Good News, Bad News

[TheVillageIdiot]

Good News - My anemone (e. quadricolor) survived its first night in my tank, and it took less than 24hrs for my female Amph. Ocellaris to find the anemone. She doesn't swim away for more than a minute before going back to nuzzle the BTA.

Bad News - the BTA decided it liked the back side of the rock work where I can barely see it. Also, it was quite green at the LFS and now appears brown and slightly more pale. I hope that it is not starting to expell all its zooanthella due to stress! What I can see of the anemone looks good, tips are full and bubbled.

Water parameters are as follows:
ph - 8.0 (night) - 8.2/8.3(day)
Temp - 80F
SG - 1.024
Am - 0ppm
nI - 0ppm
nA - <5ppm (probably 0, but test is hard to tell)
po4 - <.05 mg/L
Ak - 8d
Ca - 300ppm (not sure about the test's accurarcy though!)

One of my main concerns with the anemone's current location is that the TUNZE is not too far above it (12-14"), and I cannot observe the creature. I do not want to stress or tear it by moving it. Hopefully I will be able to get some food to it this evening.

thanks for looking,

Matt

[TheVillageIdiot]

here are two shots, it is difficult to get a good shot because of the angle and lighting... :-( The images below are very noisy.

[GSMguy]

those are pretty good pics
Bta should regain the color it had at the LFS

[redvipe2010]

Your salinity is a little low, aim for 1.026. Protect that anemone from the tunze.

http://www.karensroseanemones.com/coverpowerheads.htm

[TheVillageIdiot]

Hello,

thanks for the replies. the anemone is mostly green again, and the clowns slept in it all night.

i will begin to raise my salinity up slowly to about 35, and I moved the TUNZE last night, away from the overflow. I will see about adding some needle point around the intake.

thanks for the feedback,

Matt

[cschweitzer]

I would definitely not go as high as 1.026...in fact, I would not move any of my tanks higher than 1.025 ever; no matter what I place in my tank. First, in the wild, the water will never get this high(despite some barren ocean's like Dead Sea). Also, clowns do better in 1.019 than in 1.026. I keep my tanks between 30-33PPT salinity, or 1.019-1.023 SG. There would be no reason to ever go higher than that.

Color all depends on lighting and feeding. Feed regularly and the color should start coming back. If your lighting is the same as the stores, it should get to that again...if it is not, the color will be different, not necessarily better or worse.

For the best info, go to www.rareclownfish.com

Again 1.026 is too high for a good coral tank...and as evaporation occurs, your tank will increase to 1.027, then 1.028, then death for all corals and fish in your tanks. If you keep it at this level, there is ABSOLUTELY NO ROOM FOR ERROR. You must not let it get to 1.028, just like anems and clowns(most species) like warmer waters(82-84 deg F is optimal for clownfish breeding), you must not let it get warmer than that(or really even to that temp) as it will have a negatively and declining effect on every coral in your tank.

[cschweitzer]

These ideas, again, are what have worked for me. Many people have different ideas, but I have successfully kept three clones of the same anem in three different tank with three completely different lighting setups and all of mine are full, happy, healthy, stay in place, and growing too big!! I feed at least 3 times, as much as 7 times per week. I keep under MH/VHO, VHO, PC, and have amazing success with my anems.

[redvipe2010]

Do you have a specific link? I visited that sight and it recommends 1.026.

http://www.rareclownfish.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32

[cschweitzer]

For an anem only tank(without clownfish or other corals) this is quite possibly the truth.

"SG need not be adjusted from the normal level maintained for tank mates, however it has been noted that higher success has been achieved using full strength sea water at around 1.026"

This is stating that when testing the best parameters for an anemone, 1.026 has been their finding. The first part of this statement clearly specifies, SG need NOT be adjusted from the normal level maintained for tankmates. So, yes, a BTA MAY do better is 1.026, but does not need it. Upon this fact, none of your corals will do well in this SG, your fish will need to continue to do a lot more osmo-regulation(I forget the exact term, but it is the clownfishes way to get it's body from it's natural salinity to the surrounding salinty. Best for clowns is about 1.019, best for anems is 1.026. Only range for corals is regularly 1.020-1.025. If you keep your water within the coral range everything will thrive. If you keep it too high, the fish will stress and the corals will too. If you keep it too low, all your inverts will stress(including, but definitely not limited to, your corals and anem, crabs, snails, etc.

I would never go under 1.020 and never go over 1.025.

If you have an anem only tank with no fish, other inverts, etc. you can keep your tank at 1.026 for best results. If you have a clownfish breeding setup without anems, best to keep at 84 deg F and with a lower SG near 1.019.

For a mixed reef, never go that high and never go that low.

[cschweitzer]

The problem you are trying to fix is not a problem at all. You are looking at satisfying the perfect conditions of one animal without taking into account everything that makes your reef just that, your reef.

That is why you don't see a nautilus in most reef tanks. Their water temp would kill every coral if you tried to creat your reef around it. Your reef temp would kill it. You need to find a happy medium between all your animals. If one can not be reached one or the other animals must go. Luckily, you are not talking about such a significant difference. You are talking about a .001-.005 SG difference, or 1-6 PPM. This can easily be satisfied by taking an average range between all of them at about 1.023. I keep mine a little lower because I have noticed most of my tank inhabitants do better for me at 1.021-1.023.

[redvipe2010]

I've been keeping 3 tanks at 1.026 for quite a while, all tanks have a variety of corals. Soft, LPS, and SPS, all with anemones. Never had a problem with anything. All corals are doing great. I do monitor my Sg level regularly, so it doesn't go above that. I don't keep a lot of fish and I do stick to the more hardy fish.

[TheVillageIdiot]

Ah, thanks you both for the replies.

I had been targeting 1.024 as a happy medium between what I've read and heard from different sources. Perhaps I'll keep it at that for now.

The salinity in the tank is fairly stable, the system has a gravity fed auto-topoff, and I use a refractometer to make sure my water change is the exact SG of the display (and temp) when I do changes.

I do not plan to keep any cnidarians (on purpose) other than anemones in this tank, and i do not plan to add any BTAs to the tank but rather let the anemone grow and split to fill the tank.

thanks,

Matt

[dc]

My salinity usually is a little high as I forget to top it off. So far I've seen no ill effects from it.

[redvipe2010]

This is a good article to read.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

[cschweitzer]

Personally, I think the article linked from that had more proven and substantial statements with less "maybe"'s or "that worked for me"'s.

To tell you the truth, you guys have influenced me to up salinity to 32-36PPT instead of the 30-35PPT I've been running. Hopefully it will not harm my stuff...

[cschweitzer]

Of course on slow acclimation over the next month.

Also, forgot the link to the article with more substantial evidence(the one that changed my mind):
http://web.archive.org/web/200302181.../1/default.asp