Anemone Help

[Jekyl]

Rather than trying a million different things it's easy to get started on some things everyone will agree on. No more tap water. Get yourself an RODI system or purchase the water from your LFS. If it comes down to it, at least use the 5gal jugs from the grocery store. Second, get yourself some accurate tests. Salifert, hanna, etc. Nitrate, phosphate, and alkalinity to start.

Once you have your water source and tests in hand, you can start tackling the other issues.

 

[Cina]

There are the real issues.
You should use better kits like salifert, red sea pro, or hanna checkers. API is just the cheapest and most easily sold by any LFS or online store so they usually get new people to buy them without knowing better.

Tap water and conditioner I wouldnt recommend either unless you know the TDS of your incoming water to be very low. That should be switched to rodi water

I'm going to start weekly water changes with RODI water like @Dom suggested. I tested my KH (carbonate hardness) and it's 304 ppm KH which is high. Hopefully switching to RODI will help along with the weekly water changes.

 

[Cina]

true, now back to what can actually help this person out.

if you want you could run an icp before and after using carbon and cuprisorb but given budget I feel that is probably going to cost too much and really isnt worth it as cuprisorb and carbon are just to address the use of tap water and mitigate its effects going forward.

Are there any more corals in the tank other than the one that died and what type of corals? some corals are less likely to be effected in the long term by larger tank changes than others

I also have a mushroom coral and it hasn't grown much in a year, which is odd from what I've read online.

 

[Rmckoy]

I have had hermit crabs and one coral die. I had them for about a year. We were told we weren't changing the water frequently enough and our nitrates got too high.

Do I just add cuprisorb and carbon to the whole tank?

I'm going to start weekly water changes with RODI water like @Dom suggested. I tested my KH (carbonate hardness) and it's 304 ppm KH which is high. Hopefully switching to RODI will help along with the weekly water changes.

Ppm and dkh are 2 completely different suits of measurement .
If using the api alkalinity kit it’s generally one drop equals 1dkh

add one drop at a time until the water changes colour and record the number of drops . It will not give you accurate of anything between each dkh but it’s close .
Ppm … I know I use the Hanna checker and it measures in ppm
To convert from ppm to dkh multiply ppm by 0.056

for for example my ppm is 134 ppm which is equal to 7.504 dkh
304 ppm is over 17dkh and unless you have been dosing anything to increase alkalinity I would assume this is a testing error

 

[Cina]

Ppm and dkh are 2 completely different suits of measurement .
If using the api alkalinity kit it’s generally one drop equals 1dkh

add one drop at a time until the water changes colour and record the number of drops . It will not give you accurate of anything between each dkh but it’s close .
Ppm … I know I use the Hanna checker and it measures in ppm
To convert from ppm to dkh multiply ppm by 0.056

for for example my ppm is 134 ppm which is equal to 7.504 dkh
304 ppm is over 17dkh and unless you have been dosing anything to increase alkalinity I would assume this is a testing error

Thank you for that conversion information. I am using the API for the time being and it took 17 drops to change color. I've been using tap water with conditioner. Could that explain the high dkh?

I'm ordering either red sea or salifert tests online and will use those once they arrive.

 

[Rmckoy]

Thank you for that conversion information. I am using the API for the time being and it took 17 drops to change color. I've been using tap water with conditioner. Could that explain the high dkh?

I'm ordering either red sea or salifert tests online and will use those once they arrive.

Tap
Water could explain the high alkalinity
What salt mix are you using ?
Could be a faulty kit as well .
17 is extremely high ….
try testing the tap water without adding salt.
If it changes with the first drop the tap isn’t the issue causing the increase level . Freshwater should change with the first drop .
If I had to choose between salifert and red sea I would choose salifert for Alk ,
Salifert is also my preference for nitrate , magnesium and calcium

Hanna for phosphates ( api lowest resolution is 0.25 ppm which is extremely high for our aquariums )

seeign as this setup is 2 years old I don’t need to preach water quality , the importance of chemistry stability
Frequent water changes are not to blame as many of us myself included rarely ever do water changes
Once everything is mature and stable it’s a lot easier to maintain

 

[Rmckoy]

My tank is about 2 years old. I just added some base rock, which is the white rock you see in the picture. I hear what you all are saying about the light, but I'm so confused because the light I have was on a list of best lights for anemones on a website that looked pretty reputable. Also, the anemone seems to be doing way better (see attached photo).

What light would you recommend I get for a 36 gallon? My tank has a lid and I'd really like to keep the lid if possible, but if I need to remove it to keep my anemone and provide sufficient light I will.

Much thanks!

The coralline algae says older mature system . But without testing you would have no way to know it’s consuming calcium and alkalinity which doesn’t help explain the extremely high test results .

besides food . Are you adding anything at all ?

some things can increase Alk even though they don’t mention it claim
To do so .

 

[Cina]

Tap
Water could explain the high alkalinity
What salt mix are you using ?
Could be a faulty kit as well .
17 is extremely high ….
try testing the tap water without adding salt.
If it changes with the first drop the tap isn’t the issue causing the increase level . Freshwater should change with the first drop .
If I had to choose between salifert and red sea I would choose salifert for Alk ,
Salifert is also my preference for nitrate , magnesium and calcium

Hanna for phosphates ( api lowest resolution is 0.25 ppm which is extremely high for our aquariums )

seeign as this setup is 2 years old I don’t need to preach water quality , the importance of chemistry stability
Frequent water changes are not to blame as many of us myself included rarely ever do water changes
Once everything is mature and stable it’s a lot easier to maintain

I was using Instant Ocean.

I tested the water straight from the tap and it was 12. I retested the tank water and it's 13, but this is after I changed 10 gallons of water with RODI water. The 17 was before I put RODI water in so it was all tap water.

 

[Cina]

The coralline algae says older mature system . But without testing you would have no way to know it’s consuming calcium and alkalinity which doesn’t help explain the extremely high test results .

besides food . Are you adding anything at all ?

some things can increase Alk even though they don’t mention it claim
To do so .

I'm not adding anything else besides food.

 

[Rmckoy]

I'm not adding anything else besides food.

Weird ….

 

[dedragon]

the tap being that high in alk is a bit concerning as to what else was in the water and yes a mushroom coral not multiplying for a year is a bad sign in most situations as they are super easy to keep.
Also dang did you go out and buy an api test for phosphate? Not really a test kit I would use for any accurate results, best to just get something through amazon overnight or 2 day delivery

 

[dedragon]

Weird ….

i think it is because the tap is starting so high, after they add salt it is probably increasing even further after mixed up

 

[Rmckoy]

the tap being that high in alk is a bit concerning as to what else was in the water and yes a mushroom coral not multiplying for a year is a bad sign in most situations as they are super easy to keep.
Also dang did you go out and buy an api test for phosphate? Not really a test kit I would use for any accurate results, best to just get something through amazon overnight or 2 day delivery

Either zero or 0.25 being the first steps for the api kit it’s completely useless these days .
Years ago we were told we wanted zero or as close to it as possible .
same for nitrates .
As long as the api kit read zero we were good .
Funny think they were always zero because there is no way we could get 0.25ppm phosphates without noticing something wrong .

 

[Cina]

the tap being that high in alk is a bit concerning as to what else was in the water and yes a mushroom coral not multiplying for a year is a bad sign in most situations as they are super easy to keep.
Also dang did you go out and buy an api test for phosphate? Not really a test kit I would use for any accurate results, best to just get something through amazon overnight or 2 day delivery

I did. It was all they had and I was really worried 'cause I've never tested for phosphate or alkalinity. It was an impulse buy. Looking back I could have just done water changes with RODI water and waited for the better tests in the mail. Oh well.

 

[Rmckoy]

i think it is because the tap is starting so high, after they add salt it is probably increasing even further after mixed up

Agree .
and why I asked if she tested it

I remember something from years ago when I was questioning the accuracy of an api Alk kit .
I was advised to check freshwater ) it should be less than 1dkh

I’m not 100% sure if that is accurate considering fw tanks also test hardness (GH)

 

[Rmckoy]

I did. It was all they had and I was really worried 'cause I've never tested for phosphate or alkalinity. It was an impulse buy. Looking back I could have just done water changes with RODI water and waited for the better tests in the mail. Oh well.

Rodi … the most importantly device required .
Quality test kits being the next .

 

[dedragon]

yea best to just keep up those water changes with the rodi. Without any corals that are in need of the alk/ca it isnt that necessary to test, especially as levels will fluctuate a lot now that you are using much cleaner water (rodi). What I would test would be the newly mixed saltwater and see what level you get from that but with the new kits when they get in

 

[dedragon]

I would also try and check if someone can hold the anemone for you for a while until you get everything is under control. It is more likely to die than live based on the conditions present.

 

[Rmckoy]

Be careful not to change any parameter too fast .
Don’t do too large of a water change too often .

 

[jabberwock]

I buy red sea water from the LFS. It is not that expensive, and VERY consistent. Simplifies my life a lot. My tank is smallish though at 25 gallons.

I buy my RODI from there too for auto top off.