Bubbletip issues

[ashs_exotics]

Been having some issues with my anemones looking a bit shriveled and not opening up. The ugly brown one used to grow super rapidly when my tank was new for some reason and flourished, but has since just been in a stalemate, it won’t grow it just stays alive. The colored bubbletip I just got after my last one died about a week after being introduced to the tank. This one seems to be doing okay, but his bubbletips constantly change by inflating and deflating. Sometimes he’s huge, sometimes he’s tiny. No apparent growth. Not really sure what the issue is as it’s a mixed reef tank and all other inverts are flourishing and I grow sps, lps, softies, and coralline algae pretty efficiently. Any input is appreciated, thanks guys

 

[Silent]

For one, there is no clear answer to why some have bubble tips and others do not even clones in the same tank next to each other.

 

[Greg P]

How old is your tank?
What are you parameters?
Alk, Ca, Mag, Sg, temp
Tank flow, sump or not, lighting, tank critters ...
Tell us all you can think of

 

[ashs_exotics]

For one, there is no clear answer to why some have bubble tips and others do not even clones in the same tank next to each other.

Yeah I’ve heard that, but usually from what I’ve seen they tend to stay in whatever form they are for a decent amount of time in the right environment. Like bubbles stay as bubbles and longer ones stay longer. The colored one changes like 2-3 times a day

 

[ashs_exotics]

How old is your tank?
What are you parameters?
Alk, Ca, Mag, Sg, temp
Tank flow, sump or not, lighting, tank critters ...
Tell us all you can think of

Tank is like 5-6 months old, used live sand to start and had fish in there way before anemones, then I got the brown one, then coral, then the colored one.
Alk 8.3 Ca 440 Mag 1300-1350 salinity 1.025-26 temp 79-80 Nitrates and phosphates are near unreadable
High flow - hob filter, small pump in back, canister filter, small skimmer. Very budget oriented stuff (started this while just out of high school into college). Using a pretty crappy ro/di system but water still reads 0ppm. Our local water is horrible though testing at 450ppm.
No sump, 30g tank, 175w 20000k Hamilton Metal halide lighting placed about 12 inches above the rim of tank. Hosting a royal gramma, pistol shrimp goby pair, firefish, cleaner shrimp. Corals include mushrooms, montis, stylos, GSP, leather, torch, and frogspawn.
It might help to note that the systems that the colored anemone came from ran very high phosphates, unintentionally

 

[Greg P]

I bought RBTAs during my first tank build and had them in my second tank re-do.
I had no problems with them and they loved both my lights and flow. They also never moved from the spot I picked for them.
Lots of bubbles vs long tenticles.
Does this mean I gave them the perfect environment for them? And they would never kill my tank?

My bubbles wanted lots of light, no extra feeding and lots of flow.
Their 'nem crab ticked them off enough that they kept splitting, so I sold them.

 

[Greg P]

Tank is like 5-6 months old, used live sand to start and had fish in there way before anemones, then I got the brown one, then coral, then the colored one.
Alk 8.3 Ca 440 Mag 1300-1350 salinity 1.025-26 temp 79-80 Nitrates and phosphates are near unreadable
High flow - hob filter, small pump in back, canister filter, small skimmer. Very budget oriented stuff (started this while just out of high school into college). Using a pretty crappy ro/di system but water still reads 0ppm. Our local water is horrible though testing at 450ppm.
No sump, 30g tank, 175w 20000k Hamilton Metal halide lighting placed about 12 inches above the rim of tank. Hosting a royal gramma, pistol shrimp goby pair, firefish, cleaner shrimp. Corals include mushrooms, montis, stylos, GSP, leather, torch, and frogspawn.
It might help to note that the systems that the colored anemone came from ran very high phosphates, unintentionally

Wow, I'd say you've got it all under control.
I really don't see a reason for it to be unhappy .. aside from maybe your tank being kinda new

 

[ashs_exotics]

I bought RBTAs during my first tank build and had them in my second tank re-do.
I had no problems with them and they loved both my lights and flow. They also never moved from the spot I picked for them.
Lots of bubbles vs long tenticles.
Does this mean I gave them the perfect environment for them? And they would never kill my tank?

My bubbles wanted lots of light, no extra feeding and lots of flow.
Their 'nem crab ****** them off enough that they kept splitting, so I sold them.

You have a lot of my favorites in that tank, and you are growing them all like crazy! Maybe I need to lower my halide a couple inches, they did come from a tank littered with radion xr30s, so they did have high powered lighting on them

 

[Greg P]

Try putting your newest arrival into a rock area and cover it with a piece of eggcrate to keep it from being blown around.
Not sure what's going on with your tank ... sorry I can't help out

 

[Greg P]

You have a lot of my favorites in that tank, and you are growing them all like crazy! Maybe I need to lower my halide a couple inches, they did come from a tank littered with radion xr30s, so they did have high powered lighting on them

My tank is lit with 8x54w T5s

9" above the tank rim, and it's a 19" tall tank

 

[Greg P]

2 x Blue Plus, 3 x Coral bulbs and 3 x Aquablue Special

All ATI

 

[Greg P]

You have a lot of my favorites in that tank, and you are growing them all like crazy! Maybe I need to lower my halide a couple inches, they did come from a tank littered with radion xr30s, so they did have high powered lighting on them

Don't do it just yet !!
Get your nutrients up first or you will burn your corals

 

[ashs_exotics]

Don't do it just yet !!
Get your nutrients up first or you will burn your corals

You think I should run higher nutrients? What are your nitrates and phosphates looking like?

 

[Greg P]

You think I should run higher nutrients? What are your nitrates and phosphates looking like?

When my 'nems were happy my NO3 was 25 and PO4 was 0.1-ish
My tank is very new now so no advice at this point ...

 

[ashs_exotics]

When my 'nems were happy my NO3 was 25 and PO4 was 0.1-ish
My tank is very new now so no advice at this point ...

Thanks for the tips!

 

[DirtMcGurt]

Just for comparison, my Nitrates stay around 10 ppm and Phosphates between 0.06 and 0.08. Low nutrients caused a lot of algae in my tank and I believe it almost killed one of my RBTA nems. Since I got the nutrients up and stable they look way better.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

I also want to add that not everyone has the same nutrient levels. They should be balanced, between eachother, but that balance can vary from tank to tank. I've had to dose nitrates and still dose phosphates from time to time.