Anemone suddenly shrinking/Brown slime

[TherealDusky]

Hi guys!

After having this anemone for 2,5 months (got it in a bleached state, its slightly less bleached now I think? Dont know if it Will get any darker?)

It started to shrink almost daily excreting a brown slime (wich I believe is expelling of zoanthellae).

Anyone got any ideas why? It does get Little flow, but it could move to a higher flow area if IT wanted to In guess?

Nitrite/trate are 0
pH is 8
Any obvious parameters to check?
I ve reduced the light output slightly.
My other anemones are all fine, as are my corals (except my gsp is retracted)
Tank is 10 months old
In the 2nd pic you see it when its reinflating, and still der a bit of slime.last pic is fully inflated

 

[TherealDusky]

 

[Lance M.]

Check all parameters you can, preferably.

Is that a toadstool leather on the far right? I see the one on the far left.

You do have nuisance algae. Do you use tap water or RO/DI for top offs and water changes?

Do you run carbon or gfo or anything? Do you dose anything?

Do you target feed?

 

[TherealDusky]

Ill get my water tested at the LFS tomorrow

Its indeed a toadstool on the right, I Just moved him, he is already happy again

I use carbon in the sump.
Dont dose anything atm, have dosed wodka before to get the nitrates to 0

I might be feeding the fish too much though. I feed 2 cubes a day now , I have 2 clowns a sixline and a cleaner wrasse. Only have the wrasses for 3 days.

Water is RODI , salt is aquaforest

Thanks

I used to feed the clowns 1 Cube a day

 

[TherealDusky]

Id like to add that I have 1 coral that doesnt open properly, my GSP. Dont know if phosphate could have anything to do with that?

 

[Lance M.]

Possibly vodka dosing accelerated zooxanthellae growth creating an excess that anemone is now purging.

Gsp sometimes randomly closes up, at least in my experience. It would be good to get a full run down of your water parameters. If possible, get some test kits for yourself as well.

 

[TherealDusky]

Any absolutely needed?
Got nitrite, nitrate,pH and magnesium

Thanks for the help!

 

[Lance M.]

I regularly (every other day but at times daily, 2x a day) test alk, check temp, salinity (with a refractometer) but my tank has been running for ~6 years so I typically do not check the other parameters unless I feel it is needed.

In addition to those, I would be checking ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, phosphate, ca/mg. From the second pic, It looks like you have a hydrometer, I would pick up a handheld refractometer with calibration fluid, shouldn't be too much. Given the cost of livestock and the goal of a healthy tank, they are well worth the cost.

The anemone does not look bad, but does look a little off, and you do have a slight algae issue, possibly from the use of the large particle substrate trapping detritus. Do you have a refugium section in your sump? With the leathers, I find it is a good idea to run carbon as you say you are, make sure you change it out regularly. I change mine every two weeks. Mine is in a brs reactor with some gfo.

How often do you perform water changes?

 

[Amoo]

I would want to get confirmation on the Nitrate test. I don't know the extent of your nutrient export method, but unless you're pulling out 5 gallon buckets fulls of chaeto every 3 days I have a hard time seeing that few fish eating 2 cubes a day and being at 0 Nitrates. That's where I'd start first.

 

[TherealDusky]

Okay, small parameter list
Antonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0-5
Phosphate 0-0.03
pH 8.3
Sg 1.025
Ca 420
Mg 1350

Mind, Ive only had 2 fish for the past months, only feeding Them 1 Cube. So nitrates might start rising now from feeding 2 cubes ( how much would you feed?)
I have a sump with approx 50l fuge area filled with chaeto and caulerpa
I change around 50 liter per month.
Started running GFO since yesterday ( its not from BRS, im European, but it looks the same , made by AMS)

cheers

 

[Lance M.]

I meant to mention that like Amoo did but forgot when I replied. Why do you feed 2 cubes a day?

You have 2 clowns 2 wrasse, what does your clean up crew (snails, etc.) consist of? How big is the tank, total system? Looks like ~55 gallons.

I have 2 clowns, 2 yellow watchman gobies, around initially 10 snails but about 50 or so now that they have bred in the tank (stomatellas and trochus). I feed about a pinch of pellets daily, enough to consume in 30 seconds. And I target feed mysis/fish eggs to my 4 bta's and some chalices about 2-3 times a week, which the fish pick up leftovers. I have a 40 breeder with a 40 breeder sump that has ~20 gallon used.

 

[Amoo]

Okay, small parameter list
Antonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0-5
Phosphate 0-0.03
pH 8.3
Sg 1.025
Ca 420
Mg 1350

Mind, Ive only had 2 fish for the past months, only feeding Them 1 Cube. So nitrates might start rising now from feeding 2 cubes ( how much would you feed?)
I have a sump with approx 50l fuge area filled with chaeto and caulerpa
I change around 50 liter per month.
Started running GFO since yesterday ( its not from BRS, im European, but it looks the same , made by AMS)

cheers

Where in Europe mate? Cheers from the States

Personally I would feed half a cube twice a day or even a quarter of a cube twice a day with a tank that size.

I've seen algae bother Nems more then tank parameters multiple times. I'm wondering if that may be your issue here. I don't want you to go chasing that yet as we're still in the brainstorming stage here. I'm sorry if I missed it as I'm in a rush at the moment but will be back later probably after your asleep. You mentioned you turned down your lights. What kind of lights do you have and what is your lighting schedule.

Also that second parameter list you just posted. Did those come from a LFS or your own test kits and if so, which kind?

 

[TherealDusky]

65g tank and a 30g sump
Jut following the instructions on the packet tbh, "feed as your fish can eat in 3 minutes,multiple times a day"

My cuc is 5 blue hermits, 2 red Scarlet hermits
Some turbo,star and zombie snales
A whole lot of stomatella snails (literally 50 orso, they cover the glass at night)
2 mithrax crabs in the main tank, various hitchiker crabs in the sump/refugium
2 cleaner shrimp
2 Peppermint shrimp

Cheers

 

[TherealDusky]

Belgium, country of Chocolate and terrorists

The test was from my LFS, they used "Hanna" testers for most of the parameters

My lights are 300w Maes Aqua lights
Blues come on at 6:30am
Whites at 7@m
Whites off at 8:30pm
Blues off at 9:30pm

Thanks for your help too, its hard to find experienced people here

 

[Kayvon]

I had an anemone look like that after my clown fed it a ton of food. I thought it was going to die, but I guess it was just pooping.

 

[Lance M.]

I would first pull back to 1 cube a day and continue your normal water change schedule, trying to keep things stable.

Your photoperiod is 15 hours? I would reduce it to 10-12 if it were me. Is the intensity programmable with that fixture? I see a lot of people use those, but I do not know it's capabilities. I am also not sure of the spectrum provided, if that and the long photoperiod are contributing to algae growth.

I see your powerheads on the side walls. What are those on the back wall? I have not seen those before. Are you getting enough flow over the substrate to keep food from getting lodged in there?

Just trying to cover everything.

Can you post an updated pic of the nem?

 

[Amoo]

Ok I'm going to brain dump on you here to try to give you some stuff to chew on and hopefully we can pinpoint what's going on here with your help.

- You've stated you've had it for 2.5 months and it has been shrinking and expelling zoos (pictured), but also stated it seems to have colored up some. These two things counter each other as Nem wouldn't color up if it was constantly inflating and deflating. There's info here we're missing. Need a more specific time frame of when this behavior started.

- You've stated you used vodka to get to 0 Nitrates, but don't currently. Didn't start using any media until a few days ago when you put GFO online. Did the expelling of waste zoos start after you added the GFO or before?

- You can physically see all of the algae growing in your display which is out competing your Fuge, wondering if fuge light just isn't strong enough to out compete the lengthy photo period of your DT.

- There are a lot of things going on with this tank that could cause an issue like this. I see one hard coral in the upper right section of the tank, but most of your tank is softies and the nems. Softies really thrive in tanks with nutrients (Phosphate and Nitrate), but your tank is reading almost none of both. Everything in your tank needs some nutrients to grow and I'm wondering if the increase in feeding amount is tied to your algae explosion in the display which is causing a lack of available nutrients to your nems, of which the one on your sandbed would be most sensitive to. One of the things that makes Nems be classified as "difficult" is some can be very sensitive to changes in the water. In your case here, it may explain why your nem on the sand is mad, but the BTA still seems to be doing fine.

My best guess would be it's not getting the nutrients it's been accustomed to getting to feed all the Zoos it had gained back as it was starting to color up and as a result is now starting to expel them. As long as it's not daily or even multiple times a day inflating and deflating I don't think you have a "911" style problem, I think you have more of a go see a regular doctor on an appointment type problem. I can sit here and throw stones at this glass wall all day long until we really pinpoint down what might be causing it to be unhappy, by my gut is telling me it's simply mad about it's ever changing environment. Hopefully now that you have some GFO online things should start to stabilize. If it were me personally I would run the reactor with both GFO and carbon as the carbon can really help cut back on any type of chemical warfare that can occur as well as a preemptive measure in case anything really bad happens with one of the Nems.

Hopefully that's enough info to get you started. Like I said, I'm just tossing out thoughts and hopefully that gives you something to work from.

 

[TherealDusky]

I'll try to answer all the ideas as good as I can

My pumps on the back wall are 'sicce voyagers' they have a flow deflector and are constantly spinning, they recreate wave action a bit. Theyre 625 gph
I've lowered my photoperiod to 12 hours now, my sump light is on for 16

The anemone started expelling zoox's after I had it for 2.5 months, more like out of the blue than anything else. The only other thing thats unhappy in the tank is my green star polyps, for some reason that doesn't want to live..

I added the GFO after the anemone started acting up, also because I read that GSP might hate any phosphates in the water ( no idea if its true)

It deflates/expels every 2-3 days now ( didn't deflate yesterday, but did this afternoon).
Its almost always in the afternoon that it deflates too btw, like clockwork ( PH/too much light/nutrients?)

I am about to change the carbon in the tank as well again, also because I hope there is some chemical warfare causing the GSP to die. Another soft coral that should be 'as easy as gsp' ( xenia) is thriving in my tank.

Wat I've tought(thaught? the spelling is a bit hard ) before too, is that the algae use up all the nutrients in the system , so it shows 0, but in the end there are a lot of nutrients aviable for them to grow.
I'll upload a pic in a sec. I've cut down on feeding so I hope the algae issue will deminish, as it's really an eyesore

 

[TherealDusky]

 

[Lance M.]

How does the mouth look?