Anemones and alkalinity

[Davy Jones]

Setting up a hospital tank for one of my sick anemones. My display runs at around 8dkh regularly but will bounce between ~7 and 9.5 depending on how well i keep up on dosing and waterchanges.

Regardless I use Red sea coral pro salt with a dkh of about 12. So when i set up this 10 gallon tank, it will have a dkh of about 11.5-12 or so im guessing. I have never thought much about alk swings and anemones, but is this something that is a huge concern? Personally I am leaning towards it not being an issue.

LMK your thoughts and experiences!

 

[Diesel]

What’s wrong with the nem?
What you going to treat it for?

 

[Davy Jones]

What’s wrong with the nem?
What you going to treat it for?

It deflates multiple times a day, when deflated it's mouth remains open.

It will inflate but does not look very healthy when doing do and tentacles are short and stubby. The mouth however is closed while inflated. It has lost a tremendous amount of color since adding it to the tank.

Bit of back story, I have ~9-10 standard rainbow bubble tips in my tank. Around the end of april i bought a "True Sherman rose anemone" from a pieces of the ocean sale. Looked AMAZING when it came in and in the bag. After putting it in the tank it moved down to the bottom of the tank in super low light and flow and slowly started looking worse and worse. It is firmly attached and not moving, but it is in 50 par or less I would guess.

I read through the cipro treatment thread and am picking some up tomorrow evening and I plan on going through that treatment to try and save the anemone.

Do you have any other tips or ideas?

 

[Diesel]

I would lower your alk in the tank first.
Can you share you nutrients test of that tank?
When mouth is open most likely it doesn’t like the water it’s in.

 

[Davy Jones]

I would lower your alk in the tank first.
Can you share you nutrients test of that tank?
When mouth is open most likely it doesn’t like the water it’s in.

Yessir, tested 3 days ago:

Alk 8.6dkh with hanna checker
Cal 435ppm with red sea test
Nitrates 6ppm with red sea
phosphate 0 with hanna checker (however the significant algae growth i get suggests that is not accurate)
temp from 79.8-80.4 via apex fusion

I have not tested mag in a long time, however i do ~8-12 gallon waterchanges weekly on a 34 gallon tank using red sea coral pro salt. In between waterchanges I dose red sea ABC+ powder between 6-10 grams daily to keep up with alk and cal consumption between waterchanges. (tank uses roughly .8dkh a day without it)

Everything else in the tank looks awesome, including the other anemones and even the sps i have.

I am picking up an 80 gallon tonight and setting that up to transfer the livestock into over the next couple of months, so it works out to be a good time to treat the anemone for a possible infection if that is the route i should go

 

[Diesel]

I’m not sure the nem has something other than sometimes nems do their own thing.
What kind of doser you use to keep up with your big three?











#reefsquad

 

[Crabs McJones]

I fear that moving the nem to a quarantine tank is only going to stress it out more. Alk doesn't matter so much to anemones as it does LPS and SPS corals, but swings in any parameter can still upset them. How long have you had the nem?

 

[Reeferdood]

IMHO, anemones like a little phosphate.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

IMO. Alk won’t matter. The big change between tanks might due to ph.
I’d use old tank water and slowly over days to wc with fresh mix.

I acclimate almost coral almost entirely based on ph. Ie low ph in a shipped bag.

Fwiw , I’ve swung my alk over 16 over a a week or two with no ill effect.

 

[Davy Jones]

I’m not sure the nem has something other than sometimes nems do their own thing.
What kind of doser you use to keep up with your big three?











#reefsquad

Manually dosing using the red Sea abc+ powder for now. Will transition to esv 2 part when i set up the new tank OR do an AWC setup.

I fear that moving the nem to a quarantine tank is only going to stress it out more. Alk doesn't matter so much to anemones as it does LPS and SPS corals, but swings in any parameter can still upset them. How long have you had the nem?

I have the same fear, but I have had him since april and it has been slowly declining since then. At this point, if i do nothing I am sure he will die. I do weekly 30+ % waterchanges using RO/DI water. Hell my other nems and all corals have been looking the best they have been in a long time with tons of growth, except this one. I KNOW it isnt getting enough light but it wont move.

IMO. Alk won’t matter. The big change between tanks might due to ph.
I’d use old tank water and slowly over days to wc with fresh mix.

I acclimate almost coral almost entirely based on ph. Ie low ph in a shipped bag.

Fwiw , I’ve swung my alk over 16 over a a week or two with no ill effect.

That is a good idea, thank you!

 

[Davy Jones]

First photo is now, and what he typically looks like when deflated

Second photo is the vendor pic when I bought it. It looked true to picture when it was floating in the bag for acclimation

 

[Amoo]

I would do a "drip style" acclimation with that big of an alk swing going from DT to Qt/Rx tank.

I think treating it in higher alk will be fine assuming you simply acclimate it going both ways, before and after treatment. Definitely seems like a good candidate for treatment since you have so many and this one seems to be doing poorly.

 

[Davy Jones]

I would do a "drip style" acclimation with that big of an alk swing going from DT to Qt/Rx tank.

I think treating it in higher alk will be fine assuming you simply acclimate it going both ways, before and after treatment. Definitely seems like a good candidate for treatment since you have so many and this one seems to be doing poorly.

Thanks for the tips Amoo,

Per your instructions you say you use a cycled biowheel, I do not have anything cycled i can throw in the RX right now other than siporax or marine pure.. would that suffice?

 

[Amoo]

Marine Pure would be fine, just remember that you only keep something like that in the tank while you're not dosing any medications. As soon as medications become a thing and it goes from a QT to an RX tank, that's when you pull things.

 

[Davy Jones]

Marine Pure would be fine, just remember that you only keep something like that in the tank while you're not dosing any medications. As soon as medications become a thing and it goes from a QT to an RX tank, that's when you pull things.

Thank you. Final question, is a 5 gallon large enough for a BTA hospital tank? I have a 20 gallon as well but the less salt and water I have to dump out the better

 

[Amoo]

Thank you. Final question, is a 5 gallon large enough for a BTA hospital tank? I have a 20 gallon as well but the less salt and water I have to dump out the better

yup just cut the dosing in half. The 10G recommendation is only in there as it generally fits "most" nems and provides for easy math for conversion.

 

[Davy Jones]

yup just cut the dosing in half. The 10G recommendation is only in there as it generally fits "most" nems and provides for easy math for conversion.

Thank you so much for the help. Here it is when it's not deflated, I picked up the Cipro today but can't start treatment until tomorrow

 

[Z3speed4me]

Heh so YOU are the guy that won that...
For a nem that large (when healthy) I would think 5 gal is a bit on the small side for sure if you are going to separate it for a bit.

Doesn't look too bad when inflated, have you tried feeding it anything, scallops, squid, etc?

 

[Davy Jones]

Heh so YOU are the guy that won that...
For a nem that large (when healthy) I would think 5 gal is a bit on the small side for sure if you are going to separate it for a bit.

Doesn't look too bad when inflated, have you tried feeding it anything, scallops, squid, etc?

Although I did win this beauty, it is a farcry from what it once was. Has shrunken about 40% i would say since april (since then i have done numerous waterchanges, ran different types of carbon, fed heavily, fed lightly, tried really anything I know of to try and get him healthy looking. Hence moving to cipro as idk what else to try.)

As for size of the rx tank, if the anemone does will for treatment and starts to recover I can always use the 20 gallon to continue treatment or use as an observation/QT tank.

I feed my tank LRS reef frenzy, and usually feed the larger chunks to the anemones once or twice a week depending. I try not to over feed, and sick anemones I typically do not feed as it can stress them out or at least I think thats the case.

AFTER the hospital treatment and a couple weeks in QT/observation I will likely move him to the new display and see if I can get it to settle in.

 

[Davy Jones]

yup just cut the dosing in half. The 10G recommendation is only in there as it generally fits "most" nems and provides for easy math for conversion.

Just an update! Started treatment Friday night. Done 4 water changes since then and moving into 24 hour water changes now.