morning find

[swiatrek]

When my lights turned on this morning I noticed right away that my anemone was all shrunk up and has moved deep into my live rock, not its normal spot. Then I kept looking and noticed my blue hippo tang taking his last breaths on my sand bed. I immediately removed him and began locating my other fish, all were accounted for and no coral looked harmed. Did a water test and ammonia, nitrate, nitrite all good, salinity 1.022, temp 78 ish, but did notice my ph looks a little low - 7.8ish. Is that the most likely cause? Do I need to remove the anemone or does it have a chance to recover? Looks pretty shriveled and mouth is wide open. Yesterday all looked good, did notice my coco worms werent all open and lively as normal but did not concern me too much.

[hobogato]

what kind of anemone is it?

mouth open on any anemone is not a good sign, but sometimes they will recover. just keep a close eye on it and if it starts to deteriorate at all pull it. anemones (and corals) tend to prefer a specific gravity a little higher than 1.022. btw, how are you measuring that?

[Mr Cob]

Any new additions to the tank? Is it open top...maybe some chemicals got into tank? How old is tha tank?

What kind of anemone? Maybe it's the cause. Anemones will shrivel when they empty their waste. But you said it moved...that's odd..along with mouth open.

[Big_Pun]

sounds like your having a bad morning, add anything new recently, or do anything new off your normal routine

[Mr Cob]

Ooooh, you're fast Ace.

Agree on the SG. Do you always keep it at 1.022? I tend to like 1.024/25 for a mixed reef tank.

How is the tang doing? What size tank are we talking about anyways?

[Bill S]

What they said.

Important, how are you measuring specific gravity.

A large water change would be a good starting point.

[swiatrek]

Sorry for delay, had to take kid to dr. Alright I have a 60 gallon aquarium, it is open on top, I measure my salinity with a normal cheapo hydrometer, the tang and green bubble anemone were both new purchases from phenomanal equatics 50% off sale. Has been running for approx year and a half. Tang is now dead, anemone is opened up and fine. Guess he was just expelling some squid i fed last night. Thanks for everyones help, is my ph too off, should I add some pH buffer? I have also read about having a higher salinity for mixed reefs, but I buy my water all pre-made, should I just add a little extra during water changes?

[Mr Cob]

First problem is the swing arm. How long have you had it? I know that over time the readings drop so when you have 1.022 SG on the swing arm it could actually be 1.032 in reality.

I have had many over the years...in fact I had 3 that all gave me different readings, then when I took it to a LFS (I won't say the name, not a sponsor though) they gave me a reading and I said "how do you know your swing arm isn't broken?" then they grabbed 2 additional ones and all 3 of theirs were reading way off. Also, I got premixed water from them so...yeah...no absolutes there other than "who knows what the SG is?"

You need to find out what your SG is. Take a sample to one of the local sponsors and have them test your water. All of our sponsors...from what I've seen test with a refractometer.

[Bill S]

When you say "cheapo" - what exactly do you mean? A swing arm, or a floating one that's pointy on the top?

With a 60 gallon tank, you REALLY need to consider making your own water. At least mix your own salt. In any case, you can add salt to the premix.

[ErikH]

Have you tested your levels again? Just seems wierd. Run carbon.