Bubble tip anemone not opening.

[Bugenar]

My bubble tip anemone hasn’t opened for a month. When we first got it, no problems, but gradually it was closing up more and more… Initially I assumed it was the carpet anemone that decided to move next to it, but the bta just moved away into a calmer spot. This new spot receives less light and flow.

Every feeding attempt done resulted it in spitting the food out, or just not even grabbing it at all…

The anemone is still attached to a rock and has slight bubbling, but it looks really bad… It still has color but it never opens up fully and just sits deflated for hours, sometimes puffing up just to repeat the process.

My parameters could be better, but within good ranges. Worst is my phosphates that are consistently high at 0.1 ppm if that would be the cause… Still trying to fix that…

We are running carbon all the time, not sure if this means anything but I saw on one post that their anemone closed up when carbon was introduced..

I’ve attached a picture of what it looked like when we got it, and one right now (sorry if it’s hard to see, it’s upside down and attached to a rock)

 

[Bugenar]

The mouth is closed and there is still color, no sign of damage or tissue loss either. It never completely shuts, the tentacles are just short and stubby…

 

[Bugenar]

Bump

 

[painter1982]

Water parameters? Light?

 

[Dom]

We need to know:

1. A complete list of your water parameters.
2. Tell us what lights you have installed, how many are installed and the dimensions of your tank.
3. How long has the tank been up and running?
4. How long has the Anemone been in the tank?

Also, if you could provide a full tank picture with white lights. A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[Bugenar]

We need to know:

1. A complete list of your water parameters.
2. Tell us what lights you have installed, how many are installed and the dimensions of your tank.
3. How long has the tank been up and running?
4. How long has the Anemone been in the tank?

Also, if you could provide a full tank picture with white lights. A picture is worth a thousand words.

#1
Salinity: 1.025
ph: 8.0-8.1
NO3: 5 ppm
Ca: 450 ppm
Alk: 7.7 dkh
Mg: 1200-1230 ppm
PO3: 0.19.. yeesh

Unfortunately I do not have an ammonia kit atm, it’s on the way.

#2
Running two viparspectra 165w lights on my 65 gal 35.5x18.5x23 inches, the lights are about 6 inches above the water with a diffuser.
whites are at 10 and blues are at 55.. admittedly a little low.

#3
It’s my dads tank but it has been running for at least 10 years, he left it unmanaged for a while and we only recently added corals about 6 months ago

#4
We got it on July 23rd, so 39 days

 

[Dom]

#1
Salinity: 1.025
ph: 8.0-8.1
NO3: 5 ppm
Ca: 450 ppm
Alk: 7.7 dkh
Mg: 1200-1230 ppm
PO3: 0.19.. yeesh

Unfortunately I do not have an ammonia kit atm, it’s on the way.

#2
Running two viparspectra 165w lights on my 65 gal 35.5x18.5x23 inches, the lights are about 6 inches above the water with a diffuser.
whites are at 10 and blues are at 55.. admittedly a little low.

#3
It’s my dads tank but it has been running for at least 10 years, he left it unmanaged for a while and we only recently added corals about 6 months ago

#4
We got it on July 23rd, so 39 days

I think this tank looks good.

Your parameters aren't too bad. But that ALK of 7.7 should get bumped up, I like 8.5-9 dkh. And PO4 should get some attention, but it isn't an emergency... yet.

The tank is 23 inches tall, with the lights 6 inches above the water line. So you're roughly 28-30 inches from the bottom of the tank. Combined, that gives you about 5 watts per gallon, which is a general guideline number when sizing lights. The thing with Anemones is that when they are unhappy, they will move around the tank until they find a location more suited to their liking.

39 days should be enough for it to find and settle in to a favorable spot. That it has tucked itself in the rock as it has leaves me to feel that it was unable to find a favorable location. And that tells me, water quality is the issue.

This brings me back to your alkalinity. If it were my tank, I would focus on getting the Alk up and the PO4 down.

Alk can be raised by using baking soda.

But getting your PO4 down will be more challenging. In the past, I've run Phosguard reactors a few hours per day until PO4 is stable at an acceptable number. Then a big water change to rid the aluminum from the water column.

 

[dvgyfresh]

It is not very happy and if has been looking like that for a month then something is wrong. A month I would assume for it to look like that would be bacterial infection/ chemical warfare or bacterial infection induced by warfare , I do not see an issue with your parameters and if the anemone needed more light it would stretch / climb the rock

 

[dvgyfresh]

I would actually be worried you do not have enough carbon/ replace it often enough. I run 50g worth of carbon in my 20G lol

 

[Ken S]

I know this is a controversial subject, but I use PhosphateRx (lanthanum chloride) to lower phosphate. It works great for me. It makes it super easy to keep it right where I want it. I use it at ultra low doses (example: 12-18 drops in 240g system) directly into the skimmer or a filter sock, most of the time half of each. 12-18 drops doesn't cloud the water & will bring my phos down .01-.02 and I just keep doing that every day until it's right where want it, which is anywhere between .10-.20. When it creeps up over .22 I start doing the 12-18 drops/day (or you could even do it every other day).

I've been doing this for a while now without issue or any ill effects to coral or fish. I have a mixed reef with lps torches, sps, and a large Magnifica Nem. Google Melev's Reef & watch his videos. He's been dumping the stuff in his tanks in WAY bigger doses for 20 years without issue. Good luck with the bubble tip!

 

[Dom]

It is not very happy and if has been looking like that for a month then something is wrong. A month I would assume for it to look like that would be bacterial infection/ chemical warfare or bacterial infection induced by warfare , I do not see an issue with your parameters and if the anemone needed more light it would stretch / climb the rock

Alkalinity is 7.7, which isn't terrible, but should be addressed in my experience.

 

[Bugenar]

I think this tank looks good.

Your parameters aren't too bad. But that ALK of 7.7 should get bumped up, I like 8.5-9 dkh. And PO4 should get some attention, but it isn't an emergency... yet.

The tank is 23 inches tall, with the lights 6 inches above the water line. So you're roughly 28-30 inches from the bottom of the tank. Combined, that gives you about 5 watts per gallon, which is a general guideline number when sizing lights. The thing with Anemones is that when they are unhappy, they will move around the tank until they find a location more suited to their liking.

39 days should be enough for it to find and settle in to a favorable spot. That it has tucked itself in the rock as it has leaves me to feel that it was unable to find a favorable location. And that tells me, water quality is the issue.

This brings me back to your alkalinity. If it were my tank, I would focus on getting the Alk up and the PO4 down.

Alk can be raised by using baking soda.

But getting your PO4 down will be more challenging. In the past, I've run Phosguard reactors a few hours per day until PO4 is stable at an acceptable number. Then a big water change to rid the aluminum from the water column.

Understood will let you guys know in a week.

 

[Bugenar]

It is not very happy and if has been looking like that for a month then something is wrong. A month I would assume for it to look like that would be bacterial infection/ chemical warfare or bacterial infection induced by warfare , I do not see an issue with your parameters and if the anemone needed more light it would stretch / climb the rock

Not sure if this is a bacterial infection as I believe it would’ve died atp… I don’t wanna cipro it either because I feel like that would definitely send it over the edge right now.

I have a toadstool and kenya tree, so allelopathy is possible… but I’m running a skimmer plus carbon and I do weekly water changes. Plus mentioned suspects seem happy, is this something I can test for?

I’m still new to this so chemical warfare isn’t something I really considered…

 

[dvgyfresh]

Not sure if this is a bacterial infection as I believe it would’ve died atp… I don’t wanna cipro it either because I feel like that would definitely send it over the edge right now.

I have a toadstool and kenya tree, so allelopathy is possible… but I’m running a skimmer plus carbon and I do weekly water changes. Plus mentioned suspects seem happy, is this something I can test for?

I’m still new to this so chemical warfare isn’t something I really considered…

I’ve found leathers and anemones do not like each other , usually the anemone wins the battle but it could go the other way. You have quite the mix of corals , I would worry about chemical warfar. I keep my alk 9 -9.5dkh as well , but I don’t see an issue with 7.7

 

[Bugenar]

Understood will let you guys know in a week.

The anemone has died. The Alk/Ca/Mg as well as our Alk supplement were delayed. They arrived two days ago and our Alk turned out to be 7.5, Calcium was at 571 ppm, and Mg was 1390.

Basically back to the drawing board for this tank because that is abysmal. I suspect something went wrong with the kalkwasser setup we have, I've never seen the parameters this off...

Even more bad stuff has happened throughout the week, our arrow crab of one month has died after a botched molt, and our decorative arrow crab just stopped moving one day, same with our pithos, both dead. My porcelain crab that has been in the tank for roughly 4 months has died suddenly too. All of them died basically at the same time in the span of 4 days. Initially, I suspected copper, but my hermits, snails, and shrimp were perfectly fine. I think our calcium being so high caused a spike and that got them, as my previous test at 450 ppm was accurate.

Preparing the weekly water change now, all of this is so sudden I'm not really sure how to deal with this. I've never experienced a mass death like that in the tank.