Anemone Help

[jasonjaff]

I have a 200 gallon tank, water changes have been pretty regular, all crabs shrimp fish etc. look fine.
The anemones for some reason, however, do not/have never looked good. They have very irregularly shaped tentacles, some very very small, others large. The mouth on the anemones also seem to be very exposed, with no tentacles surrounding it. They seem to be very still at all times, however they do eat when fed. The anemons when purchased/collected were quite large, and are not about a 1/4 of their potential size. Some of the others completely retract and remain that way for a number of days.
Any help would be great as far as what may be the cause. Thanks!

 

[dcantucson]

Karen is our expert on anemones; she has had a lot of experience.
Here's a link to her website:

Caring for Rose Anemones the right way - INTRODUCTION

 

[d2mini]

Pics would probably help.

Nems can react differently depending on the tank they are in, doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong with it. Mine for instance won't bubble in my tank, even though it's a bubble tip and it had bubble tips when i first got it over 6 months ago. But it always seems happy, opens up real wide and has even split on me.

 

[yote]

Welcome to the site.
Post the complete run down on your tank.Parameters,equipment list,lights and age of the bulbs,complete stock list.
That'll help a lot.

 

[winyfrog]

as yote said.

 

[jasonjaff]

alright, took some picture of the tank and the anemones. I dont even know where to begin on describing the tank, so I took a couple pictures of the setup, so hopefully you gurus can help out this newby. Thanks again to everyone that is trying to help

 

[yote]

Those first 2 pics are Condylactis gigantea , Condy or Haitian anemones.
I have no idea about the other anemone.
The Condy's look fairly healthy to me.But I'm no expert on em.
A couple of things I can see that you need to work on though.
#1 I dont know if you have your skimmer turned off in the pic for a reason,or if its just producing bubbles.

#2 Those bio-balls need to be cleaned.They really need to be rinsed out at least every couple of weeks to keep crud from collecting in them and compromising water quality.

#3 is the hair algae.You'll want to manually remove as much as possible and increase water changes.
How long have you had the tank set up?
How old are your bulbs?

 

[Bifferwine]

It looks like you have sufficient lighting for anemones, but since you are using bioballs, I'd guess that water quality is the main reason why they're suffering. Anemones cannot tolerate nitrates or phosphates, even at low levels. People that use bioballs usually have really bad nitrate and phosphate problems as a result. This is backed up by the fact that you have algae problems. Algae feed off of nitrates and phosphates.

 

[winyfrog]

I was thinking the same as yote and biff.

What have you been feeding the anemones?
as well as what kind of fish do you have in the tank with them?

 

[jasonjaff]

Feed the anemones krill almost every fish feeding. For the past week, have 1 wrasse, 1 Sergeant Major, couple of brittle stars, couple of starfish, 2 conch, 7 cleaner shrimp, a number of different crabs.

 

[dcantucson]

You can keep your bioballs but clean them as they have said. That would be a good starting point. Also you only need to feed your anemone once a week or so. It sounds like you may be over feeding your fish too, and that can lead to poor water quality and high nitrates.

 

[OmegaOmega]

How do you clean the bioballs? Do you thoroughly scrub and rinse in tap or RODI water?

Is there something better than bioballs?

 

[bjohanson1234]

If the bioballs are 100% submersed under water, you can replace them with live rock. It will help keep the nitrates down

Brian

 

[OmegaOmega]

If the bioballs are 100% submersed under water, you can replace them with live rock. It will help keep the nitrates down

Brian

I have a biocube with a gas exchange/bio-ball chamber in the back; but all my liverock is obviously in the tank part.

Are you saying it's better to just rely solely on the liverock and remove all the bioballs?

 

[yote]

The way I clean the bio-balls in my system,is put them in a 5 gallon bucket and take the water hose to em.That way I know theres nothing left on em.
But yeah,live rock can replace the bio-balls as long as they can stay completely submerged.

 

[OmegaOmega]

The way I clean the bio-balls in my system,is put them in a 5 gallon bucket and take the water hose to em.That way I know theres nothing left on em.
But yeah,live rock can replace the bio-balls as long as they can stay completely submerged.

[repost - last edit got lost]
I guess I'm still confused about bio-balls. Shouldn't my filter prevent the bio-balls from getting detritus and other stuff on/in them?

From what you mention above, should I wash my balls until there's nothing on them, as though they were new from the bag? I thought it was good to have growth on the balls; in that sense, what are the point of the balls to begin with - is it only to help with gas exchange?

 

[ltljoker]

:shock: ha ha you said balls:bowdown:

 

[winyfrog]

I replaced bio balls in my nano with live rock 5 years ago and have had 0 nitrates ever since.

I do pull the rock out about every 3 months and vacuum back there and rinse the rock in saltwater.

 

[yote]

The only reason I keep the bio-balls,is because I'm still running a wet/dry filter system.The bio balls help keep the water coming through the drip tray from sounding like a water fall during a flash flood.
However I DO NOT recommend a wet/dry for every tank.Most people dont want to take the time to do the extra maintance that they require.

 

[dcantucson]

So yote you're saying all us guys with balls need to get rid of them.