anemone slow decline

[tony1]

I'm slowly losing my bubble tip anemones. My mushrooms seem to be doing fine but carpets and bubble tip die or decline in short order. I have a 35 gal tank with (2) VHO actinics and (2) PLC florescents totally 176 watts coming on over a 3 hr period and cycling off in the evening. Sea Clone Protein skimmer with outside Aquaclear filter and Powersweep head in the tank. My water parameters are
Ph 8.2
Iodine .04
ppm KH 375
salinity 1.023
temp 76
phosphate 0
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0
I have had trouble keeping the alkalinity up. I have a dosing pump running each evening for 5 hrsdrawing from a gallon container w/1 oz Kent Iodine; 1 oz Kent Moly/strontium and 1oz each Calcium A & B added to RO water. Approx 1 pt an evening goes in the tank. I have the snails reproducing and have several small single shell animals looks like abalone. I have recently started seeing the bubble algae. I change 10% of the water each week and use real sea water rather than making up my own. Any ideas or what am I doing wrong?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tony. Well anemones didn't come by their rep for being difficult for nothing. Do you feed yours? BT and carpets are both hungry varieties. They also need tons of light. Yours may sound like plenty in terms of watts per gallon, but that is not a very helpful rule of thumb, particularly for smaller tanks. The total wattage may be insufficient to sustain anemones.

Another thing to look into, dosing iodine and strontium is dicey since you can't test for the proper levels very easily. In a small tank it would be easy to overdose.

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Problem one, your lighting is a little low for BTAs and very low for carpet anemones. Problem two, you are dosing trace elements that are toxic to living things in small quantities. 1ml of Iodine in one gallon of topoff water is way too high. You might want to check that Iodine test kit. Unless you topoff a gallon over the course of three weeks or a month. With 1ml of stronium I am suprised anything survives in your tank. I would either put two or three drops of each in a gallon or wait until you have an accurate test kit and dose nothing except for the two part Ca supplement.

Now where do you live that you use natural seawater?

Do you filter the sea water?

Feeding is another issue. Do you feed your anemones and what do you feed if you do?

Then you say you are getting bubble algae. Bubble algae usually signifies that your nutrient levels are up. Your test kits do not show it because the algae is consumming the nutrients before the test kit can read them. So nutrients are present but are being used up instead of remaining in the water.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

I agree with Anemonebuff. I think the toxic issue/lighting is likely the problem in your case.
I would recommend that you do several 50% water change. If you are carful about salinity and temperature, you can do one 100% water change ( I have done this several time with my tank in the past, not my 400 g tank now, without problem).
IMO, you should not need to add anything other than Ca and Alkaliny to your tank. I never add anything else to my tank other than the above and food.
Regarding lighting, you should change your light, or take, trade, the carpet anemone. You will also need to feed your anemone well. At least weekly, especially when they do not have adequate light.
Good luck
Minh

 

[wombat1]

I agree with not adding anything but Ca into your tank. Use your dosing pump to add Kalkwasser. You can keep all those other elements in your water in the right amounts with small weekly water changes, maybe 3-5% of your total volume.

 

[beerbaron]

Then you say you are getting bubble algae. Bubble algae usually signifies that your nutrient levels are up. Your test kits do not show it because the algae is consumming the nutrients before the test kit can read them. So nutrients are present but are being used up instead of remaining in the water.

this goes against what ive learned. isnt this similar to what a algae scrubber does? as long as the nutrients dont remain in the water they wont hurt anything. this is why people use caulerpa/mangroves for nutrient export.
BB

 

[monkeyboy]

Then you say you are getting bubble algae. Bubble algae usually signifies that your nutrient levels are up. Your test kits do not show it because the algae is consumming the nutrients before the test kit can read them. So nutrients are present but are being used up instead of remaining in the water.

this goes against what ive learned. isnt this similar to what a algae scrubber does? as long as the nutrients dont remain in the water they wont hurt anything. this is why people use caulerpa/mangroves for nutrient export.
BB

Sure, it's exactly what an algae scrubber does, assimilates phosphates and nitrogen sources into algae mass, thus removing it from the water column. But, if he's getting new and rapid growths of bubble algae, that would signify that there's a whole bunch of extra nutrients. Even though the algae is sucking out most of the phosphate, for example, there is still a continuous source for more, otherwise the algae would not be able to bloom. So yes its just jim dandy that the stuff isn't in the water, but buble algae will eventually, unchecked, take over EVERYTHING. This will indeed hurt the tank.

What's great about growing macroalgae for export is that you can just reach in and toss out a handfull. Try doing that with bubble algae.

 

[tony1]

Thanks all for the advice. I will stop adding the trace elements. My thinking was the elements were being used up and needed to be replenished. I live in Yorba Linda, Ca. so the stores here carry sea water that is supposed to be filtered. I am suprised about your comments on lighting the 176 watts works out to 5/gal which I thought was plenty.

 

[monkeyboy]

Watts per gallon is a horrible method for figuring out how much light you will need. Not all watts are created equal! To avoid lengthy explanations, do a search on watts per gallon and find out why it isn't an accurate judgement of how much light is needed.

I'd suggest halides for a carpet anemone, and probably the BTA also. A 175w DIY halide fixture could be made cost effectively, and would also make the tank look great. For now, feed the anemones once or twice per week.