Anemone Problems

[Lance M.]

Have you tested your tank for copper?

Your lights are just a minor problem (if really a problem at all), it is something in the water.

[SuperNerd]

Originally posted by Lance M.
I'm saying 360ppm is a good reading and would have nothing to do with what's happening with his mushrooms. NSW is around 300-320ppm. If there aren't hard corals using up the Ca to grow then it doesn't need to be up around 400+, especially for mushrooms.

Got a reference or link for those calcium levels?
I always thought the range was somewhat higher.
In any event the reason I think it is important in this case is because the OP is telling us at least one of his corals (which I believe is an LPS) was not a "softy coral" and it apparently died. As far as I know LPS corals do need calcium levels within a certain range and I was under the impression that the range was higher than 300-320ppm.

From what I've read, calcium, alk, and mg all interact. A "strange reading" in one of their values might indicate a strange value in one or both of the others.

[SuperNerd]

Originally posted by Nick32
My Alkalinity is at 90mg/L, is this too low? I ordered some new bulbs from marine depot today, hopefully they come in time, the anemone isn'y looking terrible...he kind of secretes a mucus around his body a bit...a sign if irritation I believe, and hes about half his normal size...his mouth is closed up and looking better, but sometimes opens up.

Do you mean 0.90 meq/L? I didn't know test kits were able to read up to 90 and in mg/L. Which kit do you have? If the level is 0.90 meq/L, then this is very, very low. Most of the corals I've read about need levels higher than that. Natural sea water is closer to 3.0 meq/L.

[Lance M.]

Sorry about that. I know I read it somewhere but must of been a bad reference. I just looked in a book I have and google and natural sea water is around 400ppm. But still 360ppm wouldn't lead to the death of mushrooms. And I get what your saying about the interaction between Ca, pH, and alk. And I agree with what you said about the test kits. For the one I have if you don't shake the #2 solution or #3 (I forget now) your reading can be way off either way.

I still think it's something else in the water.

[SuperNerd]

Originally posted by Lance M.
But still 360ppm wouldn't lead to the death of mushrooms. .

OP's tank used to have an LPS that apparently "died of an unknown reason." Although the chemicals and organic waste it released after its death may have contributed to the irritation of the corals and anemone in the tank right now, it is possible that an ca, alk, and mg imbalance caused the death of the bubble coral and may, in the very least, be contributing to the symptoms currently displayed by the corals and anemone in the OP's tank.

Doing water changes will get rid of some of the released chemicals and organic waste, and will bump up some of the water parameters, but I think OP will still need to bring up the resulting parameters to levels closer to at least NSW in order to prevent other corals from dying in the future.

From what I have read, anemones, as well as mushrooms and other soft corals, need alkalinity levels maintained within a certain range that is much higher than the level in OP's tank (if the level is indeed 0.90 meq/L).

[Nick32]

Thanks guys, My Anemone has turned around, he reattached, his mouth looks normal, and the clown can actually swim through his tentacles again...the surviving mushrooms look better now. Still kind of curious of what happened though :S

[Gary Majchrzak]

I'm curious, too... what did you do to turn things around?

[SuperNerd]

I'm curious too. Was your alk level 0.90 or 90?