Anemone Death and Ammonia Spike Recovery

brianhama · Feb 10, 2024

My bubble tip anemone had a run-in with a power head a few weeks ago and crawled behind some rocks. I wanted to give him a chance to recover, but he didn’t make it. I found him today and he was clearly dead so I went to remove him from the tank. As soon as I touched him, he burst open. He basically disintegrated. The tank water turned almost white. And the smell was horrendous.

I removed as much of him as I could with a net and then did a test for ammonia. The test immediately turned green. It had been at 0 just the previous day. So I did a 40 gallon water change. My tank is 125 gallons with a 20 gallon sump. The ammonia is still high. The water is still cloudy. Should I dose with Safe (powder version of Prime)? Should I do another water change right now? Should I just wait until tomorrow and then do another water change? I’ve never used safe/prime on this tank before. Part of me wonders if it’s really that healthy for the fish.

Any advice appreciated!

hdsoftail1065 · Feb 11, 2024

I seen you posted this yesterday, how is your tank going? Did you do a second water change and are you running carbon?

ashtonnnnn · Feb 11, 2024

brianhama said:
My bubble tip anemone had a run-in with a power head a few weeks ago and crawled behind some rocks. I wanted to give him a chance to recover, but he didn’t make it. I found him today and he was clearly dead so I went to remove him from the tank. As soon as I touched him, he burst open. He basically disintegrated. The tank water turned almost white. And the smell was horrendous.

I removed as much of him as I could with a net and then did a test for ammonia. The test immediately turned green. It had been at 0 just the previous day. So I did a 40 gallon water change. My tank is 125 gallons with a 20 gallon sump. The ammonia is still high. The water is still cloudy. Should I dose with Safe (powder version of Prime)? Should I do another water change right now? Should I just wait until tomorrow and then do another water change? I’ve never used safe/prime on this tank before. Part of me wonders if it’s really that healthy for the fish.

Any advice appreciated!

happened to me like a week ago with a rfa in an aio, 50% water changed made it all clear up

brianhama · Feb 11, 2024

hdsoftail1065 said:
I seen you posted this yesterday, how is your tank going? Did you do a second water change and are you running carbon?

I didn’t want to stress the fish more so I haven’t done any additional water changes. I also didn’t use safe. The levels have gone back to zero today. Sadly, one fish did die, but the rest look to be doing fine.