Anemones in QT

pecan2phat · Oct 8, 2018

So I have a question regarding anemones.
Do they give off ammonia even if not fed?
My reason for asking is that I attended a coral show and in anticipation of possibly buying some, I setup a 12g the day before with new saltwater, 2 pieces of dry rock and some dry ceramic beads for the filter compartment. After 12 hours I added bottled bacteria and the next day I did end up buying 6 small BTAs. Figured I would just observed them for a day or 2 in the new setup but on day 2, the ammonia started to get to .50 ppm.
I added another dose of Fritz Turbo Start (best bottled bacteria to my knowledge) and will test later today but should I use Prime to combat if the ammonia is still present or even higher?
Concerned about how Prime really works and since the nems are inverts filled with water, will this be a catastrophe waiting to happen?

And why are nems causing the nitrogen cycle to happen so quickly?
How do all those vendors do it at the shows with 100x more corals, clams and nems packed into those frag tanks, how do they keep ammonia at bay for 12~15 hours?

sbash · Oct 8, 2018

Well, quite simply:

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The anemones will also have some trace food and detritus on them, which would instantly start breaking down (nitrifying) once you put it into the clean, uncycled tank. The best thing to do is to get the anemones into a cycled tank as soon as possible.

The sellers are able to keep their frags and livestock at the shows because they use cycled rocks, larger tanks and add little to no food for the duration. Since they are using live rock in their showcase tanks, there is little risk of ammonia because their tanks are cycled.

VoZe · Oct 8, 2018

I know that anemones emits slime sometimes so that could be what it’s giving off ammonia

davocean · Oct 8, 2018

Possibly expelling waste, they hold water for a long time as well, but I'm wondering if your bacteria in a bottle is affecting your readings and results

pecan2phat · Oct 8, 2018

I know that medications can affect ammonia readings but did not know that bottled bacteria would. Let me move my ammonia alert badge over from the fish QT to see what it reads.

tankstudy · Oct 8, 2018

pecan2phat said:
So I have a question regarding anemones.
Do they give off ammonia even if not fed?
My reason for asking is that I attended a coral show and in anticipation of possibly buying some, I setup a 12g the day before with new saltwater, 2 pieces of dry rock and some dry ceramic beads for the filter compartment. After 12 hours I added bottled bacteria and the next day I did end up buying 6 small BTAs. Figured I would just observed them for a day or 2 in the new setup but on day 2, the ammonia started to get to .50 ppm.
I added another dose of Fritz Turbo Start (best bottled bacteria to my knowledge) and will test later today but should I use Prime to combat if the ammonia is still present or even higher?
Concerned about how Prime really works and since the nems are inverts filled with water, will this be a catastrophe waiting to happen?

And why are nems causing the nitrogen cycle to happen so quickly?
How do all those vendors do it at the shows with 100x more corals, clams and nems packed into those frag tanks, how do they keep ammonia at bay for 12~15 hours?

A lot of organisms produce waste. So I wouldn't be too surprised if it was them. At the same time, a small amount tissue loss or damage can produce ammonia.

You probably should have ran a digestion test before using your QT tank. 0.50 ppm ammonia after two days is indicating a 0.25 ppm ammonia increase per day. It's either you don't have enough bacteria or your bottled bacteria were already all dead. Always run a digestion test, its cheap and it can save you a lot of money if your bottled bacteria isn't working as intended.

A lot of the big vendors will bring a lot of extra water, some bring a sump cooler that sometimes even have live rock or biofilters. Corals can tolerate a 0.25 ppm ammonia for a short duration but that isn't the case for all corals.

The bottled bacteria is suppose to speed up your cycle, in this case, it looks like your cycle is actually not fast enough and that's why your seeing ammonia creep up.