My anemone is looking awful

[Eagle_Steve]

Well he was using his foot to move so there is hope. I can’t find him this morning so he might be down under a rock. I don’t want to move my rocks to find him...I will just have to be patient and hopefully see him again. He did live through the ordeal of being buried that’s a plus. I will just keep watching.

Thanks y’all for your words of wisdom.
I will keep y’all posted.

Hoping for the best with the little critter.

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

Update on my anemone:

He has found him a spot he likes and is staying put. His color is coming back (no longer ghostly white) but still no tentacles as of yet. I will keep updating y’all.
@Eagle_Steve

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

I have a question for you @Eagle_Steve
Now that my alk is between 9 and 10 (tested today and it read 9.8) do I keep dosing or no? If so how much should I dose (75 gal aquarium w/15 gal sump). Today I only dosed 20ml of B-Ionic...was worried I would dose too much . BTW all of my corals are looking 100% better since my alk has been brought up.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I have a question for you @Eagle_Steve
Now that my alk is between 9 and 10 (tested today and it read 9.8) do I keep dosing or no? If so how much should I dose (75 gal aquarium w/15 gal sump). Today I only dosed 20ml of B-Ionic...was worried I would dose too much . BTW all of my corals are looking 100% better since my alk has been brought up.

For the alk, you need to monitor it and see how much drop you have in a day. From there, you figure out how much to dose to maintain the alk level. So if you are dosing b-ionic 2 part, you may just need to dose a small bit a day to maintain it if it is dropping quickly or if it just drops very gradually over a few days, you can dose every few days. We just do not want the swing to be huge. If you take 3 days and test alk at the same time each day, log those those numbers, and then let me know what they are, I can figure out a dosing regimen for ya and then show you the math behind it so if adjustments have to be made for when coral grow and consume more, you can adjust the dose.

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

For the alk, you need to monitor it and see how much drop you have in a day. From there, you figure out how much to dose to maintain the alk level. So if you are dosing b-ionic 2 part, you may just need to dose a small bit a day to maintain it if it is dropping quickly or if it just drops very gradually over a few days, you can dose every few days. We just do not want the swing to be huge. If you take 3 days and test alk at the same time each day, log those those numbers, and then let me know what they are, I can figure out a dosing regimen for ya and then show you the math behind it so if adjustments have to be made for when coral grow and consume more, you can adjust the dose.

I will start the 3 day testing and recording today and let you know. Right now it has been reading 9.8 each day before I dose 18 ml of B-Ionic.

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

For the alk, you need to monitor it and see how much drop you have in a day. From there, you figure out how much to dose to maintain the alk level. So if you are dosing b-ionic 2 part, you may just need to dose a small bit a day to maintain it if it is dropping quickly or if it just drops very gradually over a few days, you can dose every few days. We just do not want the swing to be huge. If you take 3 days and test alk at the same time each day, log those those numbers, and then let me know what they are, I can figure out a dosing regimen for ya and then show you the math behind it so if adjustments have to be made for when coral grow and consume more, you can adjust the dose.

Here is my 3 day testing without dosing @Eagle_Steve :

 

[Eagle_Steve]

How many gallons do you estimate to be the actual water volume?

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

How many gallons do you estimate to be the actual water volume?

I’m estimating my aquarium is 75 gallons but not filled to the top so maybe around 70 gallons and my sump is about 10 gallons roughly so right close to 80 gallons total.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

For safetys sake lets assume 50 gallons. Also, what do you want your alk to stay stable at? Generally a higher alk tank will require a little higher nutrients and a lower alk tank a little less.

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

What do you mean by nutrients? I would like to keep it around 10 for my alk because I’m assuming that my Duncan died because my alk was at 6 for awhile. All my other pars were reading good , My other corals were not looking good either (not opening fully) during the same time my Duncan died. Now that my alk is higher they have opened up and are looking happy again.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

If they are accustomed to higher alk, then stay there. For nutrients, i am referring to nitrates and phosphates.

So you are at 9.1 and want to be at 10 that is about 56ml of b-ionic part a. Now you do not want to dump it all in at once, we want to check and make sure that we do not over do it, or cause any large changes. So take that and divide by 3 and we will dose it over a 3 hour period. Some will dump it all in, as .9 is not that bad in reality, but I like to take things slow.

So dose 18ml of part a mixed with a little rodi water and let that circulate for an hour. Then test alk. If it came up by about .3 we are good to dose again, the same amount. Then another hour and same thing. Once you get to 10, we know you have a .7 drop in a day. So you will need to dose about 44ml per day to maintain 10.0. This is probably best spread out over the day. For me I use a dosing pump on some tanks. My nano at work gets alk dumped in when i get here and before I leave. Just do not want to shock anything, especially since your stuff just went through a big swing. 22 in the morning and then 22 in the afternoon would probably be fine.

Be sure and test again for the next few days and log it. And then test before doses. This will allow you to make sure the dosing is maintaining it and it keeps from over dosing.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

If they are accustomed to higher alk, then stay there. For nutrients, i am referring to nitrates and phosphates.

So you are at 9.1 and want to be at 10 that is about 56ml of b-ionic part a. Now you do not want to dump it all in at once, we want to check and make sure that we do not over do it, or cause any large changes. So take that and divide by 3 and we will dose it over a 3 hour period. Some will dump it all in, as .9 is not that bad in reality, but I like to take things slow.

So dose 18ml of part a mixed with a little rodi water and let that circulate for an hour. Then test alk. If it came up by about .3 we are good to dose again, the same amount. Then another hour and same thing. Once you get to 10, we know you have a .7 drop in a day. So you will need to dose about 44ml per day to maintain 10.0. This is probably best spread out over the day. For me I use a dosing pump on some tanks. My nano at work gets alk dumped in when i get here and before I leave. Just do not want to shock anything, especially since your stuff just went through a big swing. 22 in the morning and then 22 in the afternoon would probably be fine.

Be sure and test again for the next few days and log it. And then test before doses. This will allow you to make sure the dosing is maintaining it and it keeps from over dosing.

Again this is assuming 50 gallons of actual water. We may need to up or reduce the dose, hence splitting this first one into a few doses.

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

Again this is assuming 50 gallons of actual water. We may need to up or reduce the dose, hence splitting this first one into a few doses.

My phosphate is reading trace not zero but not the .25 either so I say trace. My nitrates run pretty steady around 20 weekly.

About dosing to bring it up to 10...should I do that now or wait and do it tomorrow?

They are not used to higher alk I used to have it around 8 but then I couldn’t keep up and it dropped. So I figured that if I get it to 10...that’s the in between mark and I can keep it there since I have to dose anyway. The 8 was before I needed to dose and I could keep it there with just water changes

 

[Dom]

My nem is moving down the rock now that the light has gone down to blue...what do I do? @Eagle_Steve

Also will my nem get his tentacles back because right now he has nothing?

I feel the issue is light intensity, which may explain why it moved among the rock. I don't believe it purposely buried itself in the sand (can they even do that?), and wonder if it was buried unintentionally by some of your other inhabitants that like to sift sand.

I have the same lighting system. In fact, I have TWO sets on my Nem tank (a total of 4 fixtures). Great lights but perhaps you should consider backing off on intensity.

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

I feel the issue is light intensity, which may explain why it moved among the rock. I don't believe it purposely buried itself in the sand (can they even do that?), and wonder if it was buried unintentionally by some of your other inhabitants that like to sift sand.

I have the same lighting system. In fact, I have TWO sets on my Nem tank (a total of 4 fixtures). Great lights but perhaps you should consider backing off on intensity.

He was buried by my diamond gobies lol. The light never bothered him before I am being to think it was because my alk had dropped. I have now started dosing (lost my Duncan because of low alk level too).

 

[Eagle_Steve]

He was buried by my diamond gobies lol. The light never bothered him before I am being to think it was because my alk had dropped. I have now started dosing (lost my Duncan because of low alk level too).

How do the corals look now? The biggest thing about this is stability. If they look good and we can keep the tank stable at the alk it is now or you can let it gradually drop and then keep it stable there. Either way, a .7 drop a day will need dosing of some sort to keep it stable. Just let me know.

Also about the dosing, it can be done today or tomorrow. But if you want to maintain 10, best to do it today as it would be less of a swing.

 

[Nicole Sarnowski]

My corals are happy and fully opening daily.
See picture below:

 

[Eagle_Steve]

My corals are happy and fully opening daily.
See picture below:

If that is the case and they are happy now, then you can just maintain the all you are at now. It is really up to you and no one can tell you an alk number for your tank unless they manage it. My suggestion is to just keep it stable where it is now. No need to make changes if it is happy.

With that being said. If it is at 9.1, you lose .7 a day, then dosing about 43 ml a day should maintain that. But again, this needs to be split up. You could do 20 in the morning and then 23 in the afternoon. Testing about an hour after each dose for a few days to make sure the dosing is maintaining it. You will then test alk every now and again just to make sure consumption has not gone up or down. If it has you just adjust accordingly.

And last thing. We are assuming 50 gallons of actual water, so the amount dosed may need to go up depending on the actual water to be safe.

 

[Dom]

I agree with Steve; stability is paramount. If everything else is happy, I'd be reluctant to change anything for fear of making matters worse. Right now, you're dealing with 1 unhappy Nem. Start making changes and you may find yourself going down a slippery slope.

 

[swirlygig]

My nems do not like nitrates. Phosphates are always welcome though. My nems melted when added gfo. Dropped phosphates too low. Stopped gfo and they did much better. I keep mine around .09 now.