Rose Anemone - Minimum Light ?

[absolutc]

I know this has been asked before but I cannot find a post on it. My rose still will not take any food after 2 months. Its on a seasaw problem. One day its puffy kinda like normal except its brown. Some days its tentacles are so thin its not even funny.

It was moved into a new tank recently where all the salt/temp/nitrate paremeters are fine. Ph, CA and anything else I have not tested. I also have not added any suppliments like Iron or anything.

Question is - Do I not have enough lighting? Even in the 20gal long with 3x45w it was not happy. Now it has 2x45w and 1x55 03. Still not happy.

Should I up the lighting? Add some iodine/iron/ca ?? Coral vite?

Im lost here.

[absolutc]

TTT

[Ironreef]

how new is new? 6mo at least?? where is the anemone in the tank? Your lighting seems fine which feedings but it's not takeing food which leads me to belive it's not happy with the tank maybe?? What other animals are present? IMO maintain ph./alk,cal,nitrates/po4 no nitrites and ammo. Then the water quality should be fine but without know what those are you can't tell?? If the ph and alk are out of whack your tank isn't stable= stable alk usually means stable ph,cal. The rest I wouldn't worry. But how new is NEW? That maybe the problem? Also is the rose captive or wild? wild maynot be as hardy and that maybe another problem= where did it come from= lighting ,how it was shipped so a wild one in a new tank may have a harder time than a captive prop??

[absolutc]

That tank is really not "new". It goes like this in short -

It was in a 155 with 3x250 and VHO supplimentation. It was fine and eating like a pig. Then I got rid of the 155 and move it to a 20gal along with the sand and the rocks and new water. Then 4 months later moved it again to a 28gal bow.

In the later 2 tanks it has not been happy. It has not eaten or anything. The only tank mates are a clown, snails and some limpets. Nothing else but the obvious.

Its not water circulation, I don't know if its temp. I am going to try and get some tests done on the water so I can see where I stand. Last tim I got the tests done on the 20gal a week ago - the nitrates were 200+ and the PH was out of whack. 7.0 or something.

Other than that, I have no idea.

[Cquarium]

Absolutc,

Rose anemones are found under ledges with indirect light in the ocean so they don't need a lot of light. If light is the case, the anemone would have moved away and found a spot with less light. However, some of my customers keep them under MH and they do fine :confused: .

You should check your nitrate which should be less than 15 ppm.

Good luck.

Adam
www.cquarium.com

[Ironreef]

nitrate @ 200pmm? ph of 7? if those test are correct i belive you found your problem= tank is unstable.

[absolutc]

Those were the readings before the tank switch over. Now everything is in check except for a slight ph imbalance and maybe some ca stuff. Other than that it is fine.

UPDATE -

Just for testing since I have not added any suppliments to the tank for over 4 months I decided to add some last night to see if it would help. I woke up and was very pleased. Everything is looking healthier and livelier, even the rose. The mushrooms have double in expansion and the pom pom exenia is looking even better. I added the following -

Coral Accel
Iron
Iodine
Calcium
Essential Elements

However the rose is doing something very weird now. It has expelled so far 5 or 6 balls of "stuff" . The size of an eraser on a pencil. What is it doing? Why?

If anyone can answer that, I am all ears!

Kris

[absolutc]

TTT - I need some answers.

[Anemone]

Originally posted by absolutc
TTT - I need some answers.

Hmmm - "pooping" comes to mind.

Anemones really do like stability, so pH swings and high/low/medium/low nitrate swings can make them unhappy.

Another thought to consider, in studies conducted on light-adaptability in corlas, the corals kept in lower light, then slowly adapted to higher light, did fine. The ones originally kept in higher light, and moved to lower light did very poorly. Don't know about the correlation with anemones, but I would normally think 2x45 and 1 x 55 PC lighting in a 28 gallon tank would be enough. However, considering it used to be under 3x250 MH plus additional VHOs, perhaps it is reacting negatively to the reduction in lighting intensity.

I think stability may still be at the root of your problems, BTW, I'm really not an additive proponent - especially in a tank as small as 28 gallons. Water changes should provide your critters with enough trace elements, with the added benifit of rebalancing whatever is causing your Ph swings.

FWIW,
Kevin

[absolutc]

Pooping ? The anemone has not eaten in almost 2 months! What in god's creation can it be eating :)

I too am not fond of adding chemicals or additives to a tank that small either, usually I just do water changes. However since I did add those elements - I have noticed a very positive reaction. Is it coeincedence? (sp) I don't know.

As for my rose, I am going to slap some 25wx2 PC bulbs on there along with another 45w and see how the reaction is. If nothing I might have to put a couple halides on there :eek:


It just boggles me as to what the heck is going on. Testing gives me an "IDEA" but I get varied results.

[Anemone]

Well, I was just reading Eric's Column in this month's reefkeeping magazine (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/eb/feature/index.htm), and it seems I got the coral information exactly wrong - the high-light-to-low-light corals survived, the low-light-to-high-light corals fared poorly.

Sorry about that, seems like lighting shouldn't be your concern, but if you have extra lighting, what the heck?

Kevin