Bubble Tip Anemone - New Arrival

[d5omino]

First let me thank you guys up front for any help you can offer! Now for the question :- )
I have a (decently, but only about 6 months old) established 29 Gallon Bio-Cube. The equipment I have is as follows

1) Lighting - Stock lighting which included a 10k Flo, an Actinic and moon light LED
2) 3 circuit timer for the lighting system have the actinic on starting at 6 AM the day light comes on at 7 (day and actinic on all day together) then the day lights go off around 7PM and the actinic shuts off an hour later with the moon beams coming on as soon as the actinic shuts off
3) Filter - stock sump with stock bio balls- return nozzle point up for better exchange (??? not sure if this works but my PH is a bit low and I’m thinking i have a CO2/OXY issue) - stock acti-carbon inserts... (Removed the protein skimmer cause honestly its kinds of a toy (designed by oceanic for the 14 and 29 gal bio cube)
4) Supplementary water movement - 1 maxi-jet 1200 (295GPH) in the inlet corner of the tank with a Hydor rotating water deflector on the nozzle
5) submersible heater
I use nothing but boxed sea water (never mix my own i dont trust myself and i figure god makes it better than i ever will
for makeup water only use distilled bottled water
again - i don’t trust my well water or my ability to follow good practices to keep stuff from cross contaminating with poor practices
Parameters are as follows
1) Ammonia = 0
2) Nitrite = 0
3) Nitrate = nothing detectable
4) Calcium = 520
5) KH = 9 dKH
6) Phosphate = 0
7) Ph =7.6 -7.8 Accurate to within .1 with a Hanna instruments electronic meter(biggest concern for me in the tank is this sucker right here...)[/
8) Temp = 81F-82F
I do weekly 10 percent water changes
I use the following as directed
Purple up
bio blocks (to add any trace mins i missed or that got depleted
Kent -nano reef part A and B
Kent - Coral Vite
My inhabitants are as follows
1) Ocelaris (Clown
2) Blue Devil Damsel
3) Cleaner shrimp
4) 1 scarlet hermit (my fav this little guy is so cool
5) 3 hermits
6) 3 snails (this guys are NOT my favorite) if its not glued in place they knock it over
7) Couple pieces of coral (hairy mushroom and toadstool
8) About 15-20 pounds of heavily encrusted and life laden live rock(amzing stuff thats cultured rock but cultivated at sea so its the best of both worlds and no reef damage!!! (thats the best part)
9) Another 2-5 pounds of fresh base rock that’s starting o get some critters and growth on them
For food for the inverts I mix it up a bit and alternate between
1) Marc Weiss - Black powder
2) White Snow
3) And Kent Micro Vert....
Fish food I do a diet of marine flakes and occasional brine shrimp

So here’s my problem! (Really question)
Prefaceb by saying everyone is flourishing so far. Knock on wood I haven’t lost anyone yet. Grant it it’s only been 6 months and I havent exactly been aggressive BUT like my LFS guy says "in a reef tank nothing good happens quickly!" right before he kicks me out of the store : -)

I just introduced a 2-4 inch bubble tip anemone for the clown to hopefully host with (im keeping my fingers crossed that they'll hit it off). I had to buy it with another good sized piece of live rock because he was attached in the center of it (doughnut shaped rock) and there was no getting him out without hurting him so I told the LFS not to even try. I would rather pay the extra money to ensure not hurting the BTA. Anyway.. he was awkwardly placed on the rock so a friend that has been doing salt/reef for some time suggested i place the rock he was on upside down in the tank (properly propped up of course to make sure he could move freely) to sort of encourage the BTA to move out and find a good place (hopefully a more visible place) in the tank. He's been hanging out in this rather awkward position (upside down) for a day or so and isn’t showing signs of moving any where anytime soon. Other that the occasional slight movement if my shrimp comes to close or when my clown swims up to say hello. I’m afraid if he doesn’t get moving soon he might start to hurt himself cause in his current position he can’t be getting very much light if any at all (literally upside-down in the shadows). Is there anything I can do to help him along? Or should i just give up and flip the rock right side up? Should I even be worried? Sorry for the long post guys but I figured these were all questions you would probably ask! Let me know if you need any other info and thanks again all for your help! - and i figured out the sitre doesnt like it when you copy/paste from word!!! Hence all the font tages and stuff

 

[garygb]

I would probably turn the rock back in the position the anemone was used to it being. The depressed ph is cause for concern. Have you verified those numbers with another test kit? Forgive me if you mentioned this before, but how often do you change your water? What specific gravity do you keep your tank?

 

[d5omino]

Hi Garygb,

Thanks for your response. I just returned the rock to its original position. The BTA seems to be doing well other than its showing signs of some bleaching now(I just noticed it after having read a bit more about them). I have not verified the PH with another kit other than my dip sticks which I don't generally trust but I will take a sample into my LFS. The alkalinity is generally in the 200-300(kh ppm) range on the test color chart but in Degrees of KH (i believe its some German scale not to sure though) it reads usually 9dkh. The salinity-SPGR I keep at 1.025 - 1.026. I have never really gone below that as sea water (at least the boxes i get from Petco) generally come in around that. And i try to do 10% changes no more than once a week. Although i had a fellow say I should do 25% twice a week. I'm not sure i agree with him but i understand the rational. At this point i will go with convention so if the general consensus is i should do 25% every 2 weeks then thats what I'll do.

How do you feel about the lighting? Do you feel its okay for a BTA? Some other folks around expressed concern about the lighting?

 

[d5omino]

correction to the above post.. I said "Although i had a fellow say I should do 25% twice a week" i meant to say "Although i had a fellow say I should do 25% every 2 weeks" : -) Sorry about that.. not at all the same thing - LOL

 

[garygb]

I'm not sure I know what stock lighting is for a 29 gallon biocube, but if it is power compact lighting, then I would say replacing the actinic with another daylight would provide higher PAR. What is the wattage of your bulbs, are they PC, how old are they? Your photoperiod sounds fine.

Also, you have your sg on target. As far as water changes, 10% weekly should be fine.

 

[d5omino]

Thanks Garygb! Well on my lighting its basically 2 x 36W PC's with 3 led for lunar lighting... for quadra i guess this MIGHT work (with a capital MIGHT) but everything Ive heard says heck no... i have a few MOD options 1) is simply doubling to 4 36 w fixtures which would bring the LO to something like 144w (but PC light so not very intense PAR wise. or i can go the metal halide route and do a single 150W mh and keep the LED's for lunar... what would you choose? and heck if I'm hacking up the canopy might as well do it right so if none of these work then whats the best way and I'll just do that... i gave some thought to the sunpod 150 made by current-usa... goes for around $250 but i would have to loose the canopy ... which wouldn't be an entirely bad thing.. I'm half thinking my low PH is because of bad oxygen sat/high CO2 which not having that canopy on (they sit really close to the water line on these tanks) would certainly help.... well honestly way to much to think about i guess... my main concern is the safety of this little guy. I put him in harms way so i have to make sure i do whatever it takes to keep him healthy.

 

[garygb]

I would say either way, MH or 4 36-watt PC would supply enough light for a 29 gallon. However, if you stay with PC, you would want to locate the anemone in the top foot or so of the water column, deeper than that and the light intensity is going to be considerably less. I would say one 150 watt MH would be fine for your tank. The Sunpod you mentioned should be fine as long as it it will sit fine on top of your tank. You said you removed protein skimmer. I would definitely be running a protein skimmer. It would help with ph and in general is helpful to maintain good water quality, in my opinion.

You might be correct about the ph being due to low O2/CO2 exchange. Sometimes opening a window in a room can make a significant difference.

 

[jkrentz2515]

I have the 144 watt upgrade and I love it. I can keep the cats away with the hood still on and the corals have shown a ton of growth since I made the change.