Rose Bubble anemone not doing well

[Donnie2112]

I've got a Rose bubble anemone that doesn't appear to be doing so well. When I first got him he was open all the way most of the time and was a bright red color. Now he's got some black discoloration on him and he's closed up a lot of the time if not hiding in a cave. What could be causing this? All of my water levels appear to be ok.

 

[AMDPhenomX4]

What kind of lighting do you have?

 

[Donnie2112]

It's a T5

 

[thominil]

Need more description. Is it T5 HO or NO? How many bulbs? How many watts?

 

[Donnie2112]

5 bulbs HO

 

[thominil]

Watts? Also, post your water params, numbers, not: good, perfect ect.

 

[Donnie2112]

They are 54 watt bulbs also my water parameters are as follows

PH: 8.2-8.4 (hard to tell based on the color)
ammonia: 0 (unreadable)
nitrite:0 (unreadable)
nitrate: 0 (unreadable)
carbonate hardness: 9 dkh
calcium levels: 420
salinity: 1.024

I've been keeping the temperature at about 76 to 78 degrees f.

I also read that I shouldn't be feeding it, I had been giving it the occasional krill but I've ceased that. If that was my problem should it recover now?

 

[melosu58]

Two things jump out at me. 1) Anenomes need to be in a mature tank. At least 9-12 months old. Your tank info says it`s two months old. The tank is too new and I`m sure the water parameters are not stable at that age. 2) Your lighting needs to be T5HO lighing. Are your lights high output. Also moving this to the sick fish and coral forum.

 

[Donnie2112]

the lighting is High Output, and I've had the tank running for about 4 months now but I see your point.

 

[Zer0]

Regardless of high output, how many bulbs do you have in that fixture. Because if you only have 2 or 4 bulbs in your fixture.. whether or not it's high output wouldn't make a difference anymore. I have a 55 gallon tank and i know that they are rather tall.. 21"s i believe. Give or take an inch or two. To even support a nem, you will need at least a 6 bulb fixture for that tank. 6x54W. Anything less and you would just be risking it. I have the nova extreme pro and i don't even know if i want to have a nem because i could be risking it as well. They need extremely strong light.. so i hope you either have a 6 or 8 bulb fixture at the very least. And the tank maturity thing goes without saying.

 

[melosu58]

5 bulbs HO

He posted this earlier.

 

[Zer0]

Alright. I didn't see that. I still don't know if that's good enough to support a nem in a 55G tank considering the depth of those tanks. I guess you could get away with it.. but my guess is, it will probably move around until it finds its "spot" and that could be risking him finding a spot in the powerhead.. which wouldn't be good. :s

 

[thominil]

Hmmm....sounds like someone needs to learn to read Zer0...JK. IMO, 5x54w T5 HO is enough for a nem. I'm guessing that by bubble he means BTA which are a lower light requiring nem and don't need as much light as others, but they still need a good deal of light, but that is plenty. The depth of the tank isn't much of a factor in his case, most 54w T5 HO bulbs cut off a 20", a 55g is 21" tall, but with sand I'm guessing that the depth is only 19" or so and nems tend to be in the mid-upper regions of the tank. HTH.

 

[Donnie2112]

Is there anything I can do at this point or should I just wait and see what happens to it?