anemone

[Guest alex wlazlak]

so i bought an anemone at the super pets in annandale sunday and i put it in my tank (the 1st pic below) and last night im assuming it had moved around back and down the rocks (2nd and 3rd pic). do i leave it there or what?

[Guest alex wlazlak]

tchya, its not lookin good at all. i had one or two of these things before and im starting to get very angry with them. i just moved it out of my tank and put it in my "Q-tank" without any lights on it. i picked it up and some crap fell off of it so im guessing its going to just dicinerate. what made it die? everything except for my nitrates are fine. i dont get it beacause i have a seabae and a bunch of shrooms and theyre totaly fine. im just dumbfounded.

[GaryL]

it may have very well been on the way out before you got it. Anemones will look good until they fall apart sometimes. it looked bleached anyway. i only have bought food from SP and nothing else. i love the live brine but have always been unsure about how there livestock looks as far as marine animals go. HTH

[Guest alex wlazlak]

i bought somthng else from them too and it died. they have an alright amount of livestock and corals and everyhting they have usually looks good.

[rocko918]

How did you acclimate it?

 

Nitrates are never a good thing.

[Guest alex wlazlak]

i actually left it in a small rubermade container with the water that it came with and i put it into my filer and let the water run around it for like 35 minutes and then put it rite on the one rock. again with the nitrates it is a horrible thing to not do water changes and now i am doing them. its neat though, the test go sky high and it only takes like 30 seconds for it to go bright red, and now since ive been doing water changes the tests are taking longer to turn red, but they still get bright red before the five minute mark.

[flowerseller]

Sounds like you need to increase airation and current within the tank.

[Ne0eN]

i bought somthng else from them too and it died. they have an alright amount of livestock and corals and everyhting they have usually looks good.

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I disagree. Most of their livestock always look sick or dying. I would avoid this place for anything else but brine shrimp, or dry goods. (expensive dry goods)

 

-Rob

[BeltwayBandit]

They do stock the frozen silver sides, that is about the only thing I ever get there. Although, I did get my S. Haddoni from them and it is doing great. I think I got it before it could spend too long in their tanks. Lets just say I wasn't impressed with the way the kid pulled it out of the tank and bagged it for me. It was the only time I have ever almost walked out on a sale. But, I really really wanted the anemone so I gave it a shot. Now three months later that thing is a monster and I love it! But I agree their fish and corals usualy look terrible.

[fishface]

Hey Alex:

 

Two points -or what did you learn from this? We've all been there.

 

1. We all have had bad experiences with buying livestock that dies for no good reason, but it was hard to determine the health of the animal. Read. Do your research first. One helpful site I mentioned before is WetWebMedia. Lot of help and information on everything reef, including anemone health.

 

2. If you are going to spend money, spend it in the right place. You came down from Pa, and in the end it was a waste of time.

 

Going forward, change your approach:

Ask reefers here if they can advise you before you buy something.

b. Ask reefers if they have the animal that you are interested in!

c. Bubbletip anemones may need more light than your setup currently has - I don't know what lighting you have. But many of us have them and there are a couple of people who (dhoch up in md for example) has a Bubbletip that splits regularly. He can discuss your lighting and if it's appropriate, maybe put you on a wait list for when the next anemone is available. Anemones that split are clearly tank-happy, and you'll have a better chance for success.

 

-Oh, and while waiting for it, again, try WetWebMedia for info on Nitrate reduction and work on that. Review your books too.

 

Just ask for help before you put your money down.

 

FF

[unninair]

Alex,

 

Have you tried a different test kit for your nitrates - just to get a 2nd opinion. If you are still having nitrate spikes while performing a water change - I believe you should not add any more livestock or chemicals into you tank.

 

Also check your water that you are adding for nitrates.

 

Unni

[ReeferMan]

alex,

I had a problem with nitrates since i have had my setup and finally got rid of them. This can be attributed to replacing my crushed coral with live sand (fine) and a euro reef skimmer (better skimmer for my setup) I usually had 25-50 readings on my nitrate and could only get them down to 12 with two 15g water changes (on a 55g thats kinda big). Now after a month of putting my live sand in my nitrates are 0. Thank God! The skimmer i have would help out alot. I had a seaclone and these skimmers are by far the worst skimmer i have seen. They usually dont pull out thick skinmate and they only work if the chamber going up to the collection cup is clean. Even when it is clean though it pulls very light colored skimate ( Almost all water) This is just IMO some might disagree but most prob wont. Also what kind of substrate do you have? I read changing to a finner sand gives bacteria more room to reporduce therefore bringing nitrates down. It worked for me so i can say it works! Hope this helps!