Help getting a Purple LTA to stop moving.

[anit77]

I've had this 4 to 5" LTA in my tank for three and a half weeks. In that time it has only stayed in one spot for a max of 5 days, it's moved about 6 times. During this time it's had a couple run ins with the powerheads but there hasn't been much damage other that the 1st time, which it has recovered from. It has also not lost any of its color and for the most part looks none the worse for wear. I didn't feed it for the 1st 3 days and then gave it a few mysis soaked in Selcon which it eagerly accepted. From this point on I've fed it every couple days, unless it's moved, then I wait till a day after it's reset. I've fed everything from a few mysis to small pieces of fresh fish or shrimp. When I say small I mean rice to pea sized. I'm also sure it gets the occasional bits from fish feeding times.

Here's the info on my system that's been running since 6/1.
DT 220, sump 90 for a total of 250 gallons after rock and substrate.
Substrate: Arag-Alive Special Grade
Powerheads: 2 Neptune WAV's
Lighting: 3 SB Reef sBox Basic's 10" above the water
2 Kessel A160WE 1-2" above the water
2 LET 60" 80w T5 front and rear (4 bulbs total) 8" above the water

Livestock:
1 Engineer Goby
1 Watchman Goby
3 Benggai Cardinals
2 Golden Nugget Clowns
1 Kole Tang
1 Blue Throat Trigger
1 Purple Queen Anthia
2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
2 Blood Shrimp
1 Sandsifting Star
2 Long Spine Urchins
1 Pincushion Urchin
Several Emerad Crabs
Lots of various snails and hermit crabs.

Corals: Not much yet.
2 Torches
1 Finger Leather
1 Yellow Mille (Encrusting nicely)
1 Mushroom

Water:
Salt: Reef Crystals
Salinity: 35ppm, (Refractometer)
Ammonia: 0 (Red Sea)
Nitrite: 0 (Red Sea)
Nitrate: 3 (Red Sea Pro)
Phosphate: .01~.02 (Hanna ULR)
Ph: 8.0~8.11 (Apex, just re-calibrated)
Alk: 9.35 (Hanna) 8.8 (Red Sea Pro)
Cal: 425 (Hanna) 380 (Red Sea Pro) ??? Raised by 12.5 after last test
Mag: 1440 (Red Sea Pro)

Every time it moves I let it go on its own for 8 and up to 24 hours. It never seats it's foot unless I make a hole in the sand down to the glass, which I make at least 3" deep usually closer to 5". When it moved yesterday, after 4 days, it got sucked against a protected powerhead. It was likely there for an hour or 2 before my wife alerted me to it and I shut both down. When I got home I saw no sings of visible damage. Since then it has not set it's foot at all. On my way home last night I picked up a bag of Bahamas Oolite Arag-Alive sand to see if the would be better for it. I made a couple holes in the sand and let it see where it ended up. This morning it was against a rock that has an overhang as it started to look like it was attaching. When I fed the tank I made sure a few mysis landed on it and it ate them. After it opened back up I poured the sand down around it through a pvc pipe so the hole got filled in gently. Within 2 hours it was out and about again.

I'm getting to my wits end and am running out of ideas. I was hoping that it would find it's happy spot before I started adding more coral. It is a beautiful anemone and I'd sure like to do my best to keep it but I'm not going to let my wants overshadow the health of it. I'm thinking if I can't get it to seat soon I'll either have to sell it or take it to a LFS to give it a chance somewhere else. If it starts loosing color I'll move it as fast as I can. Is there anything I'm doing wrong or haven't tried that I should? Any help would be much appreciated!

I'll add a couple pics shortly.

 

[anit77]

Here a FTS

And a few close ups.

 

[OrionN]

LTA needs a DSB. He likely will not stop moving until you provide him with a sand bed of at least 4 inches.
The tank also look new and sterile, may not be stable enough for a LTA yet.

 

[anit77]

Thank you for the reply!

What I've done so far is make a hole in the sand down to the glass and build it up around it. Once it's attached I gently fill it in to a depth closer to 5".

Yesterday I put in some very fine sand 5-6" deep around it and within 2 hours it let loose again. Since then I've left it alone and not made any holes for it and it has not locked on anywhere.

 

[Bajie]

How long has your tank been set up

If the anemone is moving, there is something it is not happy with.

 

[anit77]

The tank has been up and running since 6/1. It was stocked with 100lbs of cleaned dry Marco rock and 50lbs of cleaned cooked and cured Pukani that had cycled for almost 6 months. There was also 20lbs of TBS rock that has tons of life on it and there is 140lbs of the sand listed above. At startup there were slightly elevated Ammonia and Nitrite for only a couple days and have not been detected since 6/6. The LTA was added at the 3.5 month mark after a very slow and methodical acclimation.

Since posting this I have cut the lighting back by half. 30% blues from 60% and 15% from 30% on the whites. The T5's have also be set not to come on. I've also drastically cut the flow down as well. The WAV's are hard set to 1%. There has been no feeding other than any mysis or food particles that may have settled on it from fish feeding.

It has been in the same general area for about 18hrs now and is rested up against the base of the center arch rock structure on the right side. My wife just texted me the it appears to be attempting to set its foot.