I just did a water change on my 16 gallon nano reef yesterday and everyone looked fine when i went to bed. when i woke up the tank was cloudy white and i could barely see my fish. Residents list= 2 sm percula's, 1 lawnmower blennie, 1 sm tomato clown, 2 shrimp, hermit crabs, and 2 anemones. My large bubble tip anemone had completely disappearedand i cant find a trace of him anywwhere. I've been running the system without a skimmer for several months but when this happened i called my lfs and they told me to put it on the tank and it should clear it up. Well it did in about an hour to the point where i could see into the tank and thats when i noticed my missing anemone. I tested the water and ph=8.1 (i raised it using seachem buffer), nitrites=.25, ammonia= 1.0, and the nitrates=15. I'm very worried about my other anemone and my fish. How big of a water change can the system handle? I usually do a 5 gall change every two to three weeks. Also is there anything else i can do, i'm very worried. I also think my bubble tip got sucked into a powerhead but i still cant even find pieces of him and he was about 6 inches in diameter.
Need emergency help-reef tank
- Thread starter Tangaloo
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Edmonton Eskimo
Aquarium Advice FINatic
In my opinion you have too much in that tank. For a 16 gal tank the two percs are probably enough. I would wait a bit and see if it clears up. If not do another water change tomorrow and check your params again. If absolutely necessary your system can handle probably a 90% change. HTH
Fluff
Aquarium Advice Addict
You can do as big a water changes as necessary. I think your suspicion are right on with the powerhead. When it happened to mine, there were no signs except for a very small piece of flesh left on the intake. I have a bigger system (55g) with 100+ lbs of liverock and it had no effect on my water but, in such a small system, I imagine it could really mess things up. Good luck. Maybe running some carbon if you don't already might help clear things up as well.
I'd match water as closely as possible and keep the ammo under .2 (change it 2x a day or if the water gets up over .6 I'd change 50%-70% of the water at a time). I've gone so far in times of crises (though I didn't have an anemone at the time) and everyone fared just fine.
Thank you very much, i'm going to do a fifty percent water change todayand maybe another small one tomorrow if it still looks bad. I know i have too many fish in there but i told a friend i would take some of his fish when he took down his tank. I originally only had the two percs and the blennie. My water has cleared up with the help of the skimmer and hope fully a few water changes will fix things. I just hope my anemones dont suffer cause they lok pretty bad with all the ammonia in the system.
gooyferret
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Make sure you water and salt are mixed very good before you change the water. Also make sure temp matches tank. HTH
malkore
Aquarium Advice Addict
Honestly, the way that tank is stocked, I wouldn't hold much hope for the anemone. I think the tank is too small for 2 false percs, let alone everything else you have in there.
Normally I try to stay positive, but there's no way to sugar-coat what's going on here.
Normally I try to stay positive, but there's no way to sugar-coat what's going on here.
Well the tank is much better now after i did that large water changer yesterday. My blennie has his color back and everyone is looking much more comfortable. I'm still trying to find a home for my tomoato clown. My remaining anemone is starting to look a little better and i thin he might pull through. I fed him this morning and he already looks much better. I'm goign to do another small water change either today or tomorrow depending on what my tests look like.
