My anemone's keep dying!

[bryceps]

I add supplements, food, right temperature, etc. Plenty of flow, great light(compacts), but they keep dying on me, my current seabae anemone is dying as I type, and never even attatched itself to anything. Any ideas?

[jjackson]

PC really is far from enough light for most anemones... I am not an expert in this area but it could have been beyond help when you got it.... also you say they keep dying how many are we talking about?

[bryceps]

They are compact Fluorescants, 110 w, 10k/act. blue. And it's just the second one. The bubble an. lived for about 2 months. This just happened over a week now.

[Jiddy]

Quit buying them if they keep dying

[Rockhead21564]

Well beyond the advice frm Jiddy, you don't have enough light,period. T5's or MH would be best, or good Power compacts. Your lighting shouldn't even be good for anything other than some softies and fish. Also, if it's a white sebae an., it needs to get the best lighting it can to re-establish its zoo's to become photosynthetic again. It'll turn brownish or yellowish when it becomes healthy again. Good luck.

[SEAFLOWERS]

how much research did you do before your purchases? It saddens me when I read things like this. Please refrain from new purchases until you can get a handle on what is going on in your tank. When you post on this site and tell us something is dying on you it is always helpful if you would include your water parameters, the measurements with good test kits like Salifert.FWIW

[JmLee]

bryceps, its all good man, sorry to hear about your bad experiences, just take your time and read up on there lighting requirements, maybe you could try a bubble tip, any how good luck man!.

[boomsticks]

It sounds like the only problem you are having is with the lights. Anems require a good deal of light about as much as some SPS. I have a BTA under a 150 watt MH and it is doing great. They are one of the less demanding of the anemones I would start with one of those or if you don't care about clownfish hosting you could always go with a condy! I had one surrive a Sea Apple "nuke" even my fish didn't make it though that one but now I have him with the BTA in my Aquapod.

[JmLee]

damn dude your tank got nuked from a sea apple? that sucks....

[puffer21]

How long was the tank running it should have at least been 6 months.

[namas]

I have a BTA under PC that looks great and hosting my GSM.
Of course I have much more light.
110 on a 40 gallon is only 2.75 watts per gallon
You need to have 5-6 watts per gallon to keep an anenome alive.
i currently have a 45 gallon with 288 watts of PC lighting and my BTA is happy as a clown in an anenome.
Best of luck, but you should up grade your lighting if you ever want to keep one alive.

[puffer21]

Namas
[Welcome]

[dantodd]

Hi Bryceps.

Welcome to ReefCentral

Anemone are fairly complex animals to keep in our hobby aquariums.

There is a lot of good information and experience available to you here on ReefCentral.

Please post more details about your current tank. Include how long it's been setup like it is now. What are the dimensions of the tank. This pretty important because often lighting is adequate/inadequate based on distance from the anemone rather than total watts per gallon. More information about your lights would be helpful too, what bulb and what size bulbs. You said 110w is that 2 55w bulbs that are both half actinic and half 10K. Finally run a full set of tests on your water and post the results.

PH
Alk
Nitrites
Nitrates
Ammonia
Phosphates if you can

We can work from there to help you find out what is going wrong and what will work to help you be successful in keeping an anemone.

[cmc0814]

My condys are hosting the cutest little clarkii clownfish

[phender]

Your lighting is not enough to keep an anemone long term, but that is not why your recent anemone died. Poor lighting causes slow starvation/malnutrition, it doesn't cause death within days or even weeks for that matter. It is very likely that your anemone was in poor health when it was purchased. The change in water conditions from the LFS to your tank likely pushed it over the edge.
Being able to pick a health anemone is critical to short term success as is a gradual acclimation process by dripping your tank water into the anemone's water over the course of an hour or two.
For success over the long haul, you need to make sure you have good/stable water conditions, better lighting, and proper types and amounts of food.

[bjonesjr1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7429140#post7429140 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cmc0814
My condys are hosting the cutest little clarkii clownfish

Mine has never aloud anything near it without eatting it... My condy and BTA are doing fine in my tank, I have a 55 gallon with 2x96watts PC over my tank... Never had a problem... My tank has been up and running now for 3 months or so... And my condy was bought in the early days of the tank, since I didn't have too big of a cycle from buying cure LR from a buddy... I just upgraded to a little bigger light, & I am waiting on that to come in the mail, its a 4x65 jgj formosa so well see how much brighter that is to my current light

[Fat Surgeon]

Bryceps, I agree with Phender. Your water quality is not up to standards. Couple questions for you. How often do you change water and how much? What type of water do you use (tap, Ro, Ro/Di??) Anemones have to have the most pristine water conditions, much more so than our fish. If you use anything less than Ro/Di, you outta try Chemipure. Chemipure will help to remove dangerous metals in the water that threaten and will kill inverts, especially stars and anemones. IMO though, start using Ro/Di. And finally, when you do get your tank parameters in line, please make sure you purchase an Anemone from a reputable lfs ONLY source. Not a mass market multi-animal store, know what I mean? Good luck :cool:

[bryceps]

Thank you all so much for your responses. It's amazing that after all the years I've been in the hobby, I never kept anemones, so I figured since my corals(bubble, green star polyps, white/pink brain)were healthy and blooming, the animal would be just fine. The tank is a 40 gal. acrylic, with a good 3 inches of live sand/cc substrate, and 45 lbs of live rock. I use a UV sterilzer/skimmer/plenum/standard filter mix. There is probably only 30 gallons of actual water in the tank. And it has been running for just over 2 years. I only use RO water when refilling it as well.
So I guess what I'm asking is the light wattage in proportion to the actual size of the tank, or how much water is in it? And I did test the water, and the phosphates were a little high, so I went and got some buffer for that. Thanks again ya'll!

[angelsj247]

i believe the watts are per gal of the accual size of the tank. so if you have a 40 gal tank the watts should 5 watts per 40 gals. so you would need 200 watts of lighting at least.

[cweder]

You still did not mention your water parameters. This is very important. I do not know how you intend to buffer down phosphates. Can you please explain. Sebae's (H. Crispa) are some of the hardest to keep, even though frequently available. They seem to do very poorly just from shipping and have poor survival rates, I'm sure you know. Acclimation to your tank water must be gradual over a couple hours using the drip method preferably. Your water must be phosphate free and very low nitrates to none. Specific gravity 1.024 - 1.026 is best. I am more concerned with water quality than lighting for starters, than lighting for long term success. Best of luck.

[phender]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7430637#post7430637 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fat Surgeon
Bryceps, I agree with Phender. Your water quality is not up to standards........

Whoa now. We have no way of knowing whether or not this person's water standards are good or not. Bryceps may have great water conditions and there isn't much real evidence that moderately high nitrates or phosphates is deadly to anemones. I have seen reports of anemones being kept long term in tanks with nitrate and phosphate levels above what most reef keepers would deem appropriate.

IMO, for anemones, change is bad. Even changing from great conditions to different great conditions is bad. Our intentions are good, but too often I think we look for conditions in people's tanks that have lead to their failure with an anemone when no such conditions exist. Yes, if Bryceps wants to be able to keep an anemone for more than 6 months, the lighting on the tank should be doubled. Yes, you should probably check your pH, etc when something dies suddenly in your tank. But in the case with anemones, most of ones I see in LFSs are so compromised by constant changes in their conditions, they wouldn't survive if you took them back to a reef in Fiji and let them go.

If Bryceps has little experience with anemones and he/she got a sebae anemone from a LFS, there is an really good chance that he/she bought a dead anemone walkin'.

[bryceps]

Thanks Phil, I was starting to feel a bit ganged up on here, lol. My bubble tip lasted for a couple of months, so I am fairly certain that it was the lighting. I'm gonna switch over to 96 watt bulbs before I give it another shot. I just hope it doesn't affect the corals. Oh when I do it, do you think I should go straight 50/50, or stay with the Actinic Blue/10k mix I have now? Thanks!

[dantodd]

Nice post Phil.

Our goal here should be to learn more about our hobby and help those out who want to know more. I've been fortunate enough to be (and continue to be) on both sides of that equation.

Bryceps, as you obviously know by now you will want to make some changes if you're going to successfully keep anemones.

There are a lot of folks on here who are more than happy to help you get your system ready.

[cweder]

I would like to add that phosphates and nitrates (ideally) should be as low as possible for the health and good of our animals. Many people have had success with a variety of water conditions. Stability can be just as important with gradual improvement in conditions from time to time through water changes my recommendation. I keep my anemone in less than perfect conditions and it seems to be thriving so far.

[Fat Surgeon]

Bryceps, My intention was not to bash you at all. While your lighting MIGHT not be enough to sustain an anemone long term, let me first say I have seen anemones adapt to the wattage you have (pretty much 3 watts per gallon) or less and live a long time. And yes, it is VERY true that some anemones are dooomed right from the start. IMO I am still sticking with water quality. Now, before I get bashed again, I am not saying that YOU are doing anything wrong at all. You could be doing everything right.
The RO water you are getting could still have higher than normal TDS readings because of the micron count of the filters a person or place uses. A 1 micron or .5 micron is what should be used, with D-Ionization if possible. If you have or can borrow a TDS meter, check your readings. The outcome should be 5 or less.

Other things to consider; Age of bulbs. (makes a big difference, that's why we are recommended to change them every 9-12 months)

How was the Anemone obtained? Wildcaught, aquacultered, etc

Let me first say that there are others on here who are far more experienced than I, I am sure, in the realm of keeping Anemones. Second, please accept my apology if what I wrote seemed offensive to you in any manner. You seem like a very nice person and my intent was to help get to the root of the problem and find possible solutions. However, as is the case with reefkeeping, EVERY tank is different and trying to nail down a specific cause to a problem in one persons tank is sometimes impossible given our limited knowledge of these beautiful sea creatures.

Best of luck to you in the future and dont give up on anemones!

[bryceps]

Thanks pardner, sometimes words can appear cold on a page, lol, no worries!

[OrangeKoi]

I believe I read somewhere on one of these threads that adding buffers is really bad for anemone? You mentioned that you were going to adjust phosphates with a buffer?

I'm new at this and maybe it's only ph buffers they meant but I'd check on it.