ady_uk Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Hi, got an anemone and put it at the top of my rocks, it puffed itself up and rolled down knocking corals out of it way it then made its way to back of rocks away from the light, it is now trying to go up the tube to the filter system. any ideas as to why this one does not like the light? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ady_uk Posted December 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Filter has been turned off, now waiting for it to come out of tube Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevan Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Andy what is your lighting set up T5's or MH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ady_uk Posted December 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 T5s got it from Hollywood and they had it under high light Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ady_uk Posted December 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 how long is safe to leave filter system off for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krama Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 why dont you just gently pull the end of the filter attachment off and run the filter without the extention. It is better to have some water flow than nothing, you will need to keep the environment moving, especially in the top filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 heres a few questions that may help us answer your questions. :-? how long has your tank been running? how long has tha anemonie been in your tank? how deep is your tank? what are you using for water movement? is the "filter" a canister filter? if so whats in it? (sorry about all the Q's but it help us get a better idea of you set up) i have had 100% sucess with 3 anemonies i have introduced into tanks, i think part of that is luck and part of it is how i introduce them to the tank, i turn all water movement off and relese them at the top of the water level, they then float around till the find a spot that suits them, only time i intervine is when the go behind the rocks or if they land face down in the sand, otherwise i let them pick the spot and move the corals from around where they choose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Answering those questions will help. Another observation, from the pic it appears the anemone is "bleached", in other words, it has been stressed at some point and has expelled most of it's zooxanthellae. This is not really the shops fault it is a common occurrence during the shipping process. When this happens they will often tend to run away & tend to hide from the light. Chances of survival are probably 50 / 50. What you can do to give it the best shot, is allow it to settle in wherever it decides to go, and keep a light to moderate current on it, just enough to allow it's tentacles to sway a bit. If it goes to some completely unlit place, give it a few days, then try to gently re arrange things a bit so it will get some light. You can try feeding it also, a small piece of chopped mussel is ideal. If it just won't eat, get a worm from the garden, chop to a small size, and drop into the anemone, the wriggling will often trigger a feeding response, you may have to hold the worm there with tweezers just until the anemone grabs it. Feed small portions, too big and the anemone may barf it up again. If no joy with the feeding, just leave a day or two then try again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted December 10, 2006 Report Share Posted December 10, 2006 Should have added also, cannister filters tend to promote nitrate buildup in marine aquariums, and anemones, especially sick ones, are very intolerant of too much nitrate. If you could test your water for nitrate & let us know, people will be able to give some good advice on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ady_uk Posted December 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Tank has been running 5 months Tank is 500 deep Has four pumps plus filter pump Filter canister hes ceramic tubes and small brown balls in the top Have two other anemonies and they are doing well, had them for five weeks. Got this anemone few days and is same colour as in the shop. Nitrate is just over 10 Have now got the anemone out of tube Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Nitrate 10 is OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Should have added also, cannister filters tend to promote nitrate buildup in marine aquariums Filter canister hes ceramic tubes and small brown balls in the top Worth mentioning that it's not that canister filters are bad, just that your current media is not the best for a marine system. The filters do have their uses for running other media though, like carbon and phosphate remover. Bubs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Like wasp says, it looks bleached. If that's the case then it probably was kept in a tank with too low of light. So throwing it in your tank with, I assume, a lot brighter light would shock it and it's just trying to get away from the painfully bright light. Anemones seem to survive ok while bleached as long as you feed them. Mine's been bleached for about 2 years and has about tripled in size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrem Posted December 14, 2006 Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 I have same problem with mine (got a couple of days ago) introduced it on the rock it was in its original tank on, proceeded to wander wround the tank and basically hides itself under rocks. I have moved smaller rocks above it to allow more light though but it then hides itself even more. Has not bleached. Came out of a tank which was what i would class as mildly lit where as I have 2 x 250w MH over a 4ft tank so mine is quite bright. Water conditions between my tank and the original tank almost identical my nitrate is also 0 so couldnt be that. Have other corals which have been doing really well. What sort of time frame do these guys need to find a suitable place and get used to a lighting level adjustment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ady_uk Posted December 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 the anemone has now died, some of it had got into filter system nitrates went up to 20, and i have now lost some touch coral, have been doing 20% water changes to get nitrate down, any ideas as what would be best to use inside the Ehium canister? thinking of puting some live rock in. any help or ideas would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrem Posted December 14, 2006 Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html Havent tried but you could try this. I got told by the local f/s it was ok to run bio-balls (and I see they still do) but most other sources say get them out and run live rock. I dont know of many people running reef tanks using canister filters....sure some do though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted December 14, 2006 Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Andrem, what you describe is fairly common for a new anemone, until it finds a place to its liking. Especially if it is a bubble tip. What sometimes happen is the shipping process and getting ripped off its rock repeatedly etc it has been through, is to the anemone like it has been attacked by a predator, and is living in an unsafe place. Its reaction is to go hide somewhere. When it does this, if you straight away move rocks to expose it, the anemone goes "oh no not again!", and immediately moves of again. You need to let it settle where it wants, then give it a few days, minimum, before making any adjustments, then only make them if they are nessecary, and do it slowly. If the anemone is not in the place you want, it can be shifted, but later. In a few weeks or months, when the anemone is fully expanded and looking happy, you can consider trying to move it, best way is move the whole rock, and into similar conditions of light and flow, so it doesn't even know it's been moved. My own anemone has found a rock it likes, and has been moved with its rock a few times, even to different tanks. But I always put it in similar light and flow, it just carries on & does not seem to notice. Ady Uk, don't beat yourself up too much over the anemone some of the ones in the condition of your pic are just going to die and NOTHING you can do will change that. Next time you get one, only buy one that is not bleached, and you will find bubbletips are among the hardiest, although ALL anemones can be very high risk when first purchased. Some of them turn out to be as tough as old boots, while others just wither away & die, regardless what you do. Just to explain some more about cannisters, the environment inside a cannister is highly oxygenated as you constantly have new water passing through it. This helps bacteria that eat ammonia, and nitrite, but bacteria that eat nitrate will not do well they need a low oxygen environment. Nitrate eating bacteria are often found inside liverock, where most of the oxygen has already been used by bacteria living on the outside. So as the bacteria in your cannister consume ammonia and nitrite, but not nitrate, tanks with a cannister for biological filtration often have elevated nitrate levels. Easily solved, remove the cannister and leave all filtration to the liverock, nitrate levels will almost certainly fall. Don't chuck the cannister away though, you may want it for purposes such as running carbon or phosphate removing resin. But using a cannister for biological filtration in a reef tank will mostly do more harm than good. LFS's will often run them, or some form of aerobic filtration, because with their constantly changing bioloads, the aerobic filtration is faster to adapt, and remove the ammonia and nitrite which is much more dangerous than nitrate. But for long term good health of a stable reef system, you should aim to also keep nitrate as close to zero as you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrem Posted December 14, 2006 Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Thanks wasp, the anenome appears otherwise healthy so will do as you say and let it do its own thing for a while and see how it goes. I dont plan no getting anymore in this tank, not so interested in re-arranging rockwork over and over again, figured it would be nice for my clowns to have one if they ever figure out what it is, and b ever decide to use it. Is it much more ab-normal for wild bred clowns to use and anenome? or makes no difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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