g_langley
New member
And hopefully you will continue to do so. Ignore the haters.
What's wrong with my Haitian reef nem?
- Thread starter CMDemey
- Start date
And hopefully you will continue to do so. Ignore the haters.
The best part is that I can sit here and type on RC while watching my tank 6 feet away. :thumbsup:
IMO, that condy does not look good...and if it's moving, it is not happy... Could be lighting and flow, but over feeding was probably also part of the problem...
For the record...condys will host clowns, although I've rarely seen it host false or true percs
For the record...condys will host clowns, although I've rarely seen it host false or true percs
DanDashO
New member
One of the stacks of rock you have is live, the white rock on the other side is not. Even established rock will take a couple steps back when introduced to a new tank, it will take upward of a few months to be completely stable again.
As for flow, marineland sells those cheap maxijet power heads for like 15 bucks, you could pick up one of those for a little extra flow.
So will Xenia colonies
you are correct, some species like Maroons and Clarkiis will take to them. Condy don't naturally host any species of clowns though (most likely because they're found in opposite hemispheres).
As for flow, marineland sells those cheap maxijet power heads for like 15 bucks, you could pick up one of those for a little extra flow.
So will Xenia colonies
you are correct, some species like Maroons and Clarkiis will take to them. Condy don't naturally host any species of clowns though (most likely because they're found in opposite hemispheres).
m0nkie
Well-known member
tank is fairly new.. 4 months old. It's still going through diatom and cyano stage. That could be a big reason why the anemone is unhappy. People recommend to wait at least 6 months before getting your first anemone. But I've seen it done at around 3 months. At this point, there isn't much you can do. Just provide the best water parameters and hope your tank can handle the anemone.
PH is not that important to beginner salt tanks. I measure PH on a calcium reactor, low PH is needed to melt pellets. But I measure with a APEX lab PH probe, not those test kits.
PH is not that important to beginner salt tanks. I measure PH on a calcium reactor, low PH is needed to melt pellets. But I measure with a APEX lab PH probe, not those test kits.
CMDemey
New member
ahh, now I understand the rock. I will check those heads today if they are that cheap, thank you for being so specific. I used the tank expedited stuff to cycle it by adding the good bacteria, and I add a little at each water change also. Although I goofed and thought the tank cycling was able and uneaten food and I kept taking the fake rock out and cleaning it, lol.
CMDemey
New member
Thanks, I understand the rock deal now. Anything that boosts that? I use the tank quick start to jump the good bacteria when I started my tank as well as a little when I do my water changes. Yes, I did see that condys do sometimes host, they just aren't known for it. We just wanted an easier specimen to learn to keep a happy tank with starting out. I picked up a 15$ power head today and put it in a little while ago. Thanks for the tip! Fingers crossed. I do know that it had already perked up and was enjoying the flow boost. I don't know if it will do the trick, too soon. to tell, he is half blocked until he moves but I am interested to see what I find in the morning.
CMDemey
New member
Sadly, the power head was not the easy inexpensive answer I had hoped. In our 29g tank, with hanging filter in the middle and bubbles at either end all stirring the water, adding the power head I believe made my nem more unhappy. It looked just as bad, but couldn't find a happy spot, and finally the last 2 days looked like it was about to purge its stomach and die, shrunken and droopy more than ever. I gently wiggled it lose and put it in our hanging tank closer to the light and it perked back up. Don't know why I didn't think to try that in the first place. I also researched more and figured out I had saltwater lighting but not reef lighting and not enough for my nem even though these nems don't require as high as other species, ours still wasn't enough. I ordered a decent lighting system that will arrive in a couple days. Hopefully that will set him right. I didn't have the money for a lighting system but I don't want to lose our nem, no matter how inexpensive, we are attached to it. Thanks for all the advice!
CMDemey
New member
I ordered the Fluvial Marine & Reef LED full spectrum lights. Hoping that does the trick. Was a lot more than $30, lol. I thought about finding some sort of T5 spotlight clamp light sort of thing, just to give the nem some concentrated better lighting, but I wasn't sure about it, nothing said what I was looking for that I saw, and It would have reflected off the sides of the tank anyway. We have all sides open with a couch on one side and a walkway on the other so not really a good place to stick a light on the side and the lid is black. Just decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and throw another $200 into my daughters tank and get a glass top lid and reef lighting. Fingers crossed.
CMDemey
New member
32 I think it was, it was the $159 one that would fit a 30" tank. Then $20 for the glass lid and 2 day shipping. I could have, I found some I thought were better but I went with one AI could easily return locally if it didn't work out or something was wrong with it. I'm hoping it arrives tomorrow but my luck is it won't be until Thursday. The nem went through the death cycle this evening and freaked me out for the other tank inhabitants. The nem had its mouth gaping and its insides protruding. I have never seen it do that, it was not expelling anything but looked like it was flipping inside out. I don't have an isolation tank that isn't mesh and doesn't share water with the tank but I have only one light. I was worried about it dying and going toxic so I hurry rigged an isolation tank with a gallon freezer bag hanging on the side near the light mid tank and wrapped a small powehead with the netting from the mesh hanging tank and stuck it to the side. Weirdly enough, the nem is safe and has bubbles and flow (reduced flow so it doesn't swirl the nem like a toilet flush) he has attached to the bag and is sitting a couple inches from the mesh bagged powrrhead and doesn't look great, but its mouth closed, he is coming back to life again, not a lot, no long tenticles but no longer showing inside out and little tenticles reaching towards the light again, and I dripped some microvert in the bag. I'm exhausted, I don't know if the nem will survive and come back around or if the better light will arrive in time, but it won't be for the lack of trying to save it. I may have high blood pressure by the end of the week but I will have either saved the little **** or learned some things.
joshbrookkate
New member
Sorry to hear about the troubles you're having with your anemone.
Please don't be insulted by this question - I just want to help:
Did you say what the salinity is at? Are you adding fresh RODI water to your tank to replace evaporated water? If so, how aften?
Please don't be insulted by this question - I just want to help:
Did you say what the salinity is at? Are you adding fresh RODI water to your tank to replace evaporated water? If so, how aften?
CMDemey
New member
No insult at all, I'm new and do my best at research but there is a lot I am still learning, obviously. The salinity is right at 1.24 or .124 whatever the thing says is optimal. Sorry, away from tank at the moment. We use filtered well water that has been tested for any metals. It sits for 24-48 hours, live salt or whatever the salt with the iodine and nutrients is, is dissolved and brought up to match the existing tank water and temperature before adding it in. 1/4-1/3 water change twice a month. Our PH has had to be raised a couple of times a tiny bit, but our ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and phosphates have been perfect for months. Tank stays clean and everything else is great, tried the power head, but it seems to be a lighting issue since I have a salt water fish only light but its not enough for even the Haitian reef nem as I'd hoped. Just hoping it hangs in there long enough for the light to get here and make a difference.
CMDemey
New member
Oh and for the evaporated water, I keep 2 filtered water jugs at the ready under the tank. One with just water, the other with a high concentration of saltwater, that way I can add and adjust as needed. Jugs and rinced and filled monthly. Slight red hair algae issue has popped up a little here and there but we do a little tiny bit of chemclean diluted and added a couple days before the water change and sand vacuum.
OrionN
Moved on
Looking at your tank, it is very sterile. The lime stone is not porous enough to be good life rock. Life rock have a lot of continuous tiny holes in it which tiny fauna (tiny animals live in rock and sand) used as home. You used dead sterile sand and rock to set up your tank so the diversity of your tank is minimal. IMO/IME the diversity in the reeftank is what keep it going strong.
Your tank is suitable as a fish only tank, not a reef tank. Many invertebrates are highly sensitive and will not do well in your tank. Your filtration method put out a lot of nitrates which is very bad for sensitive invertebrates. I am sure testing the water will show that the nitrate level is high.
Consider replace the lime stone with real live rocks, and consider seeding your sand with several cups of sand from a pest free thriving tank(s). If you do this, after a few months you will see all kind of interesting animals popping up in your tank, all kinds of "worms" in your rock and sand.
Back in the 1960, Lee Chin Eng started the natural filtration methods, using live rock as filtration is one of the most important advancement of reefkeeping IMO.
Regarding your Goniopora, it is a Goniopora stokesi, a difficult if not impossible coral to keep until recently. It require a highly diverse aquarium with plenty of fauna for it to eat. You can attempt to feed it, and it will do better. It is really not the fish that is the main cause of it's problem. It is starving. the clown may accelerate the process.
The links below is what you should read regarding Goniopora care. The author, Justin Credabel is extremely knowledgeable reefer and the one who lead the way in culturing Goniopora.
Regarding feeding your tank, try to use multiple type of food. Brine shrimp is terrible frozen food for your tank. If you only feed brine shrimp, your tank will not do well. Get several type of flakes and feed your tank with combination of dry and frozen food. I would use combination of Ocean plankton and mysis. IMO, these are much better than Brine Shrimp as food for your tank
Lastly, you should go over to the New Reefkeper section and read information from there. Do not attempt to keep hard to keep invertebrates until you can keep a thriving reeftank. You are very lucky to start at an age where information is plentiful and freely available.When I started, the only source of information is the LFS. The few book that are available are extremely hard to find and very expensive, and all wrong. These day, the burden on you is to decide which information is good and which is garbage.
The very best articles on Goniopora culture
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/nftt/index.php
Your tank is suitable as a fish only tank, not a reef tank. Many invertebrates are highly sensitive and will not do well in your tank. Your filtration method put out a lot of nitrates which is very bad for sensitive invertebrates. I am sure testing the water will show that the nitrate level is high.
Consider replace the lime stone with real live rocks, and consider seeding your sand with several cups of sand from a pest free thriving tank(s). If you do this, after a few months you will see all kind of interesting animals popping up in your tank, all kinds of "worms" in your rock and sand.
Back in the 1960, Lee Chin Eng started the natural filtration methods, using live rock as filtration is one of the most important advancement of reefkeeping IMO.
Regarding your Goniopora, it is a Goniopora stokesi, a difficult if not impossible coral to keep until recently. It require a highly diverse aquarium with plenty of fauna for it to eat. You can attempt to feed it, and it will do better. It is really not the fish that is the main cause of it's problem. It is starving. the clown may accelerate the process.
The links below is what you should read regarding Goniopora care. The author, Justin Credabel is extremely knowledgeable reefer and the one who lead the way in culturing Goniopora.
Regarding feeding your tank, try to use multiple type of food. Brine shrimp is terrible frozen food for your tank. If you only feed brine shrimp, your tank will not do well. Get several type of flakes and feed your tank with combination of dry and frozen food. I would use combination of Ocean plankton and mysis. IMO, these are much better than Brine Shrimp as food for your tank
Lastly, you should go over to the New Reefkeper section and read information from there. Do not attempt to keep hard to keep invertebrates until you can keep a thriving reeftank. You are very lucky to start at an age where information is plentiful and freely available.When I started, the only source of information is the LFS. The few book that are available are extremely hard to find and very expensive, and all wrong. These day, the burden on you is to decide which information is good and which is garbage.
The very best articles on Goniopora culture
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/nftt/index.php
OrionN
Moved on
You need an accurate (and cheap) refractometer to use to check salinity of your tank. Do not ever adjust your salinity with adding concentrate salt solution. Sea creature do not do well with increasing salinity quickly. It will kill them. The only way to increase salinity is use normal tank water (salinity the same or nearly the same as your tank) as top off and the evaporation will increase your salinity over time. Quick decrease in salinity is bad but sea life have evolved a way to deal with this because it happen often in nature (rain). Quick increase in salinity is uniformly fatal to sea animals, except the hardiest ones. There is never any situation in nature that produce a quick increase in salinity.
One way to keep a sand bed is to let the animals in it alone to clean and deal with detritus that settle in the sand. Vacuum the sand often will kill and destroy and remove most of these fauna. This contribute to the sterility of your tank.
OrionN
Moved on
A few posts earlier, you said that the nitrate is perfect, in a reef tank we aim to keep nitrate at 0. In fish only tank, the nitrate can be sky-high and the fish will be OK. Your filter with continuous water running though it, is very good at converting ammonia to nitrates with aerobic metabolism, but it cannot break nitrates down further. The only way nitrate is remove from your tank is with water change.
Other methods of filtration with live sand and live rock use anaerobic metabolism which break ammonia down to nitrogen gas and release it to the atmosphere.
Do not add a glass top to your tank. Air exchange is very important to a tank. Obviously add a top will drastically change this.
Read and consider reset up our tank properly with a sump where you can put all the equipment in and not clutter the tank. Water from from tank to sump will aerate the water and remove CO2. Read, and read, and read first and once you under stand the "reefing way" then set up your tank. Avoid spending good money after bad.
Importants in reef keeping:
enough light, enough circulation for the invertebrates you are keeping
stability in temp (good thermometer with controller). Many tank are killed by a stuck heater
stability in salinity (daily top-off or automatic top off)
good way to export bad stuff (good skimmer, or use Live sand methods)
Diversity of fauna and flora
sensible selection of fish and invertebrates
good source of nutrient for the animals
Once your are better, good method to add Ca and Bicarb so that your coral can use for growth. Avoid anemones and Goniopora until your can keep a well run reef.
Best of luck to you. Hope you will be around 5 years from now.
I need to do my work. Spending too much time on this already
Other methods of filtration with live sand and live rock use anaerobic metabolism which break ammonia down to nitrogen gas and release it to the atmosphere.
Do not add a glass top to your tank. Air exchange is very important to a tank. Obviously add a top will drastically change this.
Read and consider reset up our tank properly with a sump where you can put all the equipment in and not clutter the tank. Water from from tank to sump will aerate the water and remove CO2. Read, and read, and read first and once you under stand the "reefing way" then set up your tank. Avoid spending good money after bad.
Importants in reef keeping:
enough light, enough circulation for the invertebrates you are keeping
stability in temp (good thermometer with controller). Many tank are killed by a stuck heater
stability in salinity (daily top-off or automatic top off)
good way to export bad stuff (good skimmer, or use Live sand methods)
Diversity of fauna and flora
sensible selection of fish and invertebrates
good source of nutrient for the animals
Once your are better, good method to add Ca and Bicarb so that your coral can use for growth. Avoid anemones and Goniopora until your can keep a well run reef.
Best of luck to you. Hope you will be around 5 years from now.
I need to do my work. Spending too much time on this already
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