help

eddy · #1 02-06-2005, 03:51 PM

HELP! I am new to the salt water world, I set up a 90 gallon tank in the end of December, slowly introduced live rock and some corals. I have 63 pounds live rock, some colts, shrooms, pulsing zenia, zoo's, toadstool, and a few other odds and ends. I recently added fish 4 clowns, 3 damsels, one jawboned and one royal gram., and one yellow tang I have about 18 hermits, 10 turbo snails, a peppermint shrimp and an arrow crab. One of the live rocks I bought had a small bta on it and its doing fine. I bought a long tenticle anen for my clown fish and for a week and a half it did fine. It now looks listless, fell face down off its rock once, I put it back, now its hanging on by a thread. Most of the tenticles are shruken and its mouth area is wide open. I tested all my nitrites, nitrates, ammonia and ph and everything is at the proper levels. What the hell is happening.

snaggle · #2 02-06-2005, 04:04 PM

I have heard not to but in an anemone for one year nd adding all that live stock in 2 months seem kinda fast to me.

Just my $0.02 I would wait to try again on the anemone. aslo what kind of light do you have

Brad

untamed · #3 02-06-2005, 04:23 PM

I agree...my first response to reading this was to think..."All that stuff has been added to a tank which started in December???" That's fast.

Anemones are very particular. This doesn't sound good and I'll wager that you are going to lose that anemone. Ensure it comes out of the tank immediately once you are certain it has died. No easy answer as to "why", but 1.5 weeks suggests to me that the shock of the new tank was too much for it. It may even have been in trouble when you bought it.

Tangman · #4 02-06-2005, 04:24 PM

you didn't mention your lighting , anemones need atleast 3 to 4 watts/gallon

dirtyreefer · #5 02-06-2005, 05:02 PM

Your tank has barely cycled and you have all that livestock? I would check your ammonia/nitrite levels.

Bob I · #6 02-06-2005, 05:40 PM

I would agree strongly with the above. I my experience even a tank which appears to have cycled will simply not tolerate the addition of large amount of livestock. I have found that keeping the livestock levels very low during the first SIX MONTHS goes a long way toward success. The best advice always is KEEP IT SLOW

mr_alberta · #7 02-06-2005, 05:56 PM

If the anenome has a gaping mouth it is a bad sign. Also, the fact that it is no longer holding onto anything with its foot is another bad sign. Is the anenome expelling anything from its mouth? Possibly white curly strings? If so, then I would remove the anenome ASAP.

While an anenome *can* be saved and recover from this, it is very unlikely. Also, anenomes can take a little while to show signs of distress, so it may have already been ill before you brought it home or become ill shortly after being introduced into your tank.

Another thing to be mindful of is the agression between the 3 damsels and the 4 clowns amonst each other as well as the other tank mates.

Aquattro · #8 02-06-2005, 05:57 PM

not much else to add here. You put way too much in way too soon. Slow down, move some livestock out (especially the anemones) and read some good books.

sumpfinfishe · #9 02-06-2005, 06:22 PM

Oh and to addd one more thing-most things that happen fast in a reeftank are usually bad, the good things take time!

You really need to slow down, like mentioned above- read some good books and online articles before you dive into the deep end.

eddy · #10 02-06-2005, 08:46 PM

Thanks for the input, when I moved it back onto the rock it did expell a milky cloud, plus white stringy stuff. It had been expelling the white stringy stuff the day I brought it home from the store. There has been no aggression between the clowns and the damsels, they have divided the tank equally and I've never witnessed any aggression between them. All my other stock and corals are doing fine and have been growing rapidly in the time that I've had them. The clowns were in the annen within thirty seconds of me adding it to the tank and would actually feed the annen. I test my water reqularly and had tested it the day I noticed the annen having problems. All the nitrate, and nitrite levels, ammonia and ph levels are all at the proper levels. If the fact that it expelling white stringy stuff means that its sick, then it was sick when I brought it home from the store. And being new to the reef business, I found out that I've paid to much for it.