doxe52766

Well, we've had our salt water tank set up for a year now. Did everything right (live sand, waited to add first fish, started small) Well, I have found out the hard way I cannot keep anemone's I've had 2 long tentacled anemone's now, one did good for like 3 months and then turned inside out and passed away. So, I double checked everything in the tank all the ph levels nitrate and nitrite everything was fine. Then, I got two more small long tentacled anemone's, the one didn't acclimate well and passed away within the first couple weeks, I couldn't figure out what happened there. Then the other one did very well for about 3 months again and passed. So, I've kinda given up on them. They were shrinking down once or twice a day and then openning back up for the rest of the time. My LFS guy said it might be a water issue, but I had him test my water and he said everything was normal. That was my first issue.
In between there I had purchased a red starfish. My red starfish was doing awesome. I had him for about 4-5 months and then he slowly started losing limbs and dying. The only thing I could find that may be wrong was lack of food, but I give them frozen cubes that have krill, clam, shrimp, all kinds of stuff in it that he would eat, and it would have taken longer than that for him to die of starvation. I also started adding calcium to the tank as the guy suggested for the inverts, and that didn't help either. So I'm at a loss as to why I can't get them to survive in my tank. I have a very good lighting source double natural sun bulbs (can't remember their exact name). *(sigh)*

Well, now I'm having a huge dillema.......all this time my fish have done wonderfully. I have 2 maroon clowns, they were our first additions to the tank, then I added a yellow tang and a coral beauty angel, a very small scooter blenny, and finally a clarki clown that I added when I got my last anemone because it had paired with that anemone (he looks so lonely now that his anemone is gone , and a live rock. Last week I noticed some red on my yellow tang, so I added pimafix to the tank as directed and the redness went away. Well, then yesterday, I was checking on them while feeding them, and the red spots were back, so again I started adding the pimafix (will be doing the daily dosage here in a couple hours) and I see my coral beauty......her one eye is very "popped"! Now all my readings it appears possible that it's an injury because it's one eye, but I'm not sure. I've also heard the pimafix can help with it. I just did my weekly water change today.

I have no idea what's going on I've never had a problem with my fish before just the inverts and every time I take my water to be tested, they say it's fine. The only new thing that I've added was I got a new heater because the old one shorted out. It looks like my current temp is 79 degrees F. That's in the upper end of the "OK" levels and I was told to keep it a little warm because that could help with the popped eye, but will it hurt the redness of the Tang?? I just don't know what's going on and I don't want to see all of my babies die. My maroon clowns are the one's we've had the longest and other than a small case of ick when we first got them, we've never had a problem.......any ideas or suggestions would be WONDERFUL!! Thanks in advance!!

chadf

79 is perfect keep it there. What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, alk, and calcium levels? How many watts are you running and how big is your tank?

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My 90 gallon reef

Striped bristletooth tang, Coral beauty angelfish, Royal gramma, 2 Occelleris clownfish, Lyretail anthias, Tongue coral, Green frogspawn, Palythoa colony, Orange and green ricordeas, Green striped mushrooms, Crocea clam, About 40 snails of 11 different species, Sand sifting starfish, Emerald crab, 130 lbs live rock, 240 lbs live sand

doxe52766

ok well my test kit only has colors, so I don't have exact numbers it just says this color is good and this color is bad lol (yeah I know I probably should get a better test kit) and as I test everything it's at the good color. When my Nitrate starts to turn just a little bit I do a small water change. I don't have a test for calcium and that's why I started adding the liquid calcium before just in case that was a problem for the anemone and starfish, but it didn't help.

I have a 75 gallon tank. Now the watts I've wondered about because I've heard people say to use high wattage, but I got my bulbs from my LFS and the one guy there recommended these bulbs to me.........they're REEF SUN 50/50 bulbs by zoo med and two bulbs fit in my lid, but they're only 15 watts. Most of the bulbs I find that size are about that wattage, but the guy said the REEF SUN ones were the best for me to use. As this was my first salt tank I took his advice, but maybe he wasn't so smart lol.

I also just purchased Melafix which is an antibacterial to try to help with the coral beauty's eye. Keeping my fingers crossed that things will work out.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you (at least until I get a different testing kit)

Tommy Gun

Hey doxe57266 - welcome to the forum!

I agree with chadf on the water temp, but would add...

...that you should be careful about pronouncing anemones dead because they will sometimes 'deflate' themselves to the point of looking dead when they really aren't. In fact, your description of...
...fits well with the notion of this being be a sign of less-than-ideal water quality since the anemone could be pushing the poor water out of its body in the hopes that it can bring in better water....if that makes sense?

Are/were you feeding your anemones? If so, what are/were you feeding and how often?

Don't worry, your clownfish can definitely survive without an anemone, and an anemone doesn't really need a clown to live either. While I realize that it isn't really funny, but I think all clownfish either look sad, or like a grumpy old man when you look closely at their face.

You know....this is a great example of why the whole "LFS testing system" is stupid. For example, I never once saw any test kit which gives the user a result of "normal". Next time, be sure to ask the LFS guy for the specific numbers because this way you can compare them against previous test results (the patterns can be very telling) and so the guy doesn't try to tell you to buy this or that chemical they have on sale and will be like a miracle in your situation. ok?
For what inverts? Do you have corals? If not, then unless I am forgetting something - in which case I am sure someone will point that out - there is enough calcium in the salt mix itself to support motile inverts and you would probably only need to supplement calcium if you have corals...or trying to promote coralline algae growth and I believe it wouldn't burn up calcium as fast as having corals in the tank as well. In fact, you can over dose calcium so if you are adding it blindly - meaning, without knowing how much has been used up since the last dose, you might be doing more harm than good.

Adding more live rock would probably benefit you greatly - however, I suggest adding base rock (which is dead live-rock, so to speak) because it will eventually become live and you wont have to worry about die off polluting your water even more. In general, most people would suggest having 1 or 1.5 pounds of live rock per gallon of water.

First, where was the red on your tang located? If near the gills, then this could be a sign of ammonia or nitrite poisoning.

Second, be very very very careful with the pimafix ESPECIALLY if you are going to add Pimafix and Melafix to your tank at the same time!!!!!!! I tried this once and it wiped out every single fish and my shrimp and I think my anemone wasn't in that tank at the time, but in either case, it is still alive. I don't care what anyone says, the stuff is dangerous...just be careful, ok?

Pop-Eye can occur in only one eye and can be bacterial in nature - however, make sure that you don't start dosing any of the wrong antibiotics in your main tank since it may also wipe out your beneficial bacteria as well.

Aaaarrrrgh! I hate those people! Again, make sure you get specific numbers, or invest in your own test kits...it is definitely worth it, as I am sure you are starting to realize.

I have never heard that raising water temp would be good for pop eye but you aren't really all that high anyways. In the summer my tank runs a nearly constant 84/85 degrees and I don't loose any fish because of that...although I do ensure I am promoting more gas exchange since water will hold less dissolved oxygen - which could be an issue for you right now because of the melafix, pimafix, or both since they might also decrease dissolved O2 levels.

Well, apparently I put my foot in my mouth then. What test kit are you using? I never heard of that and I have read a TON of posts on forums like this one.

Don't get confused about nitrate....you should expect to see increasing amounts of it as time passes between water changes. Keeping it at 0 is a good goal, but it is nothing to panic about, nor a reason to skip the process of making and curing saltwater before adding it to a tank. While I am not trying to imply that you do rush, I wanted to point out that matching salinity and water temp is important when replacing water after a water change.

Have you had to top your tank off at all (due to evaporation)? If so, are you using freshwater or saltwater for that?

Are you using tap water or purified water to make saltwater? If tap water, are you using a dechlor conditioner or any other method of removing any potential chlorine/chloramines in the tap water?

In reality, wattage is not the best factor to judge light by, however everyone does it because it is either hard to to measure other factors ourselves and/or wattage is the best information provided by the manufacturer.

In fact, all light is not created equally - for example, if you had 1000 watts of incandescent light over your tank and I had only a quarter of that wattage over mine in the form of a Mh bulb, then I would still have the better results with photosynthetic life probably. The same thing would apply to a florescent bulbs - which I believe you have, right? If so, I would also guess that you are using T12 bulbs?

Granted, your light system may be playing a part in the death of anemones (long tentacle needs moderate lighting, if I remember correctly), but otherwise you haven't said anything which suggests that you really need a ton of light yet. For example, live rock doesn't necessarily need any light (short of any coralline algae that is on it), your fish don't need any light, nor do any motile inverts that I can think of right now. Anyways, my point here is that you shouldn't worry too about lighting until you can get the most ideal system you can afford and you shouldn't be getting anemones until you have the light to sustain them.

Doh! It's never really a good idea to supplement blindly, if for no other reason that the old adage which states there can be "too much of a good thing".

After consulting my Magic 8-Ball, I would have to say no as well. If you can look past the fact that I am obviously biased, my suggestion would be to continue asking questions on this forum because no one here has anything to gain from misleading you (unlike an LFS trying to sell you something) and if that does happen, someone will almost always jump in to set things straight. Otherwise, I would at least make a strong effort to verify what you are being told before you act upon it - especially if the info or advice seems to be more fishy than your aquarium!

Definitely pick up another test kit....even if it is the test-strip version, or anything that will give you actual numbers and not vague descriptions.

Lastly, after proof reading some of my comments, I realized that you might feel as though I was trying to be rude; however, I assure you that is the least of my intentions and hope you do not think otherwise.