ananome shrinking and high salinity

[Lyds]

Hi I have a 15 gallon biocube with a clown shrimp and anoneme my ananome has been shrinking and I tested my water yesterday my salinity was at 1.30 I went to the fish store they said that I need yo bring it down gradually I took some water out and added fresh water it brought it down to 1.28 my anoneme is still down is he gonna make it what should I do

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Granted... your salinity is a bit high (assuming you meant 1.030, and not 1.30) but when you figure natural sea water is 1.026-1.027, you're not that far away. I'd wonder if it isn't something else. What kind of lighting is on that tank?

 

[Lyds]

Hi I have a 15 gallon biocube with a clown shrimp and anoneme my ananome has been shrinking and I tested my water yesterday my salinity was at 1.30 I went to the fish store they said that I need yo bring it down gradually I took some water out and added fresh water it brought it down to 1.28 my anoneme is still down is he gonna make it what should I do

I have the coral life not sure what kind I'll check when i go home is 1.030 salinity toxic the clown and the shrimp were doing fine

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

It's not toxic, but it's higher than it should be. What are you measuring salinity with... a swing-arm hydrometer or a refractometer? Swing-arms are notoriously unreliable, and before changing things too much I'd make sure your salinity is actually what you think it is.

As far as lighting, I meant what kind of lights/what wattage? Seems like most of the stock lighting on those cubes aren't enough to really support anemones.

 

[Lyds]

It's not toxic, but it's higher than it should be. What are you measuring salinity with... a swing-arm hydrometer or a refractometer? Swing-arms are notoriously unreliable, and before changing things too much I'd make sure your salinity is actually what you think it is.

As far as lighting, I meant what kind of lights/what wattage? Seems like most of the stock lighting on those cubes aren't enough to really support anemones.

I'm sure of the salinity I took a sample to fish store they checked with refractometer not the swing arm the anemone was fine for about a year with the lights I will check which wattage they are and I replaced them a few months ago

 

[Lyds]

I should say that I bought the while tank setup from someone who had it for a year an over the past few months I wasn't addin fresh water to make up for the salt evaporation instead I was adding salt water

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Well... if it had been in there a year with no issues, then lighting isn't the issue! I was assuming this was a new guy you just put in the tank.

If you replaced the lighting recently, that might be the issue. New lights will be quite a bit brighter than the old ones, and it takes everyone a while to adjust to the brighter lights.

Don't get me wrong... you want that salinity down in the 1.025-1.026 range, and you want to lower it slowly like the LFS said. But I just have a feeling that a slow rise to 1.030 isn't enough to really cause the anemone to shrink up. Regardless, there's nothing you can really do except lower the salinity by .001 or less a day, keep your water parameters in tip top shape, and cross your fingers.

(By the way... welcome to the Forum!)

 

[Lyds]

Well the lighting wasn't replaced recently maybe like 4 months ago I'll keep my fingers crossed I lowered it from 1.030 to 1.028 this morning thanks for the reply I hope he gets better

 

[Lyds]

I have two lights that alternate coralife 10000 k 24 wt comes on for like 8 hrs and coralife aclinic night light 24 wt always on with the other one and it Stays on by itself for a few hrs a day then I turn both of them off when I go to bed

 

[00ralph00]

My bubble tip anemone did the same thing it was fine for a year then one day I read the salt levels and read 1.030so I have been doing water changes and finally got down to 1.26 and my anemone hasent recovered and I think its going to die. :-(

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Here's another thought, now that I realize this is an established tank that you bought from someone...

How did you transport the tank from the previous owner's place to yours? Did you drain the tank and transport the livestock in buckets? Or did you just move the thing as-is? And did any of the substrate get stirred up in the process?

A couple things that I'm thinking about. Temperature is one thing - if the move was long, or if it took a while to get things set back up again, maybe the temperature dipped down for a while and that stressed the anemone? The other thing is that often when tanks are moved, gunk gets stirred up in the tank causing a mini-cycle. If you did have a mini-cycle, ammonia could've been present causing the anemone to stress. Any ammonia that was present would be gone by now, but have you done any water tests recently? What are your nitrate levels? If you don't know, I'd get a hold of a test kit and find out. A mini cycle might've bumped your nitrates up higher than the previous owner ever had, which could be effecting the anemone.

 

[Lyds]

Well I moved the tank on December and everything was fine until there was an ammonia spike in my 55 gal tank and I moved my sailfin tang to the biocube to save him the ananome started hiding and shrinking I moved the tang back to the 55 gal a couple of weeks ago but the anoname still looks worse and worse
When I moved the biocube I transfered the whole thing with water and everything

 

[AaronH]

have u tested your water since the tang ??

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Adding the tang could've caused a mini-spike. Nitrate levels now?

 

[AaronH]

not just nitrates all levels

 

[Lyds]

Hmm I didn't think much about the tang until now but the tang had been out of tank for a couple weeks now. The anonome did start shrinking and hiding since the tang though. I will check my water again first thing tomorrow. Another thing is I stopped feeding the anonome the dti liquid the fish store said he didn't need it and that he could just eat the brine shrimp that I feed the clown I think I'm gonna go get that dti tommorrow morning too

 

[AaronH]

You should also feed them small meaty foods like silversides or small pieces of shrimp

 

[Lyds]

Thanks everyone for the help I tested my water and turns out my ph was too lowy salinity too high I buffered the water and brought ph down to 1.025 the anonome is looking better but not getting really big like before
I feed them brine shrimp one a day