Anemone Suddenly Closing Up?

1Meshy

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Hey guys, so I got this green bubbletip anemone about a month ago and it was doing pretty well. It hid for about a week or so and then it started opening up and looking really nice (I did notice it likes to stay in shadier areas of the tank, however). However, I started noticing that it's been closing up tight for some reason, and I can't quite figure out why.

The only new thing I started dosing in the tank was Red Sea's Reef Energy Plus AB+ Coral Nutrition (I started dosing a little less than a week ago). Since it's a 29 gallon biocube, I started with about 2-3mL of the stuff everyday. I'm not sure if this could have affected the nem or not, so any input would be appreciated.

The only other thing I dose in the tank is 12 drops of Brightwell Aquatic's CoralAmino every Monday and Friday, and the occasional alkalinity buffer from the B-Ionic 2 part (sometimes my alk drops a bit, so I have to bring it up again with this stuff). I was also dosing the calcium part of the buffer a couple of weeks ago, but have since stopped because.. I guess I dosed too much? I was following the directions on the bottle, but maybe I miscalculated something somewhere and went a bit higher than I should have... oops!

Everything else seems fine though. I currently have two SPS, a couple LPS and softies in the tank. They seem to be doing well, but I'm currently trying to get my phosphate in check because I think it has since stunted the growth rate of the corals (I just got the hanna checker not too long ago, so I wasn't able to properly check the amount of phosphate the tank had until now).

The tank was set up back in 2015, so it's by no means a new tank. Other than the calcium and phosphate needing to be lowered, everything else has been pretty stable.

My current params are these:
Ammonia - 0ppm (API test)
Nitrite - 0ppm (API test )
Nitrate - 10ppm (API test)
Calcium - ~600ppm (Red Sea test)
Alkalinity - 9.7 dKH (Red Sea test)
Magnesium - 1500ppm (Salifert test)
Phosphate - 0.6ppm (Hanna Checker)

I have attached a picture of my current lighting schedule (AI Prime HD), and a few pics of the nem as well (sorry about the quality, ahaha).

One extra note, I do have a tomato clown that loves to go into the bubbletip. I'm not sure if he may be stressing the nem out or not, so I thought I would mention it.

Alright guys, sorry about the long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible for your help. I love these little guys, so any advice to keep them healthy and well would be greatly appreciated!

186486444_575956450051565_8796215399275689832_n.png 186486136_219099903058442_3629998589686856579_n.jpg 186501596_988539611893131_1714227835240547948_n.jpg 187077715_183322120329865_1948941941065706821_n.jpg
 

saltyfins

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mine did this. It was attached to a rock, only 1...so I flipped the rock over. Been in the same spot since. IDK if that would work...but maybe?
 

PeterB113

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Your lucky lol my green BTA I've had for 2 months opens and shrinks everyday..... ifk what to do
Just took this pic he was on the rocks yesterday.....he's definitely buggin out.

I'll also send u another pic in about an hour when he's the size of a pea....
 

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1Meshy

1Meshy

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mine did this. It was attached to a rock, only 1...so I flipped the rock over. Been in the same spot since. IDK if that would work...but maybe?
So do you think I should try moving the nem? Or just move the rock to more light?
 
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Just took this pic he was on the rocks yesterday.....he's definitely buggin out.

I'll also send u another pic in about an hour when he's the size of a pea....
Nice nem :). How long have you had it?
 

PeterB113

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Nice nem :). How long have you had it?
Thanks came in the mail April 9th and it was more open in the bag when I got it then its been in my tank lol.
Suspicious for sure
 

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1Meshy

1Meshy

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Thanks came in the mail April 9th and it was more open in the bag when I got it then its been in my tank lol.
Suspicious for sure
Well I hope your nem does well too, man! They're sensitive little buggers for sure, lol
 

PeterB113

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Well I hope your nem does well too, man! They're sensitive little buggers for sure, lol
Thanks, I hope so too. I try feeding him and he always seems to spit it out and sometimes turn completely inside out then fine the next day. Weird as hell
 

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I learned the hard way when I had a GBT in my bio 32, got mad that I moved it and decided to show me that a nem can squeeze through the overflow grating on that tank. Was fun getting it out of the back chamber let me tell you what.... Only reason I every try moving my nems is if they get around corals I'd rather not lose, otherwise they moved for a reason best to let them come out on their own.


May not be any one thing as far as possible causes.
That's a lot on the UV setting, what light(s) you got?
Your CA and MAG could stand to come down some.
Maybe dial down some of the dosing, every other on the daily and once a week on the twice wkly.
Also, what's your salinity and PH?
 

PeterB113

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Oh dang, that is odd. Well hopefully my thread can help you too if we end up having similar issues. :))
I hope so too and to be honest it's in a 5G tank right now lol I'm scared to put it in my other tank because i don't want it moving around and killing my other corals
 
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I learned the hard way when I had a GBT in my bio 32, got mad that I moved it and decided to show me that a nem can squeeze through the overflow grating on that tank. Was fun getting it out of the back chamber let me tell you what.... Only reason I every try moving my nems is if they get around corals I'd rather not lose, otherwise they moved for a reason best to let them come out on their own.


May not be any one thing as far as possible causes.
That's a lot on the UV setting, what light(s) you got?
Your CA and MAG could stand to come down some.
Maybe dial down some of the dosing, every other on the daily and once a week on the twice wkly.
Also, what's your salinity and PH?
I have one AI Prime HD light. I don't remember by who, but someone recommended me to have the settings I currently have. Should I dial down the UV light then?

And yeah, I'm working on lowering the mag and calc too. I've never dosed mag, but I did stop dosing calc some time ago, so I'm just letting it come down on its own (along with water changes as well).

My salinity is at 1.025, and PH is at between 7.8 and 8. I've never messed with the PH, so it's always hovered around these two numbers.
 
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Anybody else have any suggestions or recommendations?
 

Alchameth

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Might be worth a 20% water change and then set the lights to acclimation. I'd do 2-3 weeks and start around 60%. Should be able to tell within a few days if the light is too bright if it comes out. Avoid trying to feed it too, at least until it's happy again and then a few weeks past that for good measure. I don't feed mine anything other than my weekly reefroids target feeding all my corals get, and I've got a happy RBTA that split within 2 weeks of me getting it, had it for about 6 months now.

1621287135556.png
 
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Might be worth a 20% water change and then set the lights to acclimation. I'd do 2-3 weeks and start around 60%. Should be able to tell within a few days if the light is too bright if it comes out. Avoid trying to feed it too, at least until it's happy again and then a few weeks past that for good measure. I don't feed mine anything other than my weekly reefroids target feeding all my corals get, and I've got a happy RBTA that split within 2 weeks of me getting it, had it for about 6 months now.

1621287135556.png
So I should bring down my UV light down to 60% over the course of 2-3 weeks? Or are you saying to bring down to 60% in one go and acclimate the nem to that over 2-3 weeks?
 

Alchameth

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So I should bring down my UV light down to 60% over the course of 2-3 weeks? Or are you saying to bring down to 60% in one go and acclimate the nem to that over 2-3 weeks?
No, use the acclimation in the app, it dims everything as a whole so you don't throw your lighting out of balance, just dim it some. When you are looking at your schedule, the moon in the upper right in the app. Turn it on, set the days, and % it should start at. Then every day it will move it up. If you set it for 3 weeks at 65% it will up the lights 2% a day over the 3 weeks.
 
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No, use the acclimation in the app, it dims everything as a whole so you don't throw your lighting out of balance, just dim it some. When you are looking at your schedule, the moon in the upper right in the app. Turn it on, set the days, and % it should start at. Then every day it will move it up. If you set it for 3 weeks at 65% it will up the lights 2% a day over the 3 weeks.
Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah when I first got the nem I acclimated it to 50% of the lights over a 2 week period. I'll follow your advice and do 60% over a 3 week period then and see how it goes.

What do you think about my params though? Do they seem to be within range? Or should I tweak some of them?

I know you mentioned the calcium and magnesium; are they high enough to be bothering the nem that much?
 

Alchameth

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I wouldn't run UV that high above everything else, but that is a personal preference. If you are interested in tweaking your light settings now would be the time to do it because you don't want to just change those settings all the time. On my AI primes I run the BRS AB+ setting. Had 2 lights over my 90G and all my lps and softies loved it. I just saw someone post it in another AI prime settings thread today so shouldn't be hard to find if you want to check em out

As far as the CA and MAG, the mag probably not, but the CA is about 20% over what you'd want at your high end. But it could be bright lights, few chems out of whack, etc. a cumulative effect off a few things. That's why I suggested a 20% water change also with dialing back some of the dosing.
 
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1Meshy

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I wouldn't run UV that high above everything else, but that is a personal preference. If you are interested in tweaking your light settings now would be the time to do it because you don't want to just change those settings all the time. On my AI primes I run the BRS AB+ setting. Had 2 lights over my 90G and all my lps and softies loved it. I just saw someone post it in another AI prime settings thread today so shouldn't be hard to find if you want to check em out

As far as the CA and MAG, the mag probably not, but the CA is about 20% over what you'd want at your high end. But it could be bright lights, few chems out of whack, etc. a cumulative effect off a few things. That's why I suggested a 20% water change also with dialing back some of the dosing.
Alright, I'll take a look at the lighting threads for sure. Getting other people's opinions would be good. :)

And yeah, I'm not going to dose for a while.. at least not until the calc drops again. I was having issues with my calc being low so that's why I started dosing, but it seems it worked a bit too well, haha!

One last question: would high phosphate affect the nem in any way? I've heard that it doesn't but I figured I'd ask anyways.

But thanks for the help, man. I really appreciate your advice
 

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