Problems with PLTA

[sdunkin]

I have a purple long tentacle anemone in my 40g breeder system. About 3 days ago it started to deflate and every day since it has gotten progressively worse. I've had the nem for just about a year and my tank is over 18 months old. Any clue what I can do to help it?

I just did a waterchange Thursday. SG is 1.025 and everything else in the tank looks fine. The nem let go of the bottom of the tank last night, so I just reburied the base of it. The tentacles are still sticky and the mouth is not gaping.

Edited to add: Lighting on the tank is a 2x150w HQI Sunpod with Phoenix 14K bulbs. The bulbs need change and I have new ones to replace them, but I was worried about shocking the nem too much since it seems to be having trouble. It looks like a nem doing a "waterchange" on itself but it has been this way for a few days. It has never deflated like this before.

 

[clowns101]

What are your Nitrites and Nitrates testing out at?

 

[sdunkin]

Nitrate is 0, Nitrite is 0, Ammonia is 0, and pH is 8.0 (which is what it always is). Everything else in the tank looks perfectly happy. Should I go ahead and do another waterchange? I just did one on Thursday but my waterchange schedule has been slacking a touch as of late. I did a 12g change to a 60g system on Thursday, but the nem was already looking off before I did the change.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

Too much of a water change can some times do more harm than good. Change the bulbs but put screens over the area where the anemone is and acclimate the LTA to the lights. Do you have carbon running in this tank? Every anemone I know loves fresh carbon. Your PH is a bit low. It should be at 8.2 or 8.4 I would find out why it is low before adding PH buffer. Do you have a tank hood or cover? Some causes of low PH is having a build up of CO2. Have you fed the anemone lately? If you have, what did you feed it?

 

[ransomed4ever]

i have a green/tan lta, and in the ~2 years i've had it its deflated and moved for no reason 2 or 3 times. it seems like it just wants to change spots every one in a while

 

[clowns101]

wicked_NaCl_h2o took all the words out of my mouth.

 

[CockyBrock]

Nice info...going to get me a RBTA today...will use this info in my setup

 

[sdunkin]

Too much of a water change can some times do more harm than good. Change the bulbs but put screens over the area where the anemone is and acclimate the LTA to the lights. Do you have carbon running in this tank? Every anemone I know loves fresh carbon. Your PH is a bit low. It should be at 8.2 or 8.4 I would find out why it is low before adding PH buffer. Do you have a tank hood or cover? Some causes of low PH is having a build up of CO2. Have you fed the anemone lately? If you have, what did you feed it?

It was looking bad before I did the water change, and I've did that size change before with no ill effects. I cannot put screens over where my nem is due to the placement of the nem and the tanks plumbing (I was told to plumb over the back of the tank and there is no way to cover the tank around the plumbing). I do not have carbon running right now, but I will add some. My tank is fully open (no lids or covers on display or sump). My pH has always been 8.0 and I use an API drop kit to test it. I was told it is due to the Oceanic salt I used, so I tried mixing Oceanic and Instant Ocean but my growth rates slows so I switched back to just Oceanic. I haven't directly spot fed the anemone lately, but it usually grabs the larger chunks of rods food when I feed it. It's been probably 2 weeks since I last fed it.

 

[clowns101]

Dont use either salts use ReefCrystals.Made by the same company who makes InstantOcean,but InstantOcean is not made for reef tanks where as ReefCrystals is.

 

[sdunkin]

Dont use either salts use ReefCrystals.Made by the same company who makes InstantOcean,but InstantOcean is not made for reef tanks where as ReefCrystals is.

I cannot get ReefCrystals locally, so my only choices are IO or Oceanic. I've never had an issue with Oceanic before though. The nem has been living in my tank for over a year now and done fine, which is why I'm so puzzled. It isn't a new batch of salt either, same bucket I've been using for quite some time.

The last day or so the nem has been looking a touch better. It still is not fully inflating, but it isn't looking near as "wilted" as it was previously. I tried putting a strawberry basket over it to keep my female picasso out of it, but she was trying to move the basket to get back into her home.