anemone problem

[Patzig]

Need help from the pros once again. Ok, a friend got me a rose bubble tip anemone. It was great for about a month. Then over the next few weeks it started to look not so healthy. One side melted down to brown stuff, but other side still looked ok. It hid in the rocks for a few days after that, and I almost took him out. But now it he is opening back up and it almost looks as if it is healing itself. The side that had melted, is now spawning new tentacles.

While all this was going on, all the other corals in my tank had also started to look "not as healthy", especially the softies. I originally thought that it was possibly nitrates or phosphates that were causing my corals AND my anemone to become unhealthy. But I had a full water test at the LFS today and here's the results:

Salinity 1.021 - low I know, I will slowly bring it up
Phosphates - .03 ppm
ph - 8.2
alk - 8 - I will bring this up too
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
calcium - 400 ppm
magnesium - 1050 - also low, I will be dosing slowly to bring up

The lady at the LFS suggested that my anemone could have been dying thus possibly poisoning my other corals. AHH!!! So now I need to know if I should leave the anemone alone and hopefully it will continue to look better/heal itself. Or should I set up a QT for the anemone in hopes of healing the anemone and also protecting the rest of my tank?

Here's a picture of the anemone currently:

Also, all fish are perfectly fine and healthy. Any help would be awesome, thank you.

 

[Waddi]

Well i know that when an anemone dies it releases toxins and poisons into the water. But i do not know what a nem looks like when it dies, but if i were you and i really wanted to keep it i would set up a QT.

Maybe run some Chemi-pure, carbon water changes?
But i think that if you try move it, that it may ad to the stress and make its condition worse, but who knows im not an expert on anemones.

 

[Patzig]

Ya i definitely understand adding stress to it if I try to move it. But to be honest, I'm more concerned with possibly harming the rest of my tank. The condition of it right now is MUCH better looking than it was a week ago...that's the only reason I have hope.

I'm doing about 25% water change a week right now. Running carbon would remove possible poisons from the water?

 

[Waddi]

Carbon should take some nasty stuff outta the water. But i see where your coming from, IMO i would set up a qt of some sorts.

Also if you are gonna take it out and put it in the qt, smell it, see if it smells dead.

 

[Salty B]

If it is healing and growing, I'd say you're past the "poisoning phase" and your corals survived it. A larger than normal water change and fresh carbon would work wonders for making everyone happy.

 

[little_fish]

Dang you are lucky! You should go buy a lottery tickey. Your lfs lady was correct in that they dying parts of the nem released toxins that were effecting the rest of the tank.

+1 above

but you should work on getting the phosphates down, its not good for any of your inverts.

 

[Patzig]

ok awesome, thank yall. I've been running some phosphate removal media in a bag for a few days, so my phosphates should hopefully be gone soon. Can anyone tell me by looking at the pictures if the anemone looks like it has a chance?

 

[BL1]

I'd give it a better then 50/50 chance at this point. It's foot is still planted and You said it's looking better now. If it starts freely floating around the tank and/or you see parts of it floating around the tank then I'd get it out.

 

[fastrd400]

The Nem looks ok, not great, but alive and regenerating. I too would run carbon. I would also do whatever it takes to fix your water quality. Those low numbers like salinity may have helped play a part in his failing health.

 

[little_fish]

+1 fast

 

[Jmck]

All of above were right, but I disagree with the QT idea. An anomone will die quickly in a QT imo.

A healthy tank will heal it faster and your tank sounds very good. The only thing is how old is the tank?

Also, ive lost an anemone from stinging and running into the powerhead on the first night, and no poisons. it is not 100% that they will poison the tank.

:)

 

[Patzig]

ok I will pick up some carbon tomorrow probably. Jmck - my tank is a year and a couple months old. too young for an anemone?

 

[little_fish]

No, that is fine age for a tank.

 

[Patzig]

Ok, anemone looks 100 times better now, I think it's fully on the way to recovery. Thanks everyone for the help!