My bta wont eat

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Good news he kept his mouth closed for a full day, and just swallowed a piece of shrimp. Im crossing my fingers that he'll keep it down.
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As for my haddoni, Im not so sure : (
 
It looks better -- as far as the mouth is concerned. But, it appears to be getting lighter in color and the fact that it is on the glass isn't a good sign -- they are rock dwelling anemones.

What is going on with the S. Haddoni?
 
Excellent progress report! Here's hoping you're on the way to recovery. You will likely have to do a water change every week to keep him looking that good until your tank is older and has more rocks. If you add enough LR, after a few months it will begin to clean the water for you so you won't need as many water changes.

The lighter color and climbing the glass both seem to indicate a lack of light. It's probably trying to climb up closer to the light in order to survive. The T5s will help with that.

I also am curious about the Haddoni situation??
 
The haddoni just regurgitated his piece of shrimp, and is leaving his mouth open. As for lr Im looking to get 50 pounds but as for cash im broke. I dont, want to turn this into a selling forum, that info is just an FYI kind of thing. As for lighting the t5s will be in soon, but fedex is SLOW, and I do not think I will get the package before saturday.
 
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Need to feed the S. Haddoni (( and your other anemones )) smaller pieces -- shouldn't be regurgitating anything.
 
Need to feed the S. Haddoni (( and your other anemones )) smaller pieces -- shouldn't be regurgitating anything.

+1 if it held it down for a couple hours first. If it didn't hold it for more than 4 hours it may just be sick. Carpet anemones are typically a lot more sensitive and will be even more touchy than the BTA. Just be patient, it may just be adjusting to the new water.
 
I would try to do 10% water changes daily if I were you considering you have detectable nitrites--much more harmful than nitrates to animals. As was pointed out, the BTA looks much better in that last picture. That can likely be attributed to your water changes. However, it should have its base attached inside a cave or hole in the liverock. Also, I see an uncovered intake to what looks like a Hagen powerfilter. That anemone is likely to go wandering. The last thing you or it needs is to get sucked into the intake. Put a sponge or plastic window screen (hold in place with a rubber band) around the intake.

You're to be commended for diligently doing the water changes and researching anemone care. I wish I had had RC when I was 14 years old and put 3 large condylactis in a 5 gallon tank that wasn't even cycled--my bedroom smelled like a cesspool.
 
Where to start...

Anemonekeeper, you need to step back from the tank for a second and think about what you are doing. You are trying to create a little slice of a coral reef in your tank. The path to success is to try to replicate all of the natural systems present on a reef in the wild. If you can't recreate them naturally, you need to provide them artificially. Therefore:

Tropical sun > bright artificial lighting
Wind and waves > strong water movement via pumps
Large body of warm water > stable temperature maintenance via heaters
Clean water > low ratio of waste-producing critters to waste-processing critters

You do not have bright enough light to keep photosynthetic creatures. It's like you're trying to grow a rose using a flashlight. All you'd end up with is a bunch of mushrooms.

Additionally, you do not have enough live rock to process the waste being generated by your large anemones. This can be offset somewhat if you give your tank enough time to "cycle" and for beneficial bacteria to colonize the entire tank (substrate, etc) but you have added your large critters too soon.

Finally, do not feed your anemones large chunks of ANYTHING. In fact, anemones can grow just fine in a reef tank with no supplemental feeding if they have bright lighting and you add food for your fish and they can snag some of it out of the water column. Think about those chunks of shrimp rotting in your tank - because that is what is happening when you add dead material like that to your system. Even if the anemone "eats" it, the anemone still excretes waste material after processing the parts of the food that it needs. Heavy feeding leads to big spikes in ammonia; and if your tank can't handle processing it via biological filtration, the water becomes toxic.

Being 14 and not having a lot of money, you need to step back and prioritize your approach to building the awesome tank that you CAN afford. Better to start with a small system with all the right equipment, than to rush to the finish line and load up your tank with a few large animals without the system to keep them alive. I don't want you to feel bad or become depressed because you aren't having success with reef tanks. However to continue to buy animals for your system without fixing the underlying problems first is to condemn them to death. Make your slice of the reef first. THEN add the animals to it.
 
Ill cover the intake soon, but first Im building a sump. Its gonna be 10 gallons with 65 gph, plus Im adding some powerheads and 70 pounds of lr(spread between a new nano im building) ill provide a link to the nano thread soon.
 
Ill cover the intake soon, but first Im building a sump. Its gonna be 10 gallons with 65 gph, plus Im adding some powerheads and 70 pounds of lr(spread between a new nano im building) ill provide a link to the nano thread soon.

I say this as someone who has make this mistake -- don't cover the intake soon, cover it NOW. You already have a moving BTA, it is just a matter of time before it finds the intake. Your tank is on the edge and I fear that an anemone finding an intake will push your tank over the edge and crash it.
 
STOP FEEDING YOUR ANEMONE!!!! Whether he's eating or not is the least of your concerns. Your just adding unnecessary food into an already overtaxed system. Like the other folks said get those lights fast. But before you do anything else please find a temporary (or new) home for these animals. If you dump 70lbs. of LR into your system you will more than likely kill the anemones. I know your trying to fix the situation now but I really think the survival of those anemones should be your first priority.
Just trying to be helpfull and make sure the animals in your care live.
BTY I've had my BTA fo 12 years now and I stopped feeding him about 4 years ago because I realzed it just doesn't need to be fed. If you have good lighting and you feed the rest of the tank inhabitants he will thrive.
 
The t5 s will be here today, so thaf helps with lighting. I just stopped feeding the nems, and by soon I mean later today, I just have the stop by HD for some pipes/acrylic dividers.
 
Make sure to acclimate the anemones to the new lights, I will say it again, acclimate them to the new lights.

While you are at HD pick up some window screening and egg crate (( will be in the lighting section, called light defuser ))

This is what the egg crate and a roll of window screening will look like,

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You will want to cut the egg crate so that it fits on the rim of your tank,

this is main cut for my 33 cube

Lightacc2.jpg


You will want to use 3 layers of window screening, with removing a layer every 5-7 days (( keep the lights at the height and photo-period length that you desire )), the tank will look something like this with the screen over it,

Lightacc6.jpg
 
O man! Can you trade it out or are you stuck with it?

If you can't return it you can set it on the eggcrate if you put a spacer in between so the heat doesn't melt the plastic.
 
Not an exact measurment of length, but as for fitting its way off, so Im going to return and get a new fixture that comes with the lights. Plus I couldnt go to HD, and my dad said he wasnt going to spend a penny on the aquarium(not like he even did in the first place), so the nems are pretty bad off, although I did add some kent marine supplements for the first time, so that might help, especially the iodine sipplement.(dont worry, I used the minimum dosage, I dont want to screw anything up).
 
Do not dose anything that you are not testing for. I would skip the iodine supplement, too great of a risk right now.

Honestly, I think it is time to think about selling the anemones.
 
Actually, 20 watt t-5 ho bulbs are 18 inches bonsai.

Anemones don't need dosing. Maintain balance with water changes. Don't add anything to a marine tank you don't have a test to measure.
 
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