him to understand him better (why am I spending hours staring at something that doesn't move? becuase I'm insane). I noticed that he looked more relaxed last night than the day before, and during and after the water change he definitely pulled in some looks more rigid.

I really hated to do the water change cuz he looked so happy. I'm sitting at work today wondering if he's happy. Don't let my wife know!

 

[michaelkittrell]

Tested water quality last night 1 day after 15 gallon water change (130 gallon system), Nitrites barely dropped if any. Still in the 5-20 range, Nitrates seemed to have dropped to < 0.5. Amonia might have dropped one level. The temperature is now running mid 79.

Had to move another damn rock, thats the 3rd rock in 3 days. I moved it far far far away this time. Don't know if its the emp angel or the wrasse but they're both ****ing me off. Wrasse comes out every day around 1pm apparently according to the kids, but I never get to see him.

I noticed last night that some of the enme tentacles are shriveled near the end just before where the curl would be. When I say shriveled, I mean completely dead like a dried up worm. I noticed about 5 or 6 in random places so it wasn't the rock strikes. It doesn't look good, but I'm heartened by the fact the other 95% of tentacles look pretty good. It could be pyschosomatic, but the tips of the tentacles in general don't look quite as healthy to me... they look more rigid and curling ever so slightly less naturally than the previous days. I'm crazy right?

Color is still good and it looks relaxed and spread out. Still eating healthily (hard to see it actualyl consume anything because the clowns are so defensive, but its grabbing stuff).

Didn't manage to get the lights on the tank =(. Got started, but the baby just did not want to sleep and my wife has two exams today.