HELP with my LTA

[rwhhunt]

Well, i am giving it another shot, my last LTA was killed in an unfortunate jell-o shot accident...I made over 1200 jello shots for a party in my kitchen, and enough gaseous free gelatin particles accumulated in the air in my place that it was pumped through my central hvac and distributed to all rooms! The gelatin began to rather "quickly" "congeal" the water in all my tanks... (they all turned cloudy white, and i lost several fish to suffocation...) Well, my anemone didnt die instantly, but I didnt see it for a week or two, next time it popped out it was almost clear...

So, fastforward, 6 months, and I have added a new much larger LTA to my tank about a week ago:

It is a 26 gallon BF, with about ~40 lbs of LR, and a deep (~3 inch) sand bed. The tank has been running in my possesion for about 10 months, and before that it had been running for a year or so ( during transport the LR sat out for 2 nights, but the sand stayed with some water in the tank) It re-cycled in less than a month.

The tank has a prizm skimmer that works pretty well usually (altough leaks everyonce in a while (naturally)), and a Millenium 2000 filter with no bio wheel, but run the pad with a bag of purigen.
I have one powerhead MJ900 that circulates across the front glass,.
The lighting is a coralife 130W powercompact fixture (65w: 10K; 65w : actinic) the bulbs are probably at least 9-12 months old, and I ordered new ones online last night. There is also a 12LED moonlight strip in the tank under the main light.
As far as a bioload:
1 Peacock Mantis Shrimp ~6"
1 "Allardi" Clown ~4"
1 Long Tentacle Anemone (originally a disc span of ~5-6")
1 Chocolate Chip Star
1 Large Turbo Snail
~30 "illyneous" snails (sand burrowing ones snorkels or trunks)
A plethora of copepods/amphipods brought in on LR rubble
Also seen a couple small bristleworms...

Water Parameters:
Ammonia: ~0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: ~80 ppm
pH: ~8.0

I am at odds with how to lower these! I did feed my peacock a crayfish yesterday, and the carcass disappeared, (I usually fish it out) However, the snails and Cope usually suck every bit of meat off it such that its purely shell... But It may have been burried...
I keep up with my water changes and topoffs (changes every 2-4 weeks depending on schedule) I just replaced 4 gallons two days ago with 4 gal Nutri-Sea waters. I keep my mechanical pad clean, and my Skimmer produces skimmate, but has been lower recently b/c a cut down feeding with the addition of the new anemone

Well starting about two days ago (what sparked the nutrisea water change) it wasnt looking as expanded as usual, and stayed smaller for a day and half, and last night it began to close up almost completely. This morning it was still closed, and when I got home from class, it had moved down off the rocks towards the sand, but still atached to the side of the LR. It was expanding its foot and body and sucking all its tentacles in and was moving its foot up into the rock. Well, it's been closing up and expanding a little back and forth... I should note that I have not been succesful in getting it to eat, I have offered food of both thawed krill, and fresh scallops, and various sizes, and it wont swallow. I almost induced it to eat by laying the food right in its mouth, (but the clown ended up grabbing it out of there), So I am not sure why it looks like it ate, but didnt (at least to my knowldege)
I know these guys move around, and I need to figure out some way to get rid of this ammonia... I will do another larger water change with mixed saltwater (oceanic) and RO...tonight or tomorrow.
My nitrates are still high, but what else can I do besides skim, change, and feed less?? The tank LOOKS Great, no algae growth, everything else is very healthy and eating voraciously...
I feed flake prime reef food to the clown, and any that he doesnt get will be picke dup by the copes and amphpods! and when i put any food in there the snails all emerge from slumber and scour the tank for any reminense...

Here it is looking a little deflated for a few days:

Here is a closeup

And this is today, when it moved and began "imploding"

and when expanding a bit:

What can I do???

 

[graveyardworm]

If I'm not mistaken M. Doreensis prefers to be in the sand, you definately need to get those nitrates down. Large water changes will do the trick. It'll take 4 - 50% water changes to get your nitrates to what I would consider acceptable. Given the amount of feeding required for the mantis this set up may not the best place for an anemone. A more efficient skimmer may help, and frequent water changes will be a must. Once you get the nitrates down with larger water changes, you can experiment with smaller more frequent ones which will be easier and maintain more constant parameters.

 

[rwhhunt]

What about the feeding and lighting?? What else can I try besides krill and scallops, and would it not take those initially if my nitrates are too high?? ALso, Like i said, I feel that my bulbs may be shifting spectrum due to age, could this also be a cause???

BTW, this morning I did a 10 Gallon water change (probably around 50% b/c with all the LR and sand, im sure the total water capacity is closer to ~20 Gallons, I did it with RO water and Oceanic salt. I added about 8 drops of prime last night for "emergency" detox of the little ammonia b/c it was too late at night to do the water change. I have moved it down to the sand, and will see if it opens up over the next day or so, I will probably due another water change maybe 5-10 gallons in the next day or so... I will recheck water parameters tonight once all the sand has settled..

 

[graveyardworm]

I wouldnt be too concerned about the lighting yet, it would be happier under more intense light. How did you acclimate it? Is the mouth gaping or closed tight? You could try silversides, even frozen mysis may be a good teaser. My main concern at this point would be water quality, get rid of any ammonia, nitrites, and get your nitrates as low as possible. Dont hesitate on the water changes get those nitrates down and keep'em down. Anemones require pristine water quality.

edit: your nitrates need to be as near to 0 as possible.

 

[rwhhunt]

The mouth was open, and i was able to get a piece of krill in it, but the clown ended up pulling it out.... It will sting the food a little, but will not pull it in to its' mouth. I was thinking silversides, and if i get a turkey baster, i can try the mysis... I added about a cap full of clarity with the big water change, and then proceeded to pull out 6 cups (prizm cups) or skimmate within a hour or so... went to work, and will probably pull out a couple more later tonight. I am assuming this will help since the clarity is designed to coagulate organic compounds, so the more I can pull out the lower i can get those nitrates.... I didnt want to do TOO big of a water change and too many of them at once because i dont want to loose all my beneficial bacteria... what IYE is the most I can change without effecting the bioload capacity??

 

[graveyardworm]

Very Very little of the beneficial bacteria is in the water, the bacteria prefers to be attached to something like LR, sand, etc.. Right now getting the water quality up should be priority. The mouth being open/gaping could be a bad sign, I mistakenly bought an LTA like this once thinking it would be alright and I could save it, whatever it had also infected my other LTA and I lost both.

 

[rwhhunt]

Ok, I just did another water test:
BTW I am using an Aquarium Pharmaceutical Master Test Kit
Ammonia: ~0 (hard to tell with these color cards)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~80
pH: 8.1
SG: 1.0235
Temp 76-78 F

I will do another 5-10 gallon change maybe tommorrow or Monday depending on progress.... I would exchange for All NutriSea water, but I cannot afford spending $3 a gallon on massive water changes.... I have a Large activated carbon DI unit that I use on my other FOWLR tanks, but try to top off with the store bought RO drinking water (as I did with this last water change..)
BTW, it is now laying sideways on the sand, partially open on one side, and it seems as if the foot is slowly attaching itself to some LR now...

 

[rwhhunt]

What about any trace elements like Iodine? after i get my parameters down, and assuming it recooperates, will this aid??

 

[rwhhunt]

Here is the latest pic, it is kinda inflating and deflating, and is showing activity... but I am no expert but it certaintly does not look good..

 

[graveyardworm]

Everything it needs to be happy water wise should be found in your salt mix. How much flow do you have? With mine I had to kinda coral it with pieces of LR rubble. Even once their foot is buried it still isnt a great attachment and too much flow will dislodge them.

edit: have you tested your DI water for TDS, or nitrates? Just to make sure its pure.

 

[rwhhunt]

NO i havent. Can i just use my test kit with tap water?? I never thought of doing that... Well anyways, I have used the filtered tap water for the majority of the past with the addition of RO top off, and some NutriC water exchanges every few months. I will test the tap water itself, and the filtered tap water as well... However, the most recent water change was the Purified drinking water (RO) from Kroger...I guess I will do some tests to see how the Athens water is, it it does not look good, I will go buy some more bottled water... and research a RO unit for my kitchen on ebay...

 

[rwhhunt]

Flow is good, but not overkill, there seems to be nice circulation and where the anemone has been there was only a broad flow across it from the MX900 and the other side of the tank. The skimmer intake is located up behind where the anemone has been. On the sand floor now, it is getting pretty slow eradic flow from no one source in particular....

 

[purelyh2o]

Ouch!

Ouch!

I hate to have to ask this but have you checked with the water company to see if they use chloramines...


This is almost looking like a down spiral from Chloramine exposure.

Find that out and let us know.

 

[graveyardworm]

Some people have had luck using a large diameter ( large enough for the foot to fit into ) piece of PVC sunk into the sand to place it in. The test kit should say if its good for freshwater use. With the 50% water change, if it was free from nitrates, should have cut your nitrates in half. Possibly your test kit isnt accurate. Would it be possible to have an LFS test your water just to verify your readings?

 

[rwhhunt]

Well, thsi morning things dont look good, I think i need to remove it before it contaminates the tank...

I am not sure what all the white stuff is, but it looks like guts or something.... I will remove it inhe next hour if I dont hear anything back...

 

[rwhhunt]

BTW, there were tons of copepods amd amphpods crawling all over it, so I am assuming it may be giving of an odor...

 

[graveyardworm]

Sorry man that doesnt look good.

 

[rwhhunt]

Yeah, well I had to remove it....it looks like it was rapidly deteriorating...total bummer.... I am going to work hard to get these nitrates down to as close to 0 as humanly possible.... I really thought this guy was going to work out... I think I will opt for the buble tip next time, apparently eaiser to keep, move less, and likes rock attachment. The crayfish feeding and missing carcass must have been the cause for the ammonia, and the root cause of the water decline... I will have to be much more carefull in the future

 

[brad23]

You have Ammonia in your tank? I'm surprised everything isn't looking bad.

 

[purelyh2o]

I will say again

I will say again

I hate to have to ask this but have you checked with the water company to see if they use chloramines...


This is almost looking like a down spiral from Chloramine exposure.

Find that out and let us know.