Novice Questions-Please Help!

[briggs]

I have a (2 year estalished eco) 29 gallon reef tank with newly added anemone, maroon clown, cleaner shrimp, star polyps & two snails (4 days ago). During this last four days two things have happened 1) I accidently spilled a significant amount of food into the tank (I cleaned it up but, could not get all of it) and 2) one of my snails died in a hidden spot so I don't know how long (with in these 4 days) it has been sitting there. In the meantime, my anemone and clown love each other dearly but, the anenome looks wimpy compared to the first day in the tank and today the star polyps also look shriveled. I'm changing my water tomorrow on it's normal weekly schedule but, have waited too long after the food spillage?? Am I a complete idiot causing my polyps and anemone to be unrecoverable??

(if it isn't painfully obvious, I'm a very new reef aquarist. A careful reader but only 45 days of actual experience.)

Any suggestion or wisdom would be appreciated.
:confused:

[DRT]

Probably you haven’t done anything that is unrecoverable. Snails come & go in any tank and while their passing does add to the nutrient load it’s usually short term. As for the food, ahhhh exactly what type of food was it? A PB&J probably is no big deal, a glass of milk or a beer may be a little harder to clean up and would be handled differently.

Hard food route;
First thing I would do is a partial water change, say 5 gallons & watch. If things get worse I'd do another 5 gallons, if no improvement I'd put a cup of granular activated carbon (GAC) in a bag and suspend it in the tank (assuming you do not have a sump) and leave it there for a couple of days. I'd continue to do water changes up to 50-75% of the total volume but do it slowly so as not to shock the system to much, you don't want the water changes to add to the stress.

Liquid food route:
Immediately do a 50% change and add the activated carbon wait & see.

Anemone’s are very hard to care for so it may/may not be this event that is root cause of it's unhappiness.

[Vert20]

How many gallons do you normally change? I would suggest 5-10 gal. for a 30 gallon tank every two weeks.

Any water change is a good thing, I remember reading here...
"The Solution to Pollution is Dilution" so by changing some of the water, you are helping dilute the amonia caused by food spill and dead snail.

Are you keeping an eye on your water parameters? What are the results of your last tests?

Anenomes are tough to keep, IME, they generally show signs of stress (shrinkage, movement around the tank) until they get happy again. Button Polyps I am not sure about but would assume that they may be abit stressed as well.

Your reef tank was established 2 years ago, but you have 45days experience? Did you get the tank from someone else?

[Just Fishing]

I agree on doing water changes. The excess food is likely decaying and causing your ammonia to rise causing stress to your animals.

[briggs]

Thank you all very much for your help. The issue was not fouled water as much as not enough invertebrate food. I think I panicked too quickly.

and Yes, I did inherited the tank. So my "hands on experience" with anemones & star polyps is nill. However, I'm anxious to not lose anything if possible...

Thanks again for your help.;)