Suggestions with LTA issue.

[MathewT]

I have a 40 gallon hex, about 4 months old. I know it was a bit early but my water parameters had been stable.
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate < 10
Ph 8.1
S.G. 1.025

80 lbs live rock
One aqueon 1250 powehead
Sand bed is between 4 and 5 inches deep in most of the tank.
Weekly 5 gallon water changes I use ro water with instant ocean reef crystals
Sbreef 16" wifi extreme light with a 4 hour ramp up and down and 4 hours with with blues st 75% whites at 18% and UVS at 100%
I run a pen plax cascade 1000 with coars medium find filter floss in the first container and biohome ultimate in the second to

I have a one black clarkii about 1 3/4 " (haven't been able to find a second)
A pistol shrimp (haven't seen or heard in awhile)
Cats eye
Florida orange ricordea
Green star polyps.

So I was in my lfs and there was this great looking green lta with purple tips ,about 3 to 3.5 inches in diameter, that was mixed in with the condys and priced as a condy. I couldn't pass up what I thought was a deal and the tank had been stable enough I thought I would be ok (famous last words). Well got it home, drip acclimated about 2.5 hours. Shut off the power head and introduced the lta. All seemed well it settled in and took hold. The clarkii found it in about 5 mins and it was an instant connection. Long story short it will stay put during the day while the lights are on and receiving minimal attention from the clarkii but night time rolls around lights ramp down clarkii lays in it all seems well. Then some time during the night it decides to roam the tank. Woke up one morning stuck to the side of the power head. Next morning stuck to the intake for the canister filter. The power head and the filter intake both now have coarse filter floss to prevent any further damage. Both unfortunate incidents have luckily resulted in little damage, the foot has no damage there was a little tentacle loss with the powerhead incident mouth was nice and tight this morning. The most recent incident was this am, the lta is currently in a breeder net until I get home from work. I have decided to put the clarkii in isolation and see if the lta will find a spot and stay put over night are there any other recommendation?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Sounds like a bit of a pickle to me.

LTA's like to have something to bury their foot in, like a deep rock crevice next to the sand bed or a deep sand bed itself. If it can't find a spot it likes it will keep moving around until it does as long as it has the energy to do so. I would take the powerhead out for the time being and maybe fashion some sort of guard on the overflow of the tank. Keep an eye on your water paramaters and try to keep them as stable as possible until the anemone settles down. I don't think the Clarki is the problem, I just think it's a new tank and the anemone is picky about the spot it wants to be in. Lighting should be okay as well, maybe bump the whites up to ~20%-25% and see what that does, if it affects your corals negatively, bring it back down to what you had it at before.

 

[davocean]

New tank coupled w/ filter floss and media which will raise nitrates could be an issue.
It's hard to have a new tank balanced as really needed, and LTA are on the sensitive side.
I'm not familiar w/ that light, typically hex's are kinda tall, hopefully you are getting good PAR at sand bed depth.

What test kits are you using, especially nitrates?

 

[MathewT]

New tank coupled w/ filter floss and media which will raise nitrates could be an issue.
It's hard to have a new tank balanced as really needed, and LTA are on the sensitive side.
I'm not familiar w/ that light, typically hex's are kinda tall, hopefully you are getting good PAR at sand bed depth.

What test kits are you using, especially nitrates?

Filter floss is changed weekly with water changes, I have an api test kit. I know I know but I have taken water to lfs for testing verify accuracy.

A url for some info on the biohome

https://greatwaveeng.com/shop/media/biohome-ultimate-marine-media/

A url for some info on the light. The light is ~25.5 inches from the surface of the sandbed.

https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-reef-lights/9-sbox-extreme-16-wifi.html

 

[MathewT]

As long as this guy is telling the truth par at the sandbed should not be an issue.

 

[davocean]

Well, not sure exactly issue though new tank would be first suspect, and typically we don't run canisters due to them usually being a nitrate issue w/ any media, in times of need people may run them w/out any media, but not ideal.

Post pics.

API is not most accurate, and usually LFS free tests are just the strips that are not best either usually.
It's a less than ideal setup and rushed for a nem that is more on the sensitive side.

 

[MathewT]

After coming home and doing what needed to be done so that nemmy would be safe if it decided to float around the tank this is where it settled. My patience in it settling could be a factor in this also. I understand the school of thought behind cannister filters and have given this much consideration. I am devoted to a weekly clean and floss change that happens with the wc. As far as api tests go I get the concern, and the concern with lfs test however with duplicate tests giving similar results I believe I'm ok, you really think I should invest in a different test kit what is your recommendation. I also understand it was a bit early to add a nem and am doing everything I can to ensure the survival of this living creature outside of leaving it st the lfs where who knows what kind of home it could have ended up in could have been better, could have been much worse.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

I have used both api and salifert kits in nitrate, calcium, and alk. Personally I did not see any inaccuracy between them. I bought the saliferts on the comment of api’s are inaccurate but with those three have not ran into that personally. That being said both salifert and api are subject to interpretation of color on those kits that require color comparison. I personally want the hannah test kits.

The Sb reef lights are fantastic lights that do what they advertise without the huge price tag associated with more name brand/ main stream units.

 

[davocean]

Salifert is my go to for accurate tests, api's have been reported often as inconsistent.
So if lights really are penetrating well at sand bed depth it could even be dealing w/ acclimation, LFS could have had weaker bulbs or lights or whatever.
Try to take pics w natural looking light if you can, but in pic it looks like it's trying to settle.
If the LTA has attached, don't touch it, but if not, scoop a well between a couple rocks, preferably near a ledge so it can pull in/out of light as needed.
Typically w/ your type of setup I would have expected higher nitrates being an issue, your tank is still pretty fresh though, so maybe not yet or if you remain diligent maybe not an issue

 

[MathewT]

This is 75% on the blues. 18 % on the whites. This is where my lights ramp to and stay for 4 hours a day. The nem is currently on the back side of the rock in an area where it doesn't get the most from the light. As you see the clarkii I have not isolated but it will not leave the nem alone.

 

[Amoo]

Typically when you see a nem consistently appear happy during the day and then move during lights out, this tends to come from you not actually providing enough light. Most of your PAR and penetrating power is going to come from your white lights. IMO I would recommend trying the following:

This was all wrong due to incorrect info provided. See post below after I did the research on your light.

 

[Amoo]

Bah no that's wrong according to SB Reef Lights documentation your UV channel is actually also your main blue channel and your blue channel is basically what you would use for a moonlight phase. So essentially you have 2 channels A being whites and colors, B being blues and UV with C being just 3 blues.

So try A 30, B&C 100 and work from there. Either way you will still probably need to increase your white lighting some from this point.

 

[davocean]

And daylight/natural light pics would let us see what the nem really looks like, right now it looks like it's a 70's black light poster, can't tell what color really is.
That clarki could be buggin it a little too, it's just a little small for it right now