Maroon Clowns hiding and not eating

[hodge_williams]

Hi guys...
Have been keeping tropical tanks for a while now and decided to move into marines...
Through conversing with LFS, I purchased my first tank 3ft by 3ft by 2ft (200 litres). I have a hang on biofilter, 25 kgs live rock, a 500l/h powerhead, a 1500l/h powerhead, 10 inches of marble chip substrate. The tank finished cycling within 1.5 weeks but I decided to hold off on getting fish/corals for another 2.5 weeks.
My partner bought me a bubble tip anemone and a pair of maroon gold banded clowns. For the first 2 weeks they were fine and eating flake food and pellets.
As the nitrates were reaching a high percentage I did a 20% water change and also stirred up the top (ONLY) substrate... Now they are not eating and the male hides uder a rock... The female still rubs against the anemone.
I had also introduced a yellow tang who seems to cause them no harm and it goes about its own business. It eats fine.
Should I be concerned with the maroons not feeding as it has been 3 days now! I have even tried pieces of shrimp but they are not interested...
WHAT CAN I DO?????
Tests are as follows
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 40 (i know its too high and will be doing another change asap)
Salility - 1.029
Calcium - 420

Please someone help me...

 

[snommisbor]

Salinity is too high should be 1.024-1.025. Are you adding saltwater as your top off of RO-DI?

When saltwater evaporates the salt does not so you should replace evaporation with fresh water. Nitrates arent horrible but a water change will help that too but the salinity is high.

 

[hodge_williams]

Thanks snommisbor...

Yeah I normally top off the tank with RO... Due to high nitrates about 4 days ago I did a water change of approx 15%... I will remove some of the water in the tank and fill with RO. To get it down to a more suitable amount, approx how many litres should I remove and fill with RO?

Do you think the salinity would be the reason?? Should I try to feed them something else such as live brine?

Temp of the water is 25 degrees celcius.

 

[thosefishguys]

The high salinity isn't helping, especially if it was a quick increase. The nitrates shouldn't bother them much at that level...you may want to retest the ammonia and nitrites to make sure of the 0 readings.

J.

 

[hodge_williams]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12692601#post12692601 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thosefishguys
The high salinity isn't helping, especially if it was a quick increase. The nitrates shouldn't bother them much at that level...you may want to retest the ammonia and nitrites to make sure of the 0 readings.

J.

I did small water changes over the past few days and have reduced salinity to 1.025... Ammonia nil, Nitrites nil, Nitrates now 25....
I believe I have found the source of the 'hiding'. As soon as the lights come on, the male runs and hides under a rock in a dark place... The female stays in the BTA. It is the lights! Now just to figure out why????

I was feeding them pellets and flakes but have recently found out from mf LFS that the pellets break down too easy and increase proteins too much... Maybe that is the cause???