Anemone spewing white cloud of out its mouth = spawning or dying?

[GoneReefing]

I just left for the store and the water was clear, now when I got back its super milky (kinda like if you dose carbonate alkalinity). I can barely see through the tank.

I have taken the nem out of the water and smelled it. Doesn't stink.

Is this a sign of it spawning? or is it dying?

Another side effect of this is my skimmer has made bubbles, actually never seen so many.

I am testing the water right now. Please let me know if I need to yank this out or just leave it be? All other inhabitants right now are swimming around fine. From what I can see.

I'll post a pic shortly.

[Bill S]

Sounds like spawning... That's a small tank for an anemone. You need to change some serious water. If you need some, let me know. I have about 35 gallons, and plenty of salt.

[GoneReefing]

Working on mixing up some water right now (Well that and trying to tend to a 5 month old). I just did a WC on Sunday, but I am going to start another one as I didn't know if it was spawning or dying. I have had this tank and anemone set up for close to two years and never seen anything like it. My water parameters are in check but with so much bubbles I thought a WC couldn't hurt. Should I wait till it stops spewing or just do multiple changes?

Thanks for your quick reply.

[Bill S]

Still spewing. UGH. Do you have anything you can put it in until it's done?

This could become catastrophic - our tanks aren't set up for this kind of thing. The skimmer going nuts is both good and bad: It's good that it's working, bad that it's in overdrive, indicating that you have a problem.

It could be long night. Take my home number - and feel free to call in the middle of the night. Call twice - we might miss the first one: four nine seven - eight one eight five.

[GoneReefing]

I have my 75 gallon but I do not have any other tank. However it looks like in the middle of my 15% WC, it is no longer spawning. I am going to keep a close eye on it and probably do another 15% or so. The skimmer is pulling out some serious skimmate.

Is there any amount of time that I should wait before changes? I do a weekly on both of my tanks never had to do multiple WC so close together. Thankfully I did decide to make some extra RO/DI over the weekend. I have about half of a 27gal container. Thanks for the offer on the water and the support. If I run out I may give a call. I went ahead and started making more water just in case.

[Bill S]

OK, I saw the "20G" thread, and thought 20 gallons. If you can pull it out, put it in a bucket by itself. Then when it calms down, it can go back into the tank.

You can NEVER have too much water!

[GoneReefing]

I'm sorry, I haven't updated my sig. I have two tanks a 20G and 75G. This anemone is the one that is in the 20G thread and still is in the 20G. It looks like it stopped. And my skimmer has calmed down some after I did the 15% WC. I will probably do another one before I go to bed later tonight.

It's pretty wild. I literally looked at this tank right before I left for the store and the water was clear as can be. When I got back it was milky white. I asked my wife, if she noticed that and she was like huh, yea it started to get that way right after you left. I thought you were dosing or something.

This 20G is pretty much dominated by this anemone as I can't hardly put any other coral in there as its probably close to 6-7 inches wide and sitting smack in the middle of this tank.

This hobby will always keep you on your toes :)

[Big_Pun]

good luck, gotta love the crazy stuff that happens and thanks for sharing that way other people can learn from this.

thanks bill for showing what Maast is really about.

[GoneReefing]

Just an update tank is all clear. Ended up doing a 10% around midnight in addition to the 15% around 10ish.

It's nice to have such a great community who are so helpful.