Help needed with aiptasia tank

[berghiabanter]

I know it is uncommon, but we are trying to culture aiptasia to serve as a food source for a culture of Berghia nudibranchs. We have had a thriving 40-gallon tank of aiptasia for many months now, but they suddenly seem to be dying off, and I cannot figure out why. Water quality, temperature, and salinity all seem to be ok. The largest aiptasia are losing or retracting their tentacles and turning a very dark color. This all happened very fast, but the whole tank is dying off and threatens to deprive the nudibranchs of food. I will attach an image of what many of the anemones look like. We have done many water changes, but nothing seems to help. Please help!

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[griss]

Can you post the specific water parameters you are testing for? What filtration you're using? What lighting you have? Do you feed the Aiptasia?

 

[berghiabanter]

We test for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and pH and use active carbon filtration. We use an AQUANEAT full spectrum LED light on a 12-hour on-off cycle. And we feed the Aiptasia artemia every other day.

 

[griss]

If those parameters are all good, my best guess is some kind of contaminant got into the tank. One other thing to check is salinity. If, for whatever reason, salinity dropped/increased, it could have an impact on the anemones.