High Nitrate Problem and Feeding Anemones

[Jeremy Lain]

I fed my anemones more food so that they would possibly grow more but they spit some of the food out and it stayed on the bottom of my reef tank and I didn't think this was a big problem but some of my fish started dying.

I tested the water and ammonia was 0 nitrite was 0 and nitrate was 40 ppm, do you think this was the problem?

If so how much water should I change to bring nitrate down to 0 ppm?

And I have been feeding my anemones sardines and have not seen alot of growth. Do you think shrimp would be better to feed them?

 

[EmdeReef]

40ppm nitrate definitely didn’t kill your fish.
Nitrate toxicity is pretty low even at a multiple of the value.

What’s your ammonia at?

Also, I would suggest against overfeeding anemones. What kind of lights do you have? I rarely feed anemones more than once a week and sometimes not even that often.

You won’t see growth by overfeeding.

 

[OrionN]

Anemones are actually mostly water. Larger anemones are actually have very little biomass. If you feed an anemone and thet regurgitated the food, they must be sick or you really over feed. Neither is good.
What anemone do you have and how big? How much food did you feed him? I use seafood that mean for human consumption for my anemone. Whatever seafood we eat my wife would leave aside a small portions for my anemones. Spoiled seafood are deadly for anemones. I often fins that fish food tend to be spoiled and not suitable as anemone's food.