Soooo I may have jumped the gun….

WhitePanther93

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Soooo my tank is somewhere between the 4 and 6 month mark.(I’m sure some of you know where this is going because I gave my tanks “age”)
And recently wwc had one of its sales. And they maaay have had a rainbow bubble tip go on sale.
It may or may not have been in my tank for a few days now and look something like this:

A53A4569-54E2-4239-9ED4-7BA5BA8BB86D.jpeg
(With filter to remove some of the blue):
1BE37431-6199-4AC3-A872-B7E1C38936AC.jpeg

Anyone here have advice for pap(premature anemone purchase)?
Anyone ever have success after doing the same as me?

now this is no means a complete chart. It just so happens that I started recording this stuff after getting a few Hanna checkers.


Reef testing

DayCalcium (ppm)Alkalinity (DkH) Magnesium Nitrates (ppm)Phosphates (ppm)PH
8/194459.4
8/234269.533.5
8/28432~9.3
9/34499.9
9/64249.744.1
9/84259.88.1
9/91280
9/1342710.08.0
9/1510.041.67.9
9/224469.9(before)36.2 (before) 28.9 (after)7.9 (before)
9/2442710.125.1.308.0
CalciumAlkalinityMagnesium NitratesPhosphates Ph
9/294529.6124021.4.268.0
10/0618.3.348.2
10/104179.220.4.278.0
10/1319.1.188.1
10/144449.0

I know the phosphates need to come down. And the nitrates are a bit of a work in progress. (I had an underpowered pump that didn’t allow my filter sock to work as effectively as it should have been.) you can see pretty clearly when I upgraded.
I do have a media reactor on the way along with some gfo, to help with phosphates.

all joking aside I would like any advice you’re willing to give.
 

youcallmenny1

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As you are aware, you have a few parameters swinging around a little and that can do damage but for a tank so young this is hardly out of the ordinary. That said, I wouldn't be too worried about your RBTA. They're hardy creatures and I've had them survive problems that nuked most corals. If anything, it has also been my observation that when stressed they tend to split in to pieces instead of just melting.

In the meantime, focus on stability and achieving the parameters you've set as goals. Chasing numbers is a dangerous game but for a young tank you have to get things in the ballpark before you can play ball, so to speak.
 

LuizW13

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I don't have experience with nems, but from all the reading and browsing I've done, and the taking a very quick skim through your parameters chart, I don't think you've done anything wrong.

It could just be trying to find it's happy place in it's new home.
 

MNFish

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There is not a magic amount of time that makes an aquarium safe for an anemone I added one at 3-4 months and never had an issue with it.
 
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WhitePanther93

WhitePanther93

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Gotta get that hair/turf algae addressed
Oh yeah I know. I’ve got myself on a 3 day filter sock schedule. And I’m hoping a media reactor with som gfo will help with phosphates, though they have been coming down a bit.
 
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Cell

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Feed schedule? Water change schedule? Your nitrate and phosphate level is even higher than you are measuring considering how much the algae is taking up. GFO will help, but ideally you need to import less. That is an excessive amount of algae for a ~5 month old tank.
 

Just John

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Taking care of the nutrient situation is the most important thing, of course. But you may also find that some cleanup crew, like Mexican or zebra turbo snails, often won't eat the longer hair algae very much. The following worked well for me: After pulling it out by hand as much as possible, use a small stiff brush (really stiff! A fingernail brush maybe) to scrub off as much as possible and filter/suck it out of the tank. Then when the rocks only have shorter patches of algae, buy a lot more cleanup crew than you should normally need. They should make quick work of it and you can return the cuc that you don't need for some credit. Just don't wait too long to return them or they will starve.
 
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WhitePanther93

WhitePanther93

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Feed schedule? Water change schedule? Your nitrate and phosphate level is even higher than you are measuring considering how much the algae is taking up. GFO will help, but ideally you need to import less. That is an excessive amount of algae for a ~5 month old tank.
The excess nutrients is due to my underpowered return pump earlier on. I have an eshopps cube medium and not enough water was overflowing into the filter sock. Therefore more nutrients were staying in the tank.
Here’s a pic of what I mean:
13BB1B1C-F6C3-47FB-83EB-E4049C507762.jpeg
left is a dirty sock a few days before the upgrade right is a few days after
What I’m saying is: is that my algae had a head start.
Also I do a weekly water change I feed my fish twice a day on a timed feeder with extra variety in the morning. I’ve been cutting down on feeding reef roofs recently.
 
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boacvh

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The only additional question I would ask besides parameter and stability is have you checked PAR or have the appropriate lights for BTA? if so I think yours will be ok
 

BaghdadBean

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Whoa, that’s quite the filter sock. You might want to rotate those out faster, just while you’re getting things locked back down. It won’t hurt, and it’ll definitely help. From my own experience, 3 days was 24 hours too long on my 58 gal reef. When I started swapping socks every other day, my nitrates and phosphates dropped appreciably.
 

youcallmenny1

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If you don't like that reality of socks, I can heartily recommend switching to a filter roller. I'll never touch or wash a filter sock again! A small size Bubble Magus would probably do wonders for you and cut down your maintenance and work BUT you will spend a little more than you would on your annual filter sock replacement buying filter rolls. Fair trade imo.
 

Koh23

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I always put anemone with ocelaris, thats around month-month and a half old tank, never lost one....

On one tank, only "bad" thing was that he splits often, so in a two months i have 11 of them.

Left 5, sold the rest, all of them lived happily ever after.... When tank aged enough, they stoped splitting....

Now i have 3 small ones, tank is 5 months old, parameters are ok, and only difference is that now i have nice bubble tips, in newer tanks i always have long spaghetti tentacles on anemone.... Not sure why....
 

Camaro Show Corals

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Yes, I have 4 stage rodi setup.
You may need to add more stages, I strongly recommend a 7 stage. Your saltwater will only be as good as your rodi water so I strongly advise everyone to not skimp and cheap out on rodi. People say a 4 stage is good enough but really more people need more stages then don’t, with a seven stage your media will last longer and won’t need changed as much and it’s pretty easy to upgrade and add stages. Do you know your TDS out of the Tap and TDS of finished rodi? Because even 1 tds is too much in finished water and can lead to higher po4. Your high po4 has to be coming from somewhere
 

jt8791

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Don’t feel bad, I jumped the gun and bought Red Sea pro test kits at the lfs. About 5 minutes later I ordered Hanna checker and reagents, hr nitrate and lr phosphate. Oh and salinity tester and calibration solution as well as a couple other small things. I gotta get off the Amazon app, prime is handy but dangerous. Lol
 

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