Sand Anemone/LTA Sick... help please?

[tobrienne]

Hi all, I am new to this forum, but have had my saltwater setup for over 2 years now.

I have a few different types of coral in there, the usual sponges and some other small ones - nothing large. I know that carpet anemones are very hard to please in any tank. That was a failed attempt for me a while back (although it is still in my tank and stayes deflated for the most part) thats another story.

My main concern is the sand anemone that I just got. It was about 3" across and gorgeous..


Well it came with 2 other fish (in a tiny bucket :hmm4: could have killed the idiot) and so I was bringing those babies home to get them into my aquarium.

As I have done with all my past fish, I turned off all of the lights and added a couple half turkey basters full of my water (one at a time every 20 minutes) 2 or 3 times and then added them into my tank. Fish are fine.. coral seemed to be fine but the next day the coral looked like it has disintegrated and was flaking debris off and was withered beyond recognition. I'm afraid it perished overnight and is now just a little nub of a thing wrapped in on itself.

Any chance I can recover it with my coral food or may it take time to recover from shock or should I just remove it from the tank because its dead? See picture below for what it looks like now...





As you can see, not happy. But all else is fine in the tank.. so please give me insight on as to what I can do.. if anything! Very appreciated

Toby

PS. 75 gallong SW tank, 3 clowns, one hippo and one velvet damsell.. crabs, bristles, etc on bottom oh and starfish

 

[tobrienne]

In case anyone was wondering about my carpet anemone.. this is what it looks like on a 24/7 basis.. sometimes it stretches out tall but generally does not inflate like it used to.





Let me know your thoughts if you like I love tips and help.. seems like what I am doing isnt working for these guys!

 

[Chuckd76]

Any chance I can recover it with my coral food or may it take time to recover from shock or should I just remove it from the tank because its dead? See picture below for what it looks like now...

View attachment 298246

View attachment 298247

I'm by no means an expert but I think your LTA is a goner. From the threads I've read and pics I've seen, once they reach that point they're done with this world. You should remove it before it totally disentegrates and fouls your tank.

Also, the carpet is bleached pretty badly. If it's still willing you should start feeding it ASAP to see if it can recover.

When I first got my LTA it was sorta pale and would take shrimp into it's mouth and then spit it back out. Then I read some random post about feeding salmon soaked in Selcon(something about the smell) and now, aside from what my clowns give it, it only gets salmon. I just use very small pieces and tenderize them with a bamboo skewer while they're sitting in the selcon. Then I give it directly to the LTA and stand guard a while so the clowns don't take it. Some one else can correct me but from what I understand if the pieces are too large the anemones will spit them out because the food will rot before it's digested.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[ocellaris123]

Yes, the LTA is a goner and should be disposed of; it is rotting. Your carpet is in very bad shape, how long have you had it?

Also what are your water parameters and what kind of lighting do you run?

 

[tobrienne]

Calcium - 400ppm
KH - 196.9
Salinity 1.020 (I added some salt to raise it, didn't realize it was so low)
Temp - 79
pH - 8.2
Phos - 2 (I usually get confused at this one, because of the numbering system on my colour card.. I'm not sure if this reads as actually 0.02)
Ammonia - 0.25 (likely because of the dead sand anem)
Nitrate - 20 (same issue as phos, I never know if this is 0.02ppm)
Nitrite - 0ppm

I dont have a magnesium tester but all my parameters seem to be ok.. according to the chat I found somewhere on here (cant find the forum I found it on)

Let me know if these aren't ideal and I'm a complete bonehead... always possible!!

As for the carpet anemone, I have been using reef roids and coral accel on a daily basis.. rotating each food and squirting it near him so he could eat. Doing this for 3 weeks or so and no change. Although he does stretch out and move around the tank still. His stamina seemed to die out when my old T5 HO light went caputz. It was a 4 bulb but only had 2 functional bulbs in it - one of each. Now I have a smaller T5 light.. is it possible it's not enough?

F28-T5-BP 28W
10,000k

 

[tobrienne]

So, I think I've come to the realization.. that this new lamp that I have for my tank.. is a regular T5 and not a T5 HO...

If I am lucky.. I can purchase the HO bulbs and swap them out... unless I cant. Lighting I am not so knowledgable on as I was given a wicked T5 HO hanging light fixture but it got stolen during my move from my old house (was SO ****ed off) so I got this one cuz it was what I could afford in a pinch.

Any insight on this?

 

[garygb]

Your nitrate/phosphate is too high for successfully keeping an anemone long-term. A good skimmer, bare tank bottom, chaetomorpha, regular water changes, activated carbon and/or biopellet reactor all can get the pollutants down to undetectable levels. You want specific gravity up around 1.026 for anemones, undetectable nitrates, ph 8.2-8.3 preferably, temp 78-82. You definitely need t5 HO, but lighting is only one concern, get the water quality up to par and keep it that way for 6 months to make sure you can maintain it consistently, then attempt an anemone. For years I had sand and eventually, usually after 3 years or so, I would develop a nitrate problem. About 4 years or so ago I decided to get rid of all the sand, since then, no nitrate problem. You can still keep sand dwelling anemones by getting a tupperware container, put sand in it, place liverock to conceal the plastic container. Or, get a BTA, the easiest host species of anemone and they live among the live rock where they like to plant their foot in a hole or cave in the live rock, where they will stay put assuming other conditions are to their liking.

 

[ocellaris123]

Your nitrate/phosphate is too high for successfully keeping an anemone long-term. A good skimmer, bare tank bottom, chaetomorpha, regular water changes, activated carbon and/or biopellet reactor all can get the pollutants down to undetectable levels. You want specific gravity up around 1.026 for anemones, undetectable nitrates, ph 8.2-8.3 preferably, temp 78-82. You definitely need t5 HO, but lighting is only one concern, get the water quality up to par and keep it that way for 6 months to make sure you can maintain it consistently, then attempt an anemone. For years I had sand and eventually, usually after 3 years or so, I would develop a nitrate problem. About 4 years or so ago I decided to get rid of all the sand, since then, no nitrate problem. You can still keep sand dwelling anemones by getting a tupperware container, put sand in it, place liverock to conceal the plastic container. Or, get a BTA, the easiest host species of anemone and they live among the live rock where they like to plant their foot in a hole or cave in the live rock, where they will stay put assuming other conditions are to their liking.

Agreed,

Also for a 75 gallon aquarium your going to need at least 4x54 watt t5 HO bulbs over the tank for a bta. Look into getting ATI bulbs (blue plus, coral plus, aquablue special, in your preferred ratio). A 6 bulb fixture would be better.

What is the wattage of your current t5's?

 

[addictedreefer]

Calcium - 400ppm
KH - 196.9
Salinity 1.020 (I added some salt to raise it, didn't realize it was so low)
Temp - 79
pH - 8.2
Phos - 2 (I usually get confused at this one, because of the numbering system on my colour card.. I'm not sure if this reads as actually 0.02)
Ammonia - 0.25 (likely because of the dead sand anem)
Nitrate - 20 (same issue as phos, I never know if this is 0.02ppm)
Nitrite - 0ppm

I dont have a magnesium tester but all my parameters seem to be ok.. according to the chat I found somewhere on here (cant find the forum I found it on)

Let me know if these aren't ideal and I'm a complete bonehead... always possible!!

As for the carpet anemone, I have been using reef roids and coral accel on a daily basis.. rotating each food and squirting it near him so he could eat. Doing this for 3 weeks or so and no change. Although he does stretch out and move around the tank still. His stamina seemed to die out when my old T5 HO light went caputz. It was a 4 bulb but only had 2 functional bulbs in it - one of each. Now I have a smaller T5 light.. is it possible it's not enough?

F28-T5-BP 28W
10,000k

I really hope that your KH value is a typo. KH should be anywhere from 7 to 12. I would think if your KH was really 196.9, your water would be solidified. Also agree with others here that your other water parameters are way off: salinity is far too low, nitrates and phosphates are way too high (especially phos, which should be under 0.05 ppm). Also, regarding salinity, when you said you added salt, I really hope you didn't mean that you added salt directly to the aquarium, as that is a big no no. To raise salinity, simply top off with 1.026 SG saltwater for a few days until the tank levels rise.

IMO, you should re-home that carpet until your system can sustain it.

 

[tobrienne]

I am definitely going to do a water change right now (which is how I raise my salinity too) and will continue to do so over the next few days to keep my levels optimal. I will use my syphon and clean up the aragonite as I imagine it is likely full of crap.. it's been a while since it was cleaned last.

Honestly I haven't always watched my levels as I haven't had any issues with my tank until I recently got these corals. My fish never had any issues with my parameters.. I can blame life (and twin boys!) on my neglect but I am going to move forward with all this info and fix my tank..

Oh and as for KH the drops are 11.. which equates to 196.9 in ppm..

 

[tobrienne]

So I added some ammo chips and phosguard into some media bags and placed them in the filter canister. I did that two days ago and see a difference already in my carpet anem.

I plan to check parameters again in a day or so but today it went from 2 down to 1. So moving in the right direction. I also scrubbed my protein skimmer of all gunk.