Found anemone shredded by powerhead

[eSpawn]

Long story short, I went to the LFS yesterday and saw a beautiful RBTA talked to someone there to see if it was alright to add it in my tank and they said I should be 'OK'. WRONG I learned the hard way I thought I did enough research before hand going into the LFS. I knew I needed powerful lighting and good flow, both of which I have (Hydor Koralia 750/850 and Kessil A150W ~29gal bowfront) but what I didn't find was that most recommend having your aquarium mature for up to 6 months! The guy at the LFS said I should be ok having just cycled my tank and been adding plankton supplements weekly (my tank is about a month old). So I got him in the tank, turned my powerhead off until he footed and then when he got situated (about an hour or so) I turned it back on. Went to bed and in the morning I notice the water is cloudy, I immediately assumed the worst; unfortunately, I was right. I found half of his body at the bottom, got it out and did a 50 percent water change. Do I need to continue to do water changes? Is there anything else I should be doing? Any idea as to why/what happened? Is there too much flow?

 

[crissie]

That's a real shame! Just so you know, you would probably be better off waiting until 12 months for an anemone, they're very sensitive.

Does your powerhead not have a plastic cover on it?

 

[Fishmommy]

pantyhose over the powerheads is a good idea when adding a nem.

 

[eSpawn]

Yeah, it does have a plastic cover over it but my guess was it wasn't enough and the poor guy got sucked through it. It's a real shame. And yeah I'm definitely willing to wait a year or so now before even considering another..

 

[crissie]

pantyhose over the powerheads is a good idea when adding a nem.

+1 on this, when you do get another, do this.

As for your tanks water. Your filtration system will deal with part of it, but I personally would do daily water changes of 5-10% until the water is cleared and the levels stabalised again.

 

[brewman1987]

Seems like to much flow in a 29. I have 2 koralia 425 on each end shooting into the glass and ricocheting off in my 29

 

[radiata]

Are you sure it was the powerhead that actually "shredded" the RBTA? I'm assuming that you think the RBTA got sucked into the powerhead.

I recently lost a Mag that chose to take a death march into one of my Tunze powerheads. It never made it into the Tunze, but got torn apart by the intense flow just three or four inches away from it.

 

[ca1ore]

Lots of stories about nems getting puréed by power heads unfortunately. Covers are problematic IME, as they cut down significantly on flow, but are a very good idea until a new nem has settled down into a good spot.

 

[jcreeftankguy]

I've had this happen to green bubble tip, not once but twice to the same one. The second time I thought he was a goner for sure being ripped almost completely in half, mouth and foot. I left him in a bowl of water over night and set up a low flow tank just to see if it would pull through and several months later it is host to my nearly naked Darwin clownfish. Some tentacles still have deformations from being caught in the impeller. The key was to run lots of carbon and change it out almost daily along with major water changes.

 

[hijinks]

LFS are in it to make a sale and not your best interest. I generally never listen to them and will ask reefcentral or my local clubs forum for their advice